Ok, so my sister-in-law actually dragged her family outside to try to see Mars tonight. So what you might ask? Well, you see, she was looking for Mars because according to “google”, Mars was going to be closer than the Moon tonight. Yes, she actually fell for the rumor that’s twisted out of real facts, that has been circulating the internet for years. In 2003, Mars was closer to Earth than it had been in thousands of years. That still means way the hell out there where Mars belongs, not closer than the Moon. The clincher for me, was that she was looking AT the Moon, as if Mars was going to cruise on by between the Moon and Earth, not just inside its orbit path. Never mind that the Moon is in Aquarius and Mars is in Gemini. She’s gonna have an awfully long wait. Oh and never mind gravity and oh just never mind. It’s too funny. “Mommy, why are we staring at the Moon?” I’m SO tempted to tell her to look at the Moon for Mars tomorrow night. She’d probably freak the hell out thinking Mars was causing the eclipse. 

White Man in a hole

While telling me about her newly planned trip to Australia next year for Christmas, my best friend explained that she really wanted to go to a place called Coober Pedy, but wasn’t sure how she would convince her husband and in-laws to make that side-trip. You see, the temperature in Coober Pedy reaches 150, and they would be travelling during Australia’s summer. Why in the world does she want to visit this god-forsaken place that is so desolate that they filmed Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? Because it’s known for it’s opals. Coober Pedy translates to “white man in a hole”. Most people there live underground. Even the Comfort Inn is underground. 

During her research, my friend found a video with a local (tour guide?) telling a group of tourists not to go wandering around at night. The place has something like 400 million HOLES. Opal hunters have dug holes as far as the eye can see. And apparantly if you’re dumb enough to go wandering around, you’re probably going to end up falling in a hole, and nobody’s going to hear you because nobody else is dumb enough to be out there. We wondered how many bones are at the bottoms of all those holes, and I questioned the true meaning of “white man in a hole”. Maybe that’s just what they tell tourists. Maybe it’s real meaning is “dumb white man in a hole”.

While looking for a picture to show you of all the holes, I ran across travel info and it seems Coober Pedy has a 18-hole golf course. I’ll quote from this site. 

The 18 hole golf course, on the edge of town, is most strange. There is no grass, no sand pits, no water – just great expanses of gravel and dirt. You can rent a piece of astro turf from which to T-off. There are no golf carts and if any cars or mining vehicles drive through, they have the right of way. The golfers have to use florescent balls because they can’t see the white ones and the bearded dragons (a big lizard) think that they are eggs and will carry them away and bury them.

By the way, that “green”? That’s a mixture of sand and motor oil. 

No Props…

**takes her little swatch of astro-turf, day-glo golf balls and telescope and heads out for the day… avoiding jet-skis at all costs**