Eclipse and Other Things

Eclipse

Last night there was a total lunar eclipse, viewable from the western hemisphere. It started at 1:51 AM, and finished somewhere around 4:55 AM. Around 3:30 AM it was full, showing a dark disk in the middle of the moon and a red border from ambient light. Looked cool. It's strange to look up in the sky and see darkness where the moon is supposed to be. It'd been some 35 years since I'd seen a total lunar eclipse. I tried to get my nephew interested in watching it, but he said he'd seen one on TV via special effects, and went to bed.

Cats

Darren & Corrii are gone, so I stopped by today to check on the cats. They have a recirculating water fountain, which was gurgling. Seems the cats had been thirsty, so I refilled it. I also filled up their food dishes, played with the cats a while, and stole Corrii's last Drumstick from the freezer. :) I'd also re-seeded the porch, for the birds. Soon as I put the birdseed down, and shut the door, stellar jays and a pigeon showed up. Bastards. Heh, before I'd opened the door, however, there were a bunch of junkos hopping around, wondering where their food was. :)

Gardening

I pulled out the cantaloupes, and tossed 'em. It hadn't produced a single cantaloupe larger than a baseball, so I didn't see the point in continuing to water it. I'm planning on doing the same with the watermelons, once I find the resident praying mantis. It lives in the watermelon vines and I don't want to yank them out while it's in there -- don't want to squish it. I'll try relocating it to guava tree, or one of the other yard plants.

Taiko

July 4th, I'd signed up for the September taiko course at SJ Taiko. It's a 12-week course, but was full. I've been put on the list for the January session.

Taiko rocks!

July 4th was a lot of fun. It started with a trip to Guadalupe Park in San Jose, for a 4th of July event sponsored by the local NBC affiliate. At 2:15, San Jose Taiko performed for 45 minutes. If you haven't seen taiko, look for an event in your area! It was a blast -- so much so, that I'm considering signing up for one of their 12-week recreational classes. :)

I'd never seen taiko performed live before, having only seen video of Kodo.

And best of all, there were no Santa Cruz hippies lighting up joints during the performance, as they did with Xavier Rudd. :)