If you don't like the bugs, don't turn on your light
All-Night Milky Way Star-Chaser Adventure with Astrophotographer Walt Busby
Lower Mississippi River Dispatch No. 947 "Voice of the Lower Mississippi River" Vicksburg, MS ~ Memphis, TN ~ Clarksdale, MS ~ Wilson, AR Quapaw Canoe Company ~ Celebrating 26 Years of Service ~ ~Winner of the SBA 2024 Small Business of the Year Award~
River Report: How low can she go? Today the Mississippi River at Helena has dropped to -2.1 and still falling. This is only 2 feet shy of record low. Many landings are now cut off completely, or end a pile of mud. Mhoon Landing: Unusable. Montezuma Landing: Unusable. Hillhouse: usable, but no access to main channel (the mouth of DeSoto Lake cut off by mud & giant pile of rip-rap). What ramps are still open in our area? Try using the landings at Helena Harbor, Quapaw Landing, Terene Landing, Rosedale Harbor, Arkansas City Beebe Landing, and Greenville's Warfield Point. Current forecast predict that river will rise up a measly foot by the end of week, but I'm guessing next week the remnants of Hurricane Helene will probably add a little to that. Upcoming Trips You Can Join in On: *Community Canoe, Sat Oct 5th (1-6pm from Clarksdale -- Quapaw Landing) *98% Full Moon, Tues Oct 15th *99% Full Moon, Wed Oct 16th *100% Full Hunter's Moon, Thurs Oct 17th *Note: you can book your own custom-guided trip by going to www.island63.com
Walt Busby Astrovlog: "Stay Spacey. Clear Skies. Watch out for Snakes!"
Driftwood Johnnie Sketchbook, Sept 8, 2024
Sunday, Sept 8, all-night Milky Way chaser, shooting stars all around us, following the Milky Way, River of Souls, downstream out of the noisy-busy Helena Harbor, under the bridge, and into the quiet wild miles below. Venus setting to our right, Cassiopeia rising on our left. The great Sagittarius-Scorpius arm of the Milky Way taking form as the post sunset glow diminished in the West. The sliver of a new moon became carrot orange and then set like a shark's fin cutting through the woods below Kangaroo Point, cutting lower and lower just like a shark would do before it dives into the waves.
On Island 61 Walt & Ceili prepared astrophotography while I fulfilled a promise made to a friend, and performed a simple smudge ceremony, purpose to open up a earthly greeting and recognition to all those we have lost in the past year, and who are now following the river never ending and the flowing forever flowing -- through the dazzling light of the Milky Way dancing overhead parallel and just as powerful as the big Mississippi River below -- specifically to Patty and Tex, to Red and Hank, to RL (Boyce) and Ann (Abadie), to Conner and Princess Pride, and all those others we've lost -- to mothers & fathers, to friends & family -- may we never forget our ancestors, may they forever flow with the flowing forever flowing. Then I lay down on midnight sandbar illuminated now only by the gentle glow of the heavens, and took a nap, which became a very refreshing snooze full of dreams, broken one-hour later by the sound of Capt Ceili repacking canoe, and Walt his gear. (Hours later, on Island 62, I fell asleep again as Ceili and Walt carried on, and inadvertently ended up in the background of one of Walt's amazing compositions!)
Another big river phenomena discovery: the river of unseen insects: thick bug life, the insects feel the change in the weather and are swarming in places, the air down in the 50s, cooler in the woods, warmer on the river, fall reversal, especially thick in the lee of the north wind at base of island 63 which we paddled past at 3:30am. Out of the inky Orion darkness I cut on my light momentarily for orientation, and to check the shore for mammals, and was shocked to discover incredible masses of thick clouds of flying bugs, hoards of them, not mosquitoes, but something else that flies, swirling through my light like a blizzard under a street lamp, maybe hatching out of the warm river water -- so many it is frightening to see! I cut off my light and they are gone. Was that for real? I hadn't actually felt any on my skin. I am in shorts, exposed arms & legs, and have felt nothing. I turn light on and they return with renewed frenzy. Yes, they are here! I shut light off for the peaceful calm of not seeing. Ignorance is bliss? In the darkness without light, I see no trace of the swarms, I feel nothing, I hear nothing.
Without headlamp, in total river forest darkness, they are not visible at all. And amazingly not felt. This leads to another one of nature's many mysteries: how is it possible to be paddling through one of the thickest clouds of flying insects ever, and not feel any of them? It's like they don't exist until you switch on your light. So which is the reality? What you see? Or what you feel? Two entirely separate realities side-by-side, entered and exited by the switch of a light. If I had not switched on my light the dreamy star-filled horizon would be my only memory: Auriga, Orion, Sirius, Canis Major, Taurus, and Pleaides rising out of the back channel of Island 63. I would not have any inkling of an idea of that other reality buzzing around my head, inaudible, and unseen.
This seemed to be a fitting metaphor for life in general. If you don't like the bugs, don't turn on your light. Don't fixate on your bug-splattered windshield. Look beyond. Turn off the light and open your eyes, and gaze upon the glowing infinite wonder of the deep stellar currents and meanders, the whirlpools (black holes) and boils (supernovas), everything all flowing together in what feels like an endlessly billowing universe of stars, constellations, galaxies, the spiral arm of the Milky Way which we inhabit, our greater home, in which there is no right & wrong, no good, no evil, all is forever flowing in an endless spiral of generation & destruction, sometimes frightening, sometimes enchanting, always inspiring.
End Note: One Week Later, Full Moon Eclipse, Different Lenses, Same Scene:
What a trip !!!!!!