Slice of Stasis
Now Playing: Saint Etienne--"Kiss And Make Up"
The "Michigan Year," so gorgeously elegized by Alex Robins, has reached the stage where it jerks back and forth between (on the one hand) temperate, sun-drenched glory, not a cloud in the sky, and (on the other) heavens the color of scrubbed-to-the-bone Brillo, with Louhi, the Crone of the North, belching (or worse) freezing wind and sleet from every direction. Yesterday was primarily the latter, but it dissipated towards the end of the evening, letting the moon loose against the clashing canvas of cloud and night sky. I saw the moon come up in the "bay windows" of my residence. I don't know if they're actually "bay windows"--I don't think the house I presently inhabit is really grand enough for bay windows, but it is pretty old. Probably late Victorian, stripped and gutted inside and out to equip it for students and the working poor. Forsaking The Rick Mercer Report on CBC, I rushed outside to get a better look. The weather had grown milder, which meant that my parts were in no danger of freezing. I stayed to watch the moon for about a minute, my socks soaking up the cold from the sidewalk along Geddes Avenue, and felt dissatisfied. I ran back in the house, up the stairs two at a time, and tried to get a gander from my bedroom window (which is definitely not a bay window). My window faces the north, and it was still pretty early. Opening the window, I stretched three-quarters of me outside and watched the moon rise over the house next door for a couple of minutes. If my meager spiritual instincts took a more primeval turn, I'd certainly be a moon-worshipper. You can see the moon; you can rarely see the sun without a tiny bit of pain. The urges which compelled me to share this half-hour have now subsided.