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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month The SunTree Traveler
Swim Time in El Paso, Texas As we have experience in past events at this location, it was a very pleasant time and the hosts were wonderful as usual. We fortunately did not have the rain problems that were experienced last year. The beautiful pool and hot tub were sparkling clean making for a delightful place to spend the afternoon and evening. As is also normal, there was plenty of delicious food available at the potluck. Opinion: I feel that I have to include an unfortunate editorial note here. I will start this by saying that I left the event on Saturday afternoon and was not aware of the evening and following morning events until I was told by some of the members who attended, not the hosts. Most of the SunTree events are held at the homes of members who generously open their homes and adjacent facilities to the club members and sometimes to non-members who have expressed an interest in joining the club. There have been problems and the reason that this note is being included on the website is that most of the problems have been caused by some non-members who have attended various events. I wish to bring your attention to two places on our website. The first is at the “Home” button where there is a statement that says, “Our main concern is compatibility between the members. For that reason that we suggest the attendance at several events prior to making a decision to join the club.” This statement is self-explanatory. An invitation to a club event is not to be construed by the non-member visitor as a continuing invitation for all future events. At the "Guidelines" button, you will find this statement, “We recognize codes of common decency and etiquette that should guide interactions in a civilized society.” This statement indicates that all visitors to club events are expected to treat other participants, especially the hosts in a civilized manner. If the visitor does not wish to observe normal courtesy to follow the rules/instructions of the hosts, then they should leave the event. Normal courtesy do not include arriving after midnight or at dawn and expect to be entertained or even being provided entry. Normal courtesy does not include ignoring the host’s wishes or treating the hosts as personal servants of the visitor. As a direct result of some of the actions of particularly discourteous visitors to recent club events, one of the homes normally used for club events has been removed from our list of available venues because the hosts for those events do not wish to remain victims of future inconsiderate visitors. The entire club has to suffer as a result of the offenders who will not be welcomed to our future events at any location.
More swim time in El Paso. Once again, we have been invited to the El Paso home of some SunTree members on 11 – 12 August. This event, will be like the previous events and be a swim – hot tub event with an evening potluck meal. Be sure to call to let the hosts know that you will be there and what you plan to provide for the potluck meal. This is always an enjoyable event with a beautiful large pool. A comfortable sized hot tub cascades water into the swimming pool. If you plan on staying overnight, there is space for RV parking in the back yard. There is one 30 amp outlet and the rest are 20 amp for the RV's. There is room to park about 12 vehicles including RV's in the back yard. For the protection of SunTree members, addresses and phone numbers are not provided on the website, so non-member visitors should contact SunTree at either the club e-mail address or at the contact phone number for the club and leave a message on the machine. The hosts will be informed of your information.
We May Have Lost Venus, but We Got A Lunar Eclipse and a Meteor Shower Evening: If you look early in the month toward the west after sunset, you can see Venus about to set. It is quite bright, but it dives into the Sun on 18 August. Actually it is passing in front of the Sun, but you will not see it until it pops out on the other side of the Sun in the morning sky as a slim crescent at the end of the month (should I have put this in the “Morning” section of this article?). Another morning/evening event is happening at the same time that Mars is taking its dive, but we cannot see it. On the back side of the Sun on 18 August, Saturn and Mercury pass as they can in their respective orbits. Do not be depressed by the loss of fantastically bright Venus from the night sky. We will still have Jupiter in the sky. You will need to look at the southern horizon to see Jupiter shining there at Magnitude -2.3 low in the sky, slowly making his way westward through the month. The Moon decides to cooperate to aid in the production of this month’s highlight presentation. That is the famous Perseid meteor shower, occurring this year during a New Moon. It will peak on the night of 11 – 12 August with the intensity increasing after midnight. Morning: Mars, at a relatively bright Magnitude 0.3 keeps getting brighter as it now rises by 1 AM and hovering near the Moon during the early hours of 7 August. Later in the month, it will start rising about midnight. On 28 August, we will experience the year’s second total lunar eclipse. You will have to get up in the wee hours to see it. The first “chunk” to go missing will happen about 2:20 AM that morning. It will look more like a bruise than a missing chunk. About a half hour later, the eclipse will “officially begin. At about ten minutes before 4 AM the total eclipse will begin and will remain a bright copper colored disk until about 5:30 when it will start peeking out of its Earth-shadow. It will not totally emerge from that shadow before the rising sun washes out the whole picture show. [Note: Readers in the PDT zone subtract one hour from those above, readers in EDT add one hour.]
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2008 |
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