Lurking for over a year before joining... And I thought my about three months were a long period of silent lurking...

Well, for an astronomer a year could be also a short time. Interestingly enough, in astronomy there must be events that are really fast and over in seconds, while there are a lot more things that won't significantly change in millions of years. And living in the frozen, northern wastelands probably only enhances the feeling that little changes in a year...