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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month "My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."
Last month's event at Mira Vista Resort in Marana, AZ Jalapeño Javalina Pie and Submarine Warfare The visit to Mira Vista RESORT was a fun time with a good turnout for SunTree members and members emeritus. The weather was perfect (though a little chilly in the mornings), the pools were wonderful and the conversations were civilly delightful. The Mira Vista restaurant turned out its usual excellent food and some of the SunTree gang took advantage of the Mai Tai specials at the lounge where they danced like fools until they were thrown out (to the conversation pool) at closing time. If you want to have an explanation of the headline for this news item, ask one of the participants to explain, we do not have enough space to describe everything in the newsletter.
Between the Holidays at Elephant Butte The SunTree tribe is being invited back for another "Between the Holidays" event on 13 December at Elephant Butte. (We decided not to repeat last year's "Christmas in November" event. It got too confusing.) Bring along the usual tonnage of food because this will, once again be a potluck event. Since this is our Christmas event, this is the one where all participants are expected to bring a gift for a gift exchange. The gift should not cost more than $10.00. The giver must select the gift to be appropriate for another person of their own sex. In other words boys give gifts to boys, girls give gifts to girls (I must protest that those are not the words of your editor. They are the words of the hosts of this event. Maybe I would have said ‘Men give Manly gifts and Women give Girly gifts’ but I probably would have gotten in trouble for that too). Put no names on the gift, but indicate in some way whether the gift should be to a male or female victim (sorry, I mean recipient) Be sure to call SunTree or send an e-mail to indicate that you will be participating in this event, what you plan to bring for the potluck and if you plan to stay overnight. It will be on Saturday and Sunday, with an evening potluck on Saturday and a breakfast potluck on Sunday morning.
A Bright Western Show Makes Up For a Washed Out Meteor Shower (Almost) On the first, that triangle in the west just after sunset is the gang from last month still hanging out together. They will put on a wonderful performance to open the new month. The big crescent shaped thing is called “the Moon”. Just below the Moon are two of our neighboring planets. Venus is the brighter one below and slightly to the left of the upper one, Jupiter. By the late part of the month, that triangle has spread out a lot and by 23 December, about 40 minutes after sunset, the bright light high in the west is Venus with Jupiter lower down and to the right, just above the horizon. The weak light just below Jupiter is tiny little Mercury. By New Year’s Eve, the Moon will move over near to Venus and far below, Jupiter and Mercury will move close together so that Mercury can pass along any messages that he may have for Jupiter. On 12 December, the Moon will be at perigee (the closest to the Earth of the year in its orbit) (356,566 km or 221,559.8 miles). The Full Moon of December will be exceptionally bright. This will disappoint those of you who wish to get a good view of the Geminid Meteor shower. Those of you with hot tubs should be warned that due to the closeness of the Moon during the full stage in December, there will be abnormally high tides this month. On 14 December the peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower will occur in the pre-dawn eastern sky. At mid-month, Saturn will be rising just before midnight. On the evenings of the 18 and 10, the Moon will be hanging out with Saturn. Moon is at apogee (at the farthest distance of the year from Earth in its orbit) (406,601 km or 252650.1 miles) on boxing Day Winter starts up with the solstice on 21 December at 5:04 AM MST.
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Winter 2012
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What Happened in November