The equinox is not a day.  It’s an exact moment when the center of the sun is directly above the earth’s equator.  That happened this morning at 11-something o’clock, Topeka time.  On the day that happens, the sun rises directly east and sets directly west.

In Topeka, numbered streets — at least the ones south of 12th Street – run due east and west.  And so it was that, at 7:10 this evening, I was standing in the middle of 23rd Street making darn sure the sun was doing what it’s supposed to do on this day, which is to set smack dab over the middle of the west end of my street. *

Sure enough.

I find something magical about the absolute predictability of our little solar system.  People who know about that stuff can predict eclipses centuries in advance, for cryin’ out loud.  I have no idea how that’s done, but I am doing my small part by checking up on the sun every March and every September.

And if I ever go out there and the cosmos isn’t doing what I expected, I plan to write my Congressperson and see if they can’t make a law to fix that.

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* Lest any of you are concerned, 23rd Street is residential, with little traffic at that time of day.  And I gave up a long, long time ago being concerned about what people think of me.

Posted by Sharon under Laughter | No Comments »