Influence and absent-mindedness

Two old memories that require a little setup: Before we moved to the NorthShore of Lake Pontchartrain, I belonged to the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society. They met once a month, organized activities, had guest speakers, talked about their nights under the stars, their telescopes, etc... About what you would expect from such a club.

At the time, PAS was looking into leasing or purchasing a tract of land for observation. They had free use of a piece of property owned by Martin Marietta as I recall but there were problems with it. What they could do was restricted, it was too far away, it was not ideal, and there were times it couldn’t be used. There were some criteria for the type of property they were looking for. It had to be at least five acres (This influenced what I was looking for when I moved to the NorthShore. CrabAppleLane is five acres.). It had to be at least 40 miles from city lights (CrabAppleLane is about 40 miles from city lights, too.). I don’t know what ever came of that endeavor but they hadn’t acquired it when my membership lapsed in 1994.

Still with me? Also at the time I was a member of PAS, they owned a 10" Dobsonian reflector telescope and it was free for members to use on a first come first serve basis. A 10" reflector telescope was quite a step up from the 90mm one that I had and was ideal for the type of deep space observing I liked to do. I wanted to give that a try. I yearned for a larger telescope and wanted to see if a Dobsonian was for me (It isn’t). Another member, who never went to the meetings, had it so I had to go to his house to get it. No problem. He didn’t live that far from me. I knocked on his door and we introduced ourselves. He then told me the telescope was in the backyard and that he had been observing the moons of Jupiter crossing in front of and out from behind the planet. OK, I can give up a few minutes to see that.

Jupiter was low on the horizon that night and I had to get down on my knees to peer into the ocular (Eyepiece for those not astronomically-inclined). As I did that, his dog came over and sat next to me with considerable stealth. I heard breathing so I turned to look and there he was. He startled me. The dog is a 150-160 pound Doberman, his face is six inches from mine, and we’re looking each other right in the eyes. He is not sniffing or licking or doing anything else that pet dogs normally do. He’s also not making a sound. I said hi to him and patted his head and stroked his back. He’s still looking me in the eye. There is no other reaction whatsoever. I asked if there was anything wrong with him. I was told that he’s fine. That’s just the way he is.

It’s time to load up the telescope and be on my way. My host picks up the telescope and heads out to my car. I pick up the stand and the base and follow. He’s about 12-15 steps ahead of me. I get right to the threshold of the backyard gate and the dog starts barking. I turned around and his back hair is on end, he’s looking me in the eyes again, he’s growling and snarling, and he’s about three feet from me ready to launch. I called out to my host in the calmest voice I had to come do something about this dog. He didn’t hear me. He didn’t hear his barking, snarling, growling dog, either. He is busy loading the telescope in my station wagon and he’s perfectly oblivious to the drama going on between his dog and me. He finishes that task and I call out again. I’m a little jacked up, myself, now and I have something in each hand. Between that Doberman and me, one or both of us is going to get hurt. Just before things got out of hand, my oblivious host says:

“Oh, yeah, he’ll let you in but not out”.

I used to work at a place that would let guard dogs roam the lot on weekends. That’s what they were trained to do, too.

Me: “He’s a guard dog?”
Him: “Yeah”
Me: “When I asked if anything was wrong with him, this didn’t occur to you?”
Him: “I guess not”
Me (After a very deep breath): “I have to go”

I surely didn’t appreciate that bit of absent-mindedness and I have no idea what dredged up that old memory this morning but I started hyperventilating again just typing it. Another deep breath is in order.

Quote of the Day

Essentially, it's nutritional pornography. It's so bad for you it's shocking.

Jon Basso, Proprietor - Heart Attack Grill

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "It looks to me like NASA is trying to be sensational again."