...the moon's light on the white desert sand...

It was 109 today and the relief of night was anti-climatic, 98: this is Cathedral City.

The moon bragged of its brightness and did so by blotting out the stars in the sky with its own selfish aura.  The only constellation I can gather by what little stars were visible, is what is known in Asia as the 'Seven Stars of the Northern Ladle'.  I find it much more romantic than what it is commonly called here.  The other stars that are making its light known are mostly twinkling in the red spectrum.  There is simply too much haze in the air today.  The Seven Stars of the Northern Ladle look much closer here in Palm Springs than back home.  [I math check my perception and it is simply closer this time of year.]

Pictures of the moon.  I finally grappled enough of the Lumix to get what I need out of it.  Shutter priority in some cases to get the night shots much more in line with what I expect.  The other is to use the self-timer to avoid the natural shakiness that is prone to the light bodies of today's camera.

As I walked around the Holiday Inn, I found a fence in which to use as a brace for the shots.  A small brown rabbit, no bigger than my cupped hands together, was startled and ran toward the edge of the little spit of grass that was planted on the outskirts of the pool.  I can see its white tail illumined by the moon's light.

I took a few shots with the standard settings and all had little definition: just a bright orb, like an unthrilling, malshaped light bulb.  But then I switched over to shutter priority and moved the dial to 1/100.  That gave me the familiar pattern of the moon, with detail to prove it out.  Luckily there was enough light, or else it would have stepped down too far and I would have gotten nothing.

I jumped in the kidney shaped pool after I was satisfied with the shots.  Three jets pushed out from its outer edge into the middle.  A few underwater breaststrokes and a few above-water crawls.  I went under the water for as long as I could, easily going over a minute.  A group of teens were throwing a ball around, making as much use of the time as they could.  Mine were screaming and splashing one another in the face.

The real refresher was the shower.  It had the coolest water of the day.  It only spurted out a light, but wide, cone of water, with little pressure, but it was cooling.  I stared at my hands, which reflected the moonlight.  I did as I would as I was little: fill them up and stare at the moonlight within it.  I watched as it fell so close to the hungry, parched earth just two feet from me: little grew around it.  The sand did not sparkle, the light was too dim.  There was a dull beauty to the thousands of them reflecting back the glow on the white sand.

My eyes mingled the light from the water droplets and those of the sand, a second or two of diamonds in my view.

There is a wide gully that connects the Cathedral Canyon Country Club with the Morningside Country Club.  It runs into white desert sand right outside the pool's gate.  The gate is the marker between the wilds of the night and the cut grass functionary of the hotel.  I stand almost naked under the shower looking out, wondering what the rabbit thought of me.  A wet soul shimmering, his darkened eyes looking blankly toward the light sand.

Described Gully Cathedral City and Palm Springs 2014