There was a sort of meteor shower that was maybe suppose to happen tonight. Or not. Even the scientists said "could be great or could be nothing." But since it wasn't in the middle of the night, like most meteor showers, it seemed easy enough to go outside to check it out. However, the perils that exist in the dark, outside, for a north-of-middle-age person are huge!
First, of course, is the darkness. To see stuff in the sky it must be dark so all outside lights are off, except for one's flashlight. OK, that's all good. The flashlight will illuminate the path to the patio and the patio chairs. Cool. Find those, sit down. Then get back up and move the chair to see the best open area of the sky. Then move the chair a little more to escape the ambient light from the landlord's house. All good. I sit there in shorts and a t-shirt for ten minutes and realize two things: 1) I have no idea if the meteors are in the north, south, east, west and 2) I am chilly. Flashlight back on, back inside. Sweatshirt on, pajama bottoms on and since I am outside, in the elements, I get an ounce of cognac to fortify me against those elements.
Back outside in aforementioned chair. Sip cognac, don't really care about the direction of the meteors because there is just one area of sky that is dark and clear. I wait. I see a shooting star! Is it the start of a meteor shower? Hmm.... if so, it's a very low flow of a shower. Five minutes go by and I see another shooting star. My neck hurts from looking up but it is so lovely outside that I don't mind. It's quiet and not cold and medium dark and crickets are chirping away. Wait! Another shooting star! It's not a meteor shower but three stars in 15 minutes is okay.
Now my neck is getting crinky. I lower my head and just roll my eyes up, like the saints on those holy cards we got as kids. St. Catherine or St. Ashley or St. Bonnie.... they all had little scarves draped around their heads and their eyes were rolling up, looking for.... meteors? Jesus? Spiders? One can't really know. But my eyes did that roll thing for a few minutes until I realized that this meteor shower, for this night, was not happening.
But it was fine. I saw three shooting stars and was happy to be outside for a bit in the dark. Of course, when I came back inside I couldn't find my phone or my glasses. Because they were outside in the dark! HA! Took my flashlight and me a while to figure that out but all's well that ends well.
There's another chance to see stars falling (aka meteors) in August. Hopefully they will not be falling in the wee hours of the morning and will do their dance before midnight. We'll see. In the meantime, I suggest that on a nice evening, when the temps are mild and the skies clear, take a flashlight and find a chair, take a little libation, sit outside in the dark and look at the sky. Enjoy being outside safely and without any real purpose. Ponder the universe. Remark on the clarity of the stars and the planets and watch and wonder: what's going on out there?
