Moony March 2, 2010

The gibbous moon was still visible in the western sky when I got out the door this morning, even though the sun had not crested the tree tops. Gibbous comes from a Greek word that means "hump." (I'm not kidding about this one.) The term is used to describe a phase in which the moon is more than half full, but not completely so. Its yellow color, against the electric blue backdrop, was very pretty. It was, in short, a pretty humpy, yellow moon.

As my posture is somewhat stooped, pronounced like "stupid," when running, you might say that I am a gibbous runner. Hopefully, when saying that, they don't mean that I am a gibbon, who happens to be running. It would be wildly unusual to see a gibbon running on the streets in this part of the world, as they are native to south Asia, and are tree dwellers. I would also be pretty darn big for a gibbon.

I also hope these same hypercritically posture postulators are not mistaking me for a griffon, a mythical hybrid, which was said to have the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion. If such a creature were seen running through the streets of Overland Park, it would probably be on all fours, which I would not be able to sustain for very long.

I am sometimes mistaken for Garry Gribble, who is an actual creature. He is, in fact, the owner of the store where I work. He is not arboreal, or south Asian, so it would not be unusual to see him running the streets. The mixups, though, usually occur at the store, when a salesperson is in on a cold-call. They will ask Garry if the owner is in, and he will point wordlessly in my direction.

This morning's lunar display faded, as the sun rose ever higher. Fortunately, it was not gibbous, as that would indicate that part of it was missing, perhaps having prematurely begun to implode. I'm not an astrophysicist, but I have a feeling that would be bad. Rather, it was orbicular, or round. The only part of my body that fits that description, would be my head. So round, actually, that there is absolutely no way to rest anything on it for more than a second. My head is also unlike our sun in that it generates no light of its own. But it does shine quite brightly when light is cast through it, or on it. Kind of like the moon.

Thanks for reading.