Just In Case There's No Tomorrow

FTLComm - Tisdale - Thursday, June 28, 2001

From the bed time prayers we learn as a child to the glaring awareness of the temporal nature of our existence we have within us a serious need to experience, to do and cherish moments knowing full well that each moment might be our very last. There are no guarantees, you are not born with a "good before date" on your bar-code, no we mortals live each day, each hour and some, each minute with the realisation that this time is a gift, precious and a "once in a lifetime offer". Yesterday a truck driver showed me the only injury he suffered in a collision that had happened the day before near Brandon, he had cut his little finger on his left hand as it was jammed between the steering wheel and the

remains of the windshield that had become the forward boundary of the semi trailer tractor he was operating. In the blink of an eye another semi loaded with lumber pulled out onto number one if front of the Peterbuilt with its empty anhydrous cylinders on its trailer. At one hundred kilometres per hour he was slammed into the loaded lumber trailer and he hurt his little finger. Clearly aware of those who live on the surface below the turbulent skies the sky painter seems to go full throttle all the time just in case we are seeing our last sky or last sunset.

At the top of the page is the Western sky last night at 9:30 and below it is the afternoon sky at about 2:30. The same pattern is present only the angle of the sun changed. Above and to the right are two images looking away from the sunset at 9:30 as the sky is filled with the dragon claws of high cirrus wisps, mid level stratus layers and close to the ground cumulus fluff. But combined they form a superior show, worthy to be the last - - - for this day and so it is appropriate to share this sky with you. Below is a 360º QuickTime VR panorama. Microsoft's Media player will not display this image or let you waltz around the sky using your mouse. If you do not have QuickTime download this free software that lets you stream movies, listen to music and will convert almost all media for you automatically.