Missed the lunar eclipse, though I saw the one in the spring. Quite an odd thing, to suddenly see the Moon as a globe, another world, instead of simply a shiny silver-white disk in the sky.

Have heard on various radio shows lately that the current sociological trend is single people. Meaning, paradoxically, that I am not alone in being alone.

Why this is happening? A variety of reasons, I suspect. The necessity of getting a college degree in order to get a decent job, and it's far easier to do so without the burdens of relationship, marriage and the upkeep and expense of a household. I think people (especially women) are realizing they don't have to get married to have a life. Why put up with a guy who will ignore you unless he wants sex and spends the rent money on toys without telling you, when you can get along perfectly well on your own? Why have kids you'll be saddled with for twenty years when you can get a dog that if worse comes to worst you can give to a friend? In this day and age there's no incentive to have a family, despite all the harping on "family values".

In this day of perpetual war against a perpetual enemy, I'd even advise against having kids. I myself would not have a child simply to support the "war on terrorism" when he/she is drafted into the Army. I'd want my kids to go to Mars, not some godforsaken corner of the world where they'll be picked off by some twelve-year-old with an RPG.