Moving an image, video, or text an inch to the left, right, up, or down—repeated a thousand times—is the biggest time suck, and I love it. The wind rarely blows my sails just right like this, so when I feel motivated to update my website, I ride the wave until it fizzles.
I’ve been chomping at the bit to tell you about the Magic Tree House Space book we’ve been reading. Did you know a million Earths could fit into the sun? Or that solar flares are blasts of energy from the sun that can knock out radio and TV signals? The biggest one was just last year, 2024.
And, okay, this is embarrassing, but the sun is going to… die. Like, eventually it will just be a cold rock. I didn’t know that until a few years ago. Could teachers have tried to teach me? Probably. But I was busy being boy crazy—passing notes and spying through the class window. Priorities.
Before I explained it to Evelyn—how our bright, energetic yellow dwarf sun will expand into a red giant and then shrink into a tiny white dwarf—I warned her:
“What I’m about to tell you scared me and made me sad.”
After I explained, she blinked and said, “That scared you? At 38?”
Yes, daughter. It did.
She shrugged and said something logical like, “Well, people won’t be here by then anyway,” and went back to her snack. Children: masters of perspective.
All this sun knowledge happened during our drive to Perry. Perry, oh how I love you. The cute little town is 27 miles away, which always has some kind of community event. Tonight was a showing of Space Jam in the park. We parked in a gravel lot, pulled out our Tommy Bahama chairs, a quilt, the unicorn sleeping bag, and snacks. Walking past the giant bounce houses, Evelyn stared at them with longing, but we kept marching toward a spot in the middle of the lawn.
Me, ever the event-planner wannabe, noticed how the headlights from a traffic light behind the inflatable movie screen dimmed the picture. I wanted to scoot it three car lengths to the left—better angle, fewer distractions, and less glare from the gas station. But, oh well. Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, aliens—my eyes didn’t seem to care. Somewhere halfway through the movie, the comfort of the seventy-degree night air rocked me to sleep.
Gotta get going. Thanks for popping by.
Love,
Jaclynn
Going On 40 