Juxtaposition

When I went to bed last night I knew the moon would be precisely full just after 1 a.m. west coast time. 

Autosuggestion can be powerful, I woke up with the bright white orb hanging high over San Francisco casting a bright white spot across the floor below my west facing windows. I stood in the cold glow and let my mind wander - all the light of the moon is reflected. Unlike the sun, the moon is cold with no thermal activity, it sheds no light of its own. I didn't bother with my glasses, I just stood in the light. Eventually a chill set in and I crawled back under the covers.

Something woke me just after five. By then the moon was low on the horizon and my entire bed was flooded with white light. I stepped to the windows again and noticed the moon had begun to take on an orange hue as it set into the marine layer. There were nearby clouds drifting from the north, wait that might be steam from that plant near the bay or smoke - what the hell!

I went to retrieve my glasses because there were flames. Yep that building was on fire! Just then the engine sirens started up from the firehouse down on Shattuck. That building was only a couple of blocks from where I stood and those flames were really starting to build. Soon the television copters arrived and the early morning news shows reported a six unit apartment building was fully involved.

As I watched the morning brighten into dawn, the orange moon set slowly into the Marin headlands across the Bay through the morning mist rising off the sun warmed water and the billowing smoke from the nearby apartment fire.

More juxtaposition tomorrow.