Carino: Baguio Connections 108: Sunlight and shadow

LAST week, about watching exceptional leaders.

This week, about watching sunlight and shadow in the front yard.

For maybe two (or three) days last week, something moved.

I noticed because in these days of Covid-19, yours truly makes a point to sun-dry stuff in the front yard. I.e., boxes, bags and containers of all sorts—before they can enter the house. This because of the suggestion that the virus we currently battle dies in some five minutes of sunlight. Yeah, watch that US White House report on best practices.

So I know where the sunlight falls in the yard, mainly on all of it except the sidewalk just beside the house. Because the sidewalk is already in the shadow of the house, as always.

Okay, so last week, am sun-drying stuff and attending to the laundry at the same time—seeing to it that all things sunbathing get the best of the sunlight—when I notice that the shadow cast by the house falls far into the yard, not the shadow’s usual line. Ergo, laundress and I must move one clothesline of laundry back, so that the clothes dry in the sun.

I must likewise move all of these washed plastic bags deeper into the yard for the same reason. At the same time, I’m mentioning the change of shadow line to the laundress, who says yes, the direction of the “sun’s route” has changed.

But we all know that the sun is stationary, don’t we? Or maybe we don’t.

Still, I figure that with the seasons, and all of the reported North pole-shifting, the earth moved. Uhm, nothing to do with the song. And we proceed to forget about it. So, the earth moved? Perhaps.

Science writer Erick Mack writes in forbes.com on May 7, 2020 that the magnetic north pole was in the Canadian Arctic at the turn of the 20th century and that said pole spent the next century meandering about ten degrees to the north, moving ever closer to the so-called true North Pole. Mack reports that in about 2001, the movement began to accelerate, and that by 2019, “magnetic north had actually moved all the way north, crossed the International Date Line and began traveling south on the other side of the globe toward Siberia.”

So maybe the play of light and shadow in the yard was related to some magnetic north pole movement.

Thing is, this week, light and shadow in the yard have reverted back to their positions as of previous to last week. I.e., back to normal.

Yeah, so maybe it was the house that moved last week and got back into position this week. Smiley.

Of course, there’s some geological explanation for that strange light and shadow shifting and back. While I go in search of the how and why, let’s stay safe, everyone.