This week my brothers Jack and Jeff celebrate birthdays.
Jacks age made me think of Meredith Wilson’s Music Man, older folks can sing the words to Seventy Six Trombones and likely recall that there are reportedly 110 coronets close at hand. It is hard to imagine but “there were more than a thousand reeds, spring up like weeds.” Jack has a well developed sense of humor and always is quick with a pun or play on words. Knowing that, his card was two mushrooms, one sporting a birthday cap, yes, he is a fun-gi. Beyond that non sense he has Katie as his soul mate and 5 amazing sons who are making a difference in their chosen professions. The grand kids are being appropriately spoiled.
Jeff will be seventy and is the youngest of the five Mooney boys. I think he might agree that he did his level best to carve his own unique niche in the world. He has an amazing spouse, Trish and one daughter. Jeff worked at the reactor facility in the water pits, in spite of that proximity, his roentgen badge showed less exposure than from his dental X-rays. Jeff is likely the smartest of the brothers and can fix anything. He has overcome a few challenges like a traumatic brain injury and an affinity for alcohol. His special birthday song is “We are the Champions, my friends, and well keep on fighting till the end…No time for losers…cause we are the Champions of the World.” Jeff is an ailurophile.
Hank and I learned a bit about the moon at our planetarium visit last week. Since it is our namesake, I wanted you to know a bit more about it. The Moon has a diameter of 2159 miles making it about one quarter the size of Earth. The moon keeps the same face to Earth, because the Moon “rotates at the same rate as its orbital motion, it is called synchronous rotation.” The Moon is 4.53 billion years old, born after the Earth’s core settled. The Moon is slowly moving away from us, about an inch each year. Jeff may have known that fact.
The lack of atmosphere explains the extreme temperatures on the surface, no layers to absorb sunlight like the earth. The high today could be 250 degrees and the low a minus 208. Challenging place to live, but beautiful in our sky. Without the moon there would likely be no life on earth, the tidal surges would be so extreme. Good news for us dieters, Hank would weigh 11 pounds on the Moon as you can see in the photo.
Understanding space and protecting our own planet are critical to the future. Hope you are ready for the best holiday season ever. Mike
Moondog
