The full moon, and its effects on people

Yesterday, when I was heading to Blockbuster to return a DVD, I saw a police car, a fire truck, and an ambulance all parked by the nearby Tesoro gas station with their lights flashing. In Juneau that's a bit unusual, though certainly not unheard of - people collapse occasionally here, though I'm still sort of curious what the fire truck and police car were for. I'll have to check the paper today and see if there's anything in it.

Anyway, I went about my business like a good little citizen, and went to get ready for a dinner date with a friend of mine. While I was getting ready, however, a police siren went screaming past on the nearby highway. Still not unheard of here, but certainly unusual - one of the reasons I don't mind living so close to the highway is that sirens are fairly rare.

Then, while I was having dinner downtown with Diane, another set of sirens and lights went blaring past the restaurant window. I've lived in Juneau a good three years now, and have never seen three sets of sirens in one day. I asked Diane if she knew whether it was a full moon or not, but it's been so cloudy and rainy lately that neither of us had any clue.

I'll have to ask BD if he knows what was going on (between doing tech work for folks all over town and being one of the Fire & Rescue captains, he hears pretty much everything that happens), but I was not surprised in the least to glance at the calendar and find that it is a full moon today. Scoff if you will, but anyone who's worked nights (especially in a service industry such as a night auditor for a hotel or an ER doctor/nurse or a police officer) will tell you that full moons make people a little crazy. And given that its gravitational pull can have such strong effects on our oceans, it makes perfect sense to me that it has some effect on people, too.

One of the happier effects came about this morning when I was settling in for work. Conrad was standing at my counter working on paperwork when his phone rang (he has the funniest ringtone - it's a bunch of sound effects from old video games like PacMan and Galega all strung together). He picks it up, talks for a moment, goes "Oh, she is?!" and starts talking very excitedly and pacing back and forth and doing everything short of jumping up and down. Once he was off the phone, he announced to the general public: "I'm going to be a grandfather!"

(This being Conrad [among other things, he's a bit of a cigar connoisseur], I had to ask him if he was going to pass out cigars, to which he said, "Of course!" So I asked him to bring me one of the bubble-gum ones, since I don't smoke, and he said he'd be happy to.)

So when I noticed that it was a full moon, he wasn't surprised either - he figured that was probably what brought on his daughter-in-law's labor.

On a completely unrelated note, Brian once described Heritage (our local coffee company) mochas as "a kind of bliss in a cup". I'd have to agree, and add that there's really nothing quite like one on a miserable rainy day. Even if they do run almost $5 with tips.

Yes, I'm well on my way to caffiene addiction again. So sue me.

The full moon, and its effects on people

Yesterday, when I was heading to Blockbuster to return a DVD, I saw a police car, a fire truck, and an ambulance all parked by the nearby Tesoro gas station with their lights flashing. In Juneau that's a bit unusual, though certainly not unheard of - people collapse occasionally here, though I'm still sort of curious what the fire truck and police car were for. I'll have to check the paper today and see if there's anything in it.

Anyway, I went about my business like a good little citizen, and went to get ready for a dinner date with a friend of mine. While I was getting ready, however, a police siren went screaming past on the nearby highway. Still not unheard of here, but certainly unusual - one of the reasons I don't mind living so close to the highway is that sirens are fairly rare.

Then, while I was having dinner downtown with Diane, another set of sirens and lights went blaring past the restaurant window. I've lived in Juneau a good three years now, and have never seen three sets of sirens in one day. I asked Diane if she knew whether it was a full moon or not, but it's been so cloudy and rainy lately that neither of us had any clue.

I'll have to ask BD if he knows what was going on (between doing tech work for folks all over town and being one of the Fire & Rescue captains, he hears pretty much everything that happens), but I was not surprised in the least to glance at the calendar and find that it is a full moon today. Scoff if you will, but anyone who's worked nights (especially in a service industry such as a night auditor for a hotel or an ER doctor/nurse or a police officer) will tell you that full moons make people a little crazy. And given that its gravitational pull can have such strong effects on our oceans, it makes perfect sense to me that it has some effect on people, too.

One of the happier effects came about this morning when I was settling in for work. Conrad was standing at my counter working on paperwork when his phone rang (he has the funniest ringtone - it's a bunch of sound effects from old video games like PacMan and Galega all strung together). He picks it up, talks for a moment, goes "Oh, she is?!" and starts talking very excitedly and pacing back and forth and doing everything short of jumping up and down. Once he was off the phone, he announced to the general public: "I'm going to be a grandfather!"

(This being Conrad [among other things, he's a bit of a cigar connoisseur], I had to ask him if he was going to pass out cigars, to which he said, "Of course!" So I asked him to bring me one of the bubble-gum ones, since I don't smoke, and he said he'd be happy to.)

So when I noticed that it was a full moon, he wasn't surprised either - he figured that was probably what brought on his daughter-in-law's labor.

On a completely unrelated note, Brian once described Heritage (our local coffee company) mochas as "a kind of bliss in a cup". I'd have to agree, and add that there's really nothing quite like one on a miserable rainy day. Even if they do run almost $5 with tips.

Yes, I'm well on my way to caffiene addiction again. So sue me.