Of Course...

Every year it seems as though when it is time to trim the federal budget, one of the first things on the chopping block is the money intended for the space program. As soon as we won the race to the moon and discovered that there wasn't much to see there, we began cutting back and that cutting has increased with each passing year. It has gotten so bad that now if we want to send people to space we have to hitch a ride with some private company out of Russia (please, appreciate the irony). I have to say, it kind of bums me out. Not because I rely on that industry for work or have any desire to be an astronaut, but just because I think it shows a distinct lack of a spirit of adventure in humanity. We used to want to know what else was out there, but now we have decided that it is too expensive to do so. It used to be that we were willing to spend the money to make sure we were exploring in every direction possible, but now we spend that money on silly things like the Roger Clemens trial and then claim to need deep budget cuts. That loss of curiosity in the name of penny-pinching is kind of depressing.

However, what's strange is that despite that fact it feels as though I am more aware of what is going on in space today than at any point in my life. Seriously, it seems as though every week the local weathermen are on my TV, telling me to look skyward at a specific time to catch a glimpse of some phenomenon in the heavens which will not be seen again in my lifetime. Part of that could just be that it has always been like this and I am just more aware of it now, but I feel like the main difference these days comes from having the Internet at my fingertips because the majority of the news I get about celestial happenings comes from social media. For example, today Twitter was abuzz with the people talking about Venus passing in front of the sun. Apparently, it was quite the sight to see. (Seriously, check this picture out. It looks like something out of the opening sequence from the original "Transformers" cartoon movie.) I would have loved to know what that looked like for myself, only I never got the chance as it was totally overcast this afternoon and it is really hard to see something pass in front of the sun when you can't even see the sun to begin with.

You know, most of the time rain doesn't really bother me. Especially in the early summer when my lawn could really use the water. But for some reason having total cloud cover on the only day to see Venus pass in front of the sun annoyed the hell out of me. I think it goes back to one of the central themes of this blog, which is how much I don't like it when something or someone comes along which takes the option of doing something away from people. If you didn't want to break out the special lenses and the telescope to look up into the sun this afternoon that's fine, but it should be your call to make. It is entirely possible that if today was completely sunny and cloud-free that I would have gotten wrapped up in some project, lost track of time and totally missed it. However, knowing that I couldn't see it even if I wanted to made me well aware that I was missing out on it. Also, I think there is a sense of urgency which comes from knowing this won't happen again until 2117. Venus last passed in front of the sun in 2004 and it didn't receive nearly as much buzz because everyone knew it would be happening again in 8 years. But when the difference between events is 105 years, the urge to see it go down is only going to increase.

For me, it's just one of those moments in life that make you go, "of course". Of course it's cloudy today when there were breaks of sun yesterday and will probably a cloudless sky tomorrow. Alanis Morissette would say that it's ironic (it's not, but that is what she would say). Obviously I'm not complaining at anyone specifically, because there is no one to complain to. You can't control this kind of thing and I hardly doubt New England was the only place dealing with crappy weather and whose view was blocked. On top of that I didn't actually have anything riding on seeing this particular phenomenon. Can you imagine being a scientist who has waited for years to see this and then the weather won't cooperate? Those are the people who have every right to complain loudly to the world at large about what a crappy hand they have been dealt. It has to be a helpless feeling, because there isn't even anything they could do about it, as every spot on the planet is subject to the whims of the weather. The only place you would have gotten a perfect view was from space. Now that's ironic.