Susan, who walks with me every day, is used to my going off of the path. Sometimes I wander because something captures my interest. Yesterday I had us scrambling over logs and other flotsam on the beach because I was intrigued at the amount of things that had washed up on the shore during the recent rains and wind. Sometimes I wander because I am not looking where I am going. I’ve always had a tendency to look up at the sky. When I hear an airplane, I want to look and identify it. I learned to do so when I was a young child and my father earned our living by flying airplanes. The problem as I near 70 years of age is that looking up when I am walking sometimes affects my balance and my sense of direction. At times like that, it is good to have a walking partner who will reach out and gently guide me for a few steps while I refocus my vision and pay attention to where I am going.

You’d think that someone who is always looking at the sky might know a bit more about astronomy than I do. I’m interested in astronomy, but I am also a person who goes to bed quite early most evenings. So when the astronomers are peering skyward, I’m sleeping. Combine that with the simple fact that i’ve been more interested in identifying airplanes than stars and the result is a very limited awareness of the movement of stars and planets and other objects in the night sky.

I have, however, appreciated the fact that I have been able to see stars as I looked into the night sky before retiring for the past two nights. It is significant because clear skies were not a part of our experience over the weekend and during the early part of the week. A break in the rainfall has been very welcome as people dig out and clean up from the recent flooding.

I’m not likely to be able to see stars tonight, however, which is a minor disappointment because if we were to have clear skies, I would be able to see the lunar eclipse. The partial lunar eclipse will last for more than 6 hours. The last time a partial lunar eclipse lasted that long was in the year 1440, when the Incas were building Machu Picchu. The next time the earth will see a partial lunar eclipse that long will be February 8, 2669. Since I would have to live to the age of 715 years to see that one, it appears that tonight’s event is my once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness such a long eclipse.

It doesn’t seem likely that I will see it. The forecast for 10:02 pm, when the eclipse is supposed to start is for 99% cloud cover with and 81% chance of rain. Things should clear up slightly during the eclipse. At 4:03 am, when the eclipse will end, the forecast calls for 76% cloud cover and only a 19% chance of rain. At maximum eclipse, which occurs at 1:03 am, we are supposed to have 98% cloud cover. If the forecast is accurate, those who see the eclipse will be somewhere other than Northwest Washington. I think I’m safe in staying in bed and checking out the pictures on the internet the next morning. I’m pretty sure that even though this is a rare astronomical event, missing it isn’t going to disrupt my life that much.

There are plenty of people in our region who will be looking skyward today. The forecast of more rain isn’t exactly welcome. The ground is saturated and the rivers are running above flood stage. Fields remain flooded and there are a lot of people whose homes are still underwater. Damage from recent mudslides have cut off many communities. Just north of us, in British Columbia, a state of emergency has been declared. Roads and rail lines have been cut by landslides. There are many communities where essential commodities can’t get through. Even a small amount of additional rain could result in more landslides and flooding. With thousands of people evacuated to shelters, shortages of essential supplies could become critical in the next week. British Columbia Premier John Horgan said, “There’s not a person that hasn’t been affected or will not be affected by the events of this past weekend.” He also commented that British Columbia must “bring the seven billion other souls that live on this planet to understand that we need to act now . . . to protect us from these types of events that will happen in the future.” For Horgan, and the rest of us who live in this region of the earth, human-caused climate change is a reality that cannot be ignored.

As we warm up the atmosphere, we also warm up the oceans. That means that more water is evaporated and the atmosphere can carry more water. The result is atmospheric river events when a month’s worth of rain falls in a couple of days. Last week world leaders met in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference. They discussed climate change and proposed policies to slow global warming. In a sense, however, their discussions were academic and distant from the problem. According to University of British Columbia atmospheric scientist Rachel White, we in the Pacific Northwest are living the reality of human-caused global climate change.

A few raindrops on my roof and a cloudy night isn’t going to cause any inconvenience or disruption for me. Although I might complain slightly about missing a direct look at the lunar eclipse, it isn’t as if I had been counting on viewing the eclipse. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed had not the websites I frequent mentioned the event. And while I’ll admit that the last two days of not needing my raincoat when I went walking were nice, I don’t suffer much from the weather around here. Our home is dry and most of the roads around here are cleared.

Moreover, when it is raining hard, I tend to look down and pay attention to where I’m walking, which keeps me from wandering off course too much.