I have been forgetting to post some of what we've been seeing here in our beautiful skies. Here are some sun and moon rises, cloud formations and my active imagination in the month of November.
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| My imagination sees a whale spray |
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| My imagination sees a Griffin |
I had an interesting optical experience the other day, and it had nothing to do with sunlight or clouds or ice crystals. It had to to with my eyes or rather my brain. Twice in the past six weeks I have experienced an ocular migraine. I had no idea something like this existed, but once you experience it you will never forget. Suddenly in my peripheral vision of my right eye I saw lightning shaped flashes of rainbow colored light. It persisted if I closed my eyes, covered one eye or the other. It persisted. It was not painful in any way, but it was unnerving in every way. The first time it happened, I called my optometrist office and explained what I was seeing. They scheduled an appointment right away. The doc checked my eyes, my vision, and took a good look and photographed my retina. It all looked fine. I was worried because my twin brother had been experiencing something called retinal tugging which causes flashes of light (like a camera flash). The doc said he didn't see any issues with my retina. Well, okay. I didn't think about it until it happened again on Tuesday. Since I knew it wasn't related to my vision, I decided I should google around and find out what might be going on. I googled rainbow flashes of light in peripheral vision. All of the information I found called it an Ocular Migraine. It typically lasts for five minutes, but can last up to an hour. Luckily my rainbow light show only lasted five minutes, but those five minutes are truly unforgettable. An ocular migraine is a type of migraine that can occur without a headache. It can occur in people who typically do not experience migraines (me), but have family history of migraine sufferers (my father and sister). I was hoping to find an image that captures the experience. This came close, although it is a bit softer in color than my zigzag rainbow flashes.
I'm hoping that it never happens again. It is bizarre and weird in every way. You just never know what your brain is up to.
Now the music. I often say that music is our common language on earth. We can listen to songs in other languages, or played with instruments we have never heard of. Some music will inspire us to get up and dance, others will pull our hearts and make us weep. For some reason when I stumbled upon the performance of these two Hasidic brothers performing on the streets of Jerusalem, it reminded me that music is our common language.
... as seen from California on November 18th just around sunset. We love when we can see the planets like this. I wave hello to Venus most mornings before sunrise lately. It helps to remind us that we are on a beautiful planet whirling through the Milky Way Galaxy.
We are grateful that Biden is finally able to start the formal transition process. We are almost starting to feel safe here, starting to believe that Trump will really leave the White House. This nightmare might really be ending. We are so waiting for that moment.
Life is very quiet. The pandemic is still raging here in the USA. Thanksgiving is coming and the airports are already seeing a heavy uptick in passengers. On Sunday more people took flights than have since March. So, things are going to get very messy in a few weeks. We're staying home and staying safe. We hope you are all doing well and finding ways to keep your spirits up.
Maybe we'll have something interesting to post here soon. Wouldn't that be cool? One can always hope and dream.
