{"id":36351,"date":"2026-03-21T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=36351"},"modified":"2026-03-20T20:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:31:57","slug":"vernal-equinox-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/vernal-equinox-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Vernal Equinox 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

According to Grok the vernal equinox occurred on Friday, March 20, 2026, at 10:46 a.m. EDT.\u00a0 At that time Camera Girl and I were probably in Walmart buying eggs, coffee and chop meat.\u00a0 When we got to the register the cashier was this friendly talkative old lady who wanted to tell us that if we took out one of our eggs, we could balance it on its end.\u00a0 She explained that it was because of \u201cthe e-quick.\u201d\u00a0 Well, she was a very nice lady so I smiled and said, \u201cThat\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason I was along on this expedition was because Camera Girl\u2019s twenty-year-old ride (Nelly) was in the shop and the surgeon wasn\u2019t too sanguine on Nelly\u2019s future.\u00a0 The brake lines were leaking but when Dr. Steve put her up on the lift, he found metastatic rust throughout the length and breadth of poor Nelly.\u00a0 Camera Girl was devastated and so was my bank account.\u00a0 The surgeon asked if a mercy-killing wasn\u2019t the best option but as a devout \u201cright to lifer\u201d I said, \u201cNo!!!!\u201d\u00a0 So, Dr. Steve left me with the sad news and said it would take a few days to get the parts and finish the work.<\/p>\n

But when we got home slightly after the equinox, there was a message from Dr. Steve saying we could bring the patient home.\u00a0 We rushed to find Nelly looking alive and well.\u00a0 Dr. Steve said it was \u201ca miracle.\u201d\u00a0 Nelly wasn\u2019t as far gone as he had initially thought.\u00a0 And equally importantly it hadn\u2019t cost as much as I had feared.\u00a0 So, Camera Girl and Nelly were reunited.\u00a0 They drove home together and later on I celebrated this Equinox Miracle with a bowl of vanilla ice cream.<\/p>\n

But the larger lesson I\u2019ve learned is that nothing lasts forever.\u00a0 Not even blue Toyota Corollas.\u00a0 The power of New England winter road salt is existential.\u00a0 The body of a car may look pristine with a bright paint job and a functional cd player in the dash board.\u00a0 But the mortality that follows from chloride corrosion cracking is as final and fatal as death itself.\u00a0 Nelly has served us faithfully and well.\u00a0 And generations of our dogs have had their own blankets on the back seats that they relax on during trips to the vet\u2019s office and the nail clipping place.\u00a0 And decades of grandkids have sat in the back seat elbowing each other and complaining about how cramped they are.\u00a0 But very soon all this will be disrupted.\u00a0 They will notice that Camera Girl\u2019s old car is no more.\u00a0 And she is very sad about the whole thing.\u00a0 I am too!\u00a0 I have to buy another car.<\/p>\n

Well, never look a gift horse in the mouth.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been given a reprieve and I\u2019ll start figuring out what Nelly II will be.\u00a0 And it turned out to be a nice day walking between stores and parking lots and I even had a nice review for my book on Amazon and some more sales.\u00a0 So, all in all it wasn\u2019t a bad e-quick as e-quicks go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  According to Grok the vernal equinox occurred on Friday, March 20, 2026, at 10:46 a.m. EDT.\u00a0 At that time Camera Girl and I were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263],"tags":[5165,5166,4754,5164],"class_list":["post-36351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-cars","tag-equinox","tag-life","tag-road-salt"],"yoast_head":"\nVernal Equinox 2026 - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/vernal-equinox-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vernal Equinox 2026 - 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