Fall somewhere

This Thursday marks the Fall Equinox, the time when the tilt of the earth is neither away from nor closer to the Sun and in fact the Sun is shining directly on the equator. This provides those of us on Earth with “nearly” equal amounts of daylight no matter the latitude where you live.

Thankfully this column will come out in the paper early enough on the Equinox that you can all plan on celebrating with Ol’ Dutch and Miss Trixie.

This year the annual event occurs at exactly 7:03 p.m. and we plan on dancing naked in a heathen expression of sheer joy. Or we may just be playing cards with friends which will most certainly keep down the complaints from the neighbors.

Ever since man’s arrival on this planet it appears that he has at least been noticing the movement of the stars and planets and our part in that vast mix of Universe complexity. There are many examples of man trying to map out the seasons such as the great Stonehenge over there across the pond.

There, some guys got together in the off season from football, golf, hunting, and fishing and decided to cart some big old rock some hundreds of miles and erect them in a circle on their buddy’s land.

They are arranged in just such a fashion that they foretell the changing of the seasons and yearly astrological events.

Here in our own Southwest, we have some ancient circles and carvings of our own that also are able to predict just such happenings and it’s fascinating to think that such primitive people had such knowledge. Common thought is they used these predicting tools as a way to keep track of the seasons and hence planting dates in the Spring and the Elk Season opener in the Fall.

Well, it’s something like that as it’s been some time since Ol’ Dutch has studied up on carved rocks and their solunar implications.

One other item of interest that occurs for some of us each year is the return to normal time from Daylight Savings time. Which means that on Nov. 6, a good share of the United States citizens will turn back their clocks one hour.

Well, that is except for Arizona and Hawaii who just leave their darned clocks alone and somehow seem to get by just fine. And this is because having everyone using the same clocks and same times well, that just doesn’t make sense.

I find it a tad amusing too that the great Navajo Indian Nation chooses to participate in Daylight Savings Time in the Spring and hence have to fall back with most of us in November. For it was an old Indian who when told about how Daylight Savings Time would add an hour to his day said, “only a white man thinks if you cut off a foot from the top of a blanket and sew it on the bottom it will give you more blanket.”

Now Ol’ Dutch has heard all kinds of excuses for changing clocks around but all I know is I am glad I have Miss Trixie around to reset all the clocks around the house as it’s all a mystery to me which buttons to push.

Which is a total shock and mystery to her as she always says I know exactly which buttons to push on her to get a response.

God bless her anyway and God bless Motorola as my phone changes time on its own at the appointed hour and that’s all that Ol’ Dutch needs anyway.

So, get out there and celebrate the Equinox like you never have before and take heart that whether you are a morning or evening person, you will all have an equal amount of time on this day in September.

Kevin Kirkpatrick and his Yorkie, Cooper, fish, hunt, ATV or hike daily. His email is [email protected]. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com.