The Skyscape as a metaphor for Impermanence

The only thing preditable about weather, as revealed by changes in the sky, especially the cloud formation, is its unpreditability. Whimsical, capricious, thy name is weather. In a way, these are all manifestations of impermanence, the Buddhist worldview of the material world. Somewhat paradoxically, recognizing this phenomenon is essential to attaining mindfulness, a state of mind that does not revolve with the external environments.

Let's then see the following images of vagarious sky taken from my personal image library for what that are, just observe and let them pass.

Looks like fire in the sky, exuding smoke from a location just about the street light and forming an expanding blanket that rolls across the sky toward the left.

A mushroom-top cloud formation, but with much less ill-portent than one that heralds a pending nuclear winter, sitting on top a billboard that warns of, of all things, when the weather turns bad.

A two-in-one collage of the same piece of sky as viewed from the Keys Hall at UF, but at different times that truly exemplifies the whimsical sky.

A big blob of cloud now overshadows the same grandstand as the image above.

A prototypical silver lining, with beams of light struggling to break through the tenacious dark clouds.

Sky in the water, reflection that is.

We often see these pinkish clouds in the evening near our place.

A cotton field in the sky.

A dragon on land, rather than up in the sky, twisting its serpentine form and chasing after the proverbial pearl seen at Fo Guang Shan Temple, Orlando at the occasion of this year's Buddha's Birthday celebration.

Birds scurrying away in disarray from the tree canopy, perhaps sensing something amiss. Animal instincts fare better than human instincts in warning of impending danger.

A rare treat of a double rainbow arching across our piece of sky seen from our apartment.

A hind view of a airplane seemingly flying into the cloud ahead as seen from the ground of Fo Guang Shan Temple, Orlando, the green tent roofs being part of the setup in commemoration of Buddha's Birthday held on 11 May, 2009.

A New Lease of Life, the Fickled-Minded, and the Discerning

I have a new work station, yet not costing me an arm and a leg, but just by rearranging things around and resurrecting things kept away for good, and so I thought. We used to have a Compaq Presario that was retired last year because it was acting up, rebooting by itself at the most inconvenient of time, causing grief in the process. Then recently we bought a 28" LCD Monitor, the largest of its kind as far as I know, of I-INC make, from CompUSA shortly after we upgraded our cable TV service to HDTV, ostensibly to be used as a HDTV (our present one is an analog make but still working fine). However, it can also double as a computer monitor, if only I had an extra computer to hook up to. And buying a new desktop seems redundant (though I'm sharing one with Wify).

So I ferreted out that retired computer, thinking perhaps a more than one year hibernation would have kept it even-tempered by now. So it was back to the living room, and it has not yet missed a beat since it launched its second life, much to my joy. So there it is, my new workstation entirely to myself, and since we have a 4-way router, my own internet connection as well (leaving the other three nodes for Wify, WT and CE). One happy surfing family.

The printer under the table is still unpacked, awaiting WT's deft hands for hook-up.

This is the very first blog done using the newly reinstated computer, and the display is huge, though glaring a bit.

Lately, the weather has gone a bit crazy, alternating between cold and crisp, warm and rainy, and foggy like a white veil draping from sky to ground. I would let the pictures speak for themselves, taken at different times.

This was taken outside WT's dorm when we went to pick him up for the Thanksgiving holidays during one evening on the last week of Nov. Everything was clear and crisp.

This was when we sent WT back after the Thanksgiving holidays several days later. It was raining cats and dogs. The torrents only relented when we reached Gainesville. The "watery" view is not a camara trick. I was just shooting from inside of our van, through the rivulets-filled front screen.

The same view, but after the wiper had done its job, rather admirably.

Same place, but taken this Thursday, when we picked up WT again at the end of his fall semester, thickly shrouded in mist. This was at about 8.45am, the sun still failing to shine through, lending an eeric feel to the scene.

Closer to home, this morning at about 9am. I saw a patch of white through the kitchen window, and decided to test the visibility level. It's bad, I'm supposed to see the traffic light further down the road. The car seemed to be heading toward a big void.

The Sun Dome of USF normally visible behind these trees, at least its top, is entirely white-outed.

Taken this Thursday enroute home from Gainesville, just further down the road from UF. I guess this would only happen in Gator Country, foretelling the outcome of the National Collegiate Football Championship Game between the Gators and the Sooners of U. Oklahoma to be played in Miami on January 8, 2008. But shouldn't it be "LOSES THE BATTLE ...", a case of homonymic misidentity? Then Wify came up with a fresh perspective. The "SOONER" is actually used in the comparative sense, leaving "OKLAHOMA" to represent the Sooners. And suddenly the whole things makes sense to me. And I had a jaw-drop moment. Me and my analytical mind, and yet I missed the missing s ... Or when you don't see, you just don't see.