The Moon Under Water
Jan. 17th, 2003 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerComing in to land at Tampa last night, I was taking advantage of my window seat to admire the patterns of lights below - something I always find endlessly fascinating when flying at night. (Somehow it always looks beautiful but at the same time artificial, like a vast model).
Then, as we flew over a black expanse - a lake or broad river - I noticed a bright light beneath. Leaning to see further I found myself looking at a clear, sharp full moon. This far south the Moon is high in the sky at night, and was reflecting perfectly from the mill-pond like water. As we skimmed lower and lower over the waterways and ponds north of Tampa, it would come and goo, sometimes visible for a flash in what must have been backyard pools.
And a more prosaic update: Tampa cool, but a lot warmer than DC. Caught the news last night, some reporter outside the White House being sprinkled with snow. Hopefully they'll clear it before we fly back out via Dulles on Sunday.
MC
Then, as we flew over a black expanse - a lake or broad river - I noticed a bright light beneath. Leaning to see further I found myself looking at a clear, sharp full moon. This far south the Moon is high in the sky at night, and was reflecting perfectly from the mill-pond like water. As we skimmed lower and lower over the waterways and ponds north of Tampa, it would come and goo, sometimes visible for a flash in what must have been backyard pools.
And a more prosaic update: Tampa cool, but a lot warmer than DC. Caught the news last night, some reporter outside the White House being sprinkled with snow. Hopefully they'll clear it before we fly back out via Dulles on Sunday.
MC
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Wave as you go past
Date: 2003-01-17 09:59 am (UTC)Re: Wave as you go past
Date: 2003-01-17 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 02:30 pm (UTC)MC
no subject
Date: 2003-01-17 04:53 pm (UTC)I always ask for a window seat, even on the longest plane trips. While I inevitably start thinking round about the third hour of the flight "Why do I always do this to myself?" by the time the plane lands I've reminded myself all over again why I do. I love staring out of the window whenever the plane is close enough to the ground to be able to see stuff.
Memorable sights: Any city by night. (The whole south-east of England, practically, when coming in to land at Heathrow: the landscape turns into a fantastic unfinished cloisonne design with the spaces between the golden/silver wires as if depthless. Flying over the US after dark and looking down to see cities like luminous jellyfish below me, that was fantastic too.
Flying over the Arctic, looking down to see vast cracks in the ice below - wide enough to sail up, not realising that the passage had no end.
A small plane flying from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara: looking out of the window at my elbow and realising that I was looking straight down at the sea below even though my body told me I was sitting upright and just looking to the side. (Still haven't got the mechanics of how that worked sorted in my head.)
Moon in the water
Date: 2003-01-18 05:27 am (UTC)