Hey Grovers! Did you get to see the transit of Venus? Well, not directly, I hope. I hope you took the necessary precautions and didn’t look directly at the Sun. Anyway, I hope you got to see it. Once in a lifetime event and all…unless you’re immortal and will be around for the next one in 2117. I on the other hand, being in exile here in South Florida, was foiled, once again, by the weather. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda…weather down here is not always sunny skies and girls in bikinis or guys in speedos working on their skin cancer…uh, I mean, tans…no, when it comes to anything happening above the clouds, astronomically, the weather plots against me and either rains or is overcast.

There I was, all set up with a poster board and my binoculars, as well as a pinhole projector waiting for the day to roll on up, not paying attention to the weather forecast saying 60% chance of storms as the weather forecasts are sketchy at best. I think one of the ingredients of those weather models on the computer is voodoo, after all, so I take them with a grain of salt…which was a mistake, because I should have learned by now, when it comes to astronomical events, especially rare, once in a lifetime ones, those models have always been spot on. Meteor shower? Rain. Eclipse? Thick clouds. Alien landing? Hurricane.

Once again weather of South Florida, you conspired against me and I had to watch the transit of Venus on NASA TV…just like the last ever shuttle launch (which every other one was visible just by looking out my front window).

Now, I shouldn’t get my hopes up but, in 2045, when I’ll be 78 going on 79, there’s going to be a total solar eclipse, right over South Florida, which I should be able to watch simply by stepping out into my front yard. I know you’re planning to rain South Florida weather…I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll bet my last nickel in the bank I have right now on it.