There's a full moon tonight, one minute after perigee. Check it out just after sunset (8:34 p.m. Pacific time, to be precise), looking east (as if you could miss it). For once, the weather here is predicted to be clear and dry, so I'm expecting that we will have a fine view of it.

I'm supposed to be at a Vegetarian Dining Club pot luck at that time, and I will invite everyone to step outside with me and look for flying pizza pies (remember Dean Martin's song?). And admire the full moon, close to the earth, so close that it seems we could reach out and touch it.

For those of us who followed the space program in the 60's and after, we expected that we'd have human settlements on the moon by now, and be on our way to Mars. Instead, we've pulled back into our own shell, turtle-wise.

I used to think, when I was young, that if they asked for volunteers to go and settle in a Moon or Mars camp, I'd be the first in line. I went to India, instead, which was enough different to satisfy my wanderlust for a while.

Still, when I look at the full moon, I dream dreams, where once I saw visions.