________  ________  ________
   2025-06-01                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   getting this  one in early and  I've been  /        _/         /         /
on the fence about  writing it; I think it's  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
fun and  cute but given the  current climate    /        \/        \/    /   \
in the world -  literally and figuratively -   /        _/         /_       _/
I think it could easily be misinterpreted as  /-        /        _/         /
a cynical doompost, especially with my habit  \________/\________/\___/____/
of writing  files that  are mired  in double
meaning.

   one of the few fond memories I have for the brief time my biological father
was in my life was seeing Halley's Comet on its approach in 1986 - we stood in
the back yard  and used a powerful  home-made telescope, he rigged  film and a
closed circuit video  camera to capture the moment. I  was deep into astronomy
even back  then. I would  have been  7. my mother  still has photos  from then
stashed somewhere but she's a boomer, a narcissist and a hoarder so my chances
of getting a copy of them is  pretty slim, short of raiding her storage locker
when she's not around.

   the end of that year we moved on to a new adventure in the desert[1] and my
life changed dramatically, then continued to change year upon year, but that's
a memory I still hold very  dearly despite everything that's transpired since.
I don't harbor any animosity towards my dad, I just have no room for him in my
life and know he  has very little interest in anyone's life  but his own. I've
written about him before, very early on in FAX SEX history[2].

   Halley's Comet returns to whip around our sun around the middle of 2061 and
I'd like you to  join me to witness that event. there's no  way to plan in any
detail, the event is still decades away but here's what I know so far;

   •    it'll be held in the  Australian outback, probably somewhere nearby
     to Woomera  so we  can use  that town as  a base,  should it  still be
     there. if Woomera is gone by  then then maybe Roxby Downs or somewhere
     similar.

   •    it'll be BYO  everything, I hope to  have a van kitted  out for the
     nomadic  lifestyle I  hope to  live in  my retirement  but I  won't be
     providing anything but  a time and a place for  now. that might change
     down the track  but that's all I  can be sure of for  now. Woomera has
     great facilities  for tourists but  depending on how many  people come
     and what the state of the town is  by then you can't count on that. at
     the very least you'll need your own astronomy gear and transport.

   •    it'll be somewhere around the end of  July in 2061 - that should be
     when the comet is  at it's closest to our sun, this  visit we have the
     luxury of the comet  spending a lot of time between us  and the sun so
     if the weather is clear the  visibility should be really good from the
     deep, dark desert.

   •    I'll make space on baud.baby to keep track of whatever details come
     together as they  come together, including a list of  RSVPs should you
     want to. you aren't beholden to anything, it's impossible to commit to
     anything like this with certainty, but it'd certainly make me happy to
     have a list of people who are at least thinking about it and have slow
     gears turning.

   that's about as much as  I can say for now as it's a  long long way off but
I'm excited. so much can happen between  now and then and our world feels deep
in flux  at the moment but  I'm ever the optimist  so I'm sure we'll  still be
around and things  will have settled down by then.  if something should happen
to me, as is easily possible in such  a long timeframe, I hope this event will
have  built up  enough of  a head  of steam,  albeit slowly,  that it  happens
regardless and should  I not be able  to attend in person, people  I know will
attend regardless and carry my memory with them in doing so.

   I'll be 82 that year, going on 83 and  I hope to see you there in the quiet
outback of my youth to witness something  incredible and dear to me, that most
people will only have the honor of seeing once in their lifetime.


[1] gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20190906-the-apocrypha-of-cat-the-desert
[2] gopher://baud.baby/0/phlog/fs20170619.txt



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