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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment The SunTree Traveler
The weather was fine most of the time, though on Saturday, the clouds moved in along with some wind. After 14 drops of rain fell just outside of the ramada, the decision was made to cancel the barbeque and reschedule it for Sunday. A half hour later, the sun came out, the clouds disappeared and the wind died. Both of the hot tubs were well used. The small one which is very comfortable for about four people actually had twelve in it in Saturday afternoon. The conversation pool hosted at least half of the population of Tucson, but it was all very friendly. Some of the people who were at Mira Vista that weekend were there only to attend the spring training games of the various major league baseball teams. On Saturday, the people in the cabin next to mine came back early saying that the game was rained out with a real deluge. [Maybe they called Mira Vista and told them about the rain and that cancelled the barbeque for Saturday.] There were about a dozen people in attendance for the St. Patrick's day weekend who were from Laguna del Sol near Sacramento, CA. It seems that they all independently decided to spend the weekend at Mira Vista rather than it being an organized trip. They all seemed to be surprised when they ran into familiar people so far away from their home club. In the early evening, woodland creatures such as pixies and leprechauns started showing up. After a fine meal of corned beef and cabbage, the lounge opened to some of the regular dancing (pixies and leprechauns love to dance) music there were some extra songs extolling the virtues of humpty-backed camels, chimpanzees as well as green alligators and long-naked geese etc. The next day was calm, clear and beautiful. The barbecue was held on the ramada between the pools. The volleyball pool was in business all day (as it had been on Saturday). It was a really fun weekend. We might want to consider planning that again next year along with thoughts of going to the spring training games for the SunTree folks who like baseball.
If you plan on joining with us for this adventure, please contact SunTree (see the "contact SunTree" button) to let us know. We do want our hosts to be forewarned as to the number of participants. You will be given information on the nature of the event at that time and some directions. They have a couple of places for people with RV's to dry park and it is possible for some to camp out in the house for the weekend. If you do not have an RV, then the most comfortable snooze place will be a hotel. We can give you a suggestion or two when you contact us. We will forward your information on to the hosts.
Evening: Saturn will be on duty in the sky just south of straight up before sunset and will stay in the sky until the early morning hours. It will have a nice little chat with the Moon on 6 April. Probably telling April Fools jokes. Little Mercury has its best performance of the year from 10 to 30 April, but it is seven times brighter at the start of this period, at magnitude -1.5, than at the end, at magnitude 0.7. You can catch him at his best at about 40 minutes after sunset, just above the western horizon. Venus is apparently curious about those April Fools jokes that Saturn was talking about, so she moves in for a visit with the Moon on 22 April, with dim orange Mars eavesdropping on them from just below and Jupiter listening in well to the upper right, On 26 April, Mercury takes his turn to have a conversation when he hovers just below the crescent Moon. Morning: In the predawn sky, Venus, will be emerging and brightens. Jupiter gets higher each morning. If you are up early on 22 April, there are lots of things happening. The first one is the occulting of Venus by the Moon. In New Mexico, we should be able to see it starting around 6:18 AM. At that time, the crescent Venus will slip behind the arm of the crescent Moon (for the newsletter readers on the West coast, this should happen about 5:18). If that is not enough, on that same morning, in the southern predawn sky, look for the castoff debris of Comet Thatcher in the guise of the Lyrid Meteor Shower.
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2010
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What Happened in March