Equinox Blues
Wikipedia defines an equinox as the moment when the sun is located right over the equator. Put another way, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the center of the sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location. This occurs twice a year around March 20 and September 23 or this coming Saturday. The fall equinox marks the changing of the seasons and slow “chill down” to winter.
While I love the fall, it’s my favorite time of year with the leaves changing and its wonderful colors, I did discover several years ago a peculiar equinox effect. It began with a nagging little pain in my left shoulder and then it would move to my elbow. I did not think much of it at first because I broke my left arm very seriously when I was a toddler. As a result my elbow has been reconstructed in an unorthodox fashion; the nerve is exposed. Brings new meaning to bumping your funny bone or should I say “cussing bone”. Curiously enough the pain in the shoulder and elbow disappeared after several weeks. Of course it came back at the end of every September.
Then I noticed that the end of September was a time of extreme moodiness for this earthling. I mean sometimes I would almost feel depressed for no reason at all. Nothing seemed to satisfy me and I was stuck in a blue funk.
After autumn was in full swing and all the trees were turning brilliant reds and yellows, my arm would quit hurting and once again I was smiling. I had some dealings with nature and knew about the equinox. I had even read that you can stand an egg on end during the fall equinox. I tried it one time at school and it worked. (mjd seems to imply that this is not real science, yet has not related that eggs can stand on end at other times of the year.) So I theorized that if the equinox could have an effect like standing an egg on end and changing the seasons then maybe it could have an effect on me. One problem, I didn’t have the same trouble with the spring equinox – no aching arm or moodiness at all.
So now I just describe it as the Equinox Blues. I accept that it will pass and I will be my old chipper self in a matter of weeks. I trust that it will not happen in the spring or any other time during the year. I even chose to write a song about it. Of course I managed to loose the lyrics once my arm quit hurting and my mood got better. But, I always remember the chorus:
I got the Equinox Blues
My eggs are standing on end
I got the Equinox Blues
When will it end?
--Willi
While I love the fall, it’s my favorite time of year with the leaves changing and its wonderful colors, I did discover several years ago a peculiar equinox effect. It began with a nagging little pain in my left shoulder and then it would move to my elbow. I did not think much of it at first because I broke my left arm very seriously when I was a toddler. As a result my elbow has been reconstructed in an unorthodox fashion; the nerve is exposed. Brings new meaning to bumping your funny bone or should I say “cussing bone”. Curiously enough the pain in the shoulder and elbow disappeared after several weeks. Of course it came back at the end of every September.
Then I noticed that the end of September was a time of extreme moodiness for this earthling. I mean sometimes I would almost feel depressed for no reason at all. Nothing seemed to satisfy me and I was stuck in a blue funk.
After autumn was in full swing and all the trees were turning brilliant reds and yellows, my arm would quit hurting and once again I was smiling. I had some dealings with nature and knew about the equinox. I had even read that you can stand an egg on end during the fall equinox. I tried it one time at school and it worked. (mjd seems to imply that this is not real science, yet has not related that eggs can stand on end at other times of the year.) So I theorized that if the equinox could have an effect like standing an egg on end and changing the seasons then maybe it could have an effect on me. One problem, I didn’t have the same trouble with the spring equinox – no aching arm or moodiness at all.
So now I just describe it as the Equinox Blues. I accept that it will pass and I will be my old chipper self in a matter of weeks. I trust that it will not happen in the spring or any other time during the year. I even chose to write a song about it. Of course I managed to loose the lyrics once my arm quit hurting and my mood got better. But, I always remember the chorus:
I got the Equinox Blues
My eggs are standing on end
I got the Equinox Blues
When will it end?
--Willi
posted by willi at 8:31 PM
9 Comments:
Maybe it only happens during the fall equinox because of the shorter darker days and the colder weather. And the holidays coming at us a like a freight train.
Did mom tell you about the time she came home from work to find me on the front porch with a dozen and a half eggs standing on end? This was in, oh, maybe 1998?
When I was teaching, we would always stand those eggs on end in the spring and fall. Someone said they would do that everyday of the year, but I've not tried it. Thanks for visiting yesterday. I think I successfully linked you in my post today.
Well I'm sure glad we found a name and reason for it! Sheesh. That blue funk is the pits. The good news is, it doesn't last very long.
Oh, and I have to say that trying to stand eggs on end is sure not as messy as trying to toss them around with a metal spatula like the chefs at House of Kobe. But that's my guy!
Fall is a time of change. The Sun is right there straight East and West along good old 330 or 73rd.
It really lines up.
Sorry about the elbow hurting. It must be due to the change in pressure. That is to say, force per area. Since the elbow area is not changing, the force of the air pushing must change. Either change would cause of feeling difference.
I know I can catch that egg on a spatula like the House of Kobe dude. I just need more practice. Maybe four dozen more eggs of practice.
Eeew, what a mess that would make, 48 eggs dropped kerplop.
I think that even if we know otherwise; we want to believe that an egg will balance only on the Equinox due to some mysterious alignment of nature's forces. This summer I heard during a storm lightening will visibly turn the grass greener due to the increase in nitrogen from the lightening. Somehow we find comfort in knowing the "secrets" of the universe. Balancing an egg on any day is a neat trick. The fact that the grass is green is a wonderful phenomenon whatever the cause.
I hope that this fall is pain-free and free from any Equinox blues. Take care.
Last year, on one of the last days of school, my students were given eggs to balance. Every single egg balanced on that fine day in June.
Well Willi,
This is it; the official day of the Equinox. It is officially fall today. I am with saz how about a video of you playing your Gibson and singing the Equinox Blues?
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