Saturday, February 10, 2007

My Dog Days

My Dog Days have begun.

I waited for a french bulldog puppy this friend of mine had promised in October. December 25, I teared up like a child knowing I'd never have that puppy. I feel foolish thinking about it now. I texted everyone that I was going to get a dog, that it was just a matter of time. I believed. I hoped. The eight year old in me smiled and waited. Life stopped, waiting for this dog. Nobody really knew how important he was going to be in my life. He was the way into something else. Something Else. I visited websites. I surveyed vets. I made a puppy budget in my head.

Last saturday, I had a two dog weekend. I gave this little informal lecture at Silver Lens and was entertained immensely by a yorkie named Tiger. Then, in this 1930's aparment in Malate, Bogart, a terrier walked among the bohemian drawl. He picked up peanut shells tenderly from the narra floor. I put my hand around his heaving little sausage body and was quiet. Quiet like I had been Before Everything Began.

I've decided to take matters into my own hands. I will save up and buy this soul dog. I'm thinking of getting a french bulldog or a cocker spaniel.

Googled, what are dog days and got this answer:

The Dog Days of Summer

Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines “dog days” as...
1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere
2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity

But where does the term come from? Why do we call the hot, sultry days of summer “dog days?”

In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.

They saw images of bears, (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), twins, (Gemini), a bull, (Taurus), and others, including dogs, (Canis Major and Canis Minor).

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, dog days occur during the period between July 3 and August 11. Although it is certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat is not due to the added radiation from a far-away star, regardless of its brightness. No, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt.

Copyright © 1999, 2000 by Jerry Wilson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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