Look up!

There used to be a show on the public radio called The Dinner Party Show. It came on Saturdays around 4 PM or so, just ahead of the weekend edition of the news and the Prairie Home Companion.

The point of the show was to put us in the mood to attend the salons and high-tone gatherings that awaited us on Saturday evenings, and as we looked around for our cummerbunds and shirt studs, the Dinner Party Show imparted information and factoid tidbits that we could sprinkle into the conversation that evening. 

I mean, rather than everyone sitting around the living room whinging about the prices of things, it's always better to be able to tell people that Charles Darwin had a pet who died in 2006.  Darwin, the naturalist from whose teachings came the wonderful world of evolution, died in 1882, but he brought back a turtle named Harriet from the Galapagos Islands, and that pet lived until 2006.

Drop that into the dinner conversation and everyone will go home and Google it!

I bring this up so that in case you are having company (ten guests or fewer, six feet apart please) for equinox tonight, you can let them all know that this will be the earliest arrival of Spring since 1896.

CBS News points out that, while the Spring equinox usually occurs on March 20th or 21st, "complicated reasons for 2020's earlier equinox involve leap years, centuries and the length of time it takes Earth to revolve around the sun."

If you want to set your watch by it, the equinox will occur at 11:50 PM EDT tonight. That is when the Sun's rays will shine directly on the equator.

With the axis of Earth not tilted toward or away from the Sun today, that gives us exactly 12 hours of daylight, and 12 hours of darkness. This also happens in September, when Autumn begins.

That's what equi-nox means: equal amounts of day and night (nox). And now, every day until the Summer solstice in June, there will be more and more daylight as we roast beneath the merciless Sun.

Some parts of nature are predictable. We know those facts about daytime and nighttime. Some parts of nature are unpredictable. We have no idea when the coronavirus will be controlled, or when schools will reopen.

Life is interesting. Enjoy it! But use sunscreen and sanitizer as you do.