The Earth Turns ...

  Consider this picture ...

And now go back a year (12/23/21) when I was walking along this same path and at a similar time. Click here for that view.

Though the date of the picture  above  (12/01/22) was taken over three weeks earlier, the time was almost certainly different. And my location in the lane certainly  varied. On the 23rd, I can guarantee  the picture will be the same as the one I took a year ago.

 In a year the Earth travels 584 million miles in its orbit around the sun. And every year it arrives  at about the same spot on the same day at the same time. And yet that is not quite right because the actual orbit takes a little more than a year. The time required is 365 days 5 hours 59 minutes 16 seconds.

 Thus the leap year is born to bring the calendar in line every four years.

 But it always amazes me that things are relatively close and that I can count on what will happen in a year  or what  happened ten years ago. We are living in a very orderly universe. We can count on celestial matters.