an early morning shower

I got up at 4:10 EST to see the Leonid meteor shower. I was tired but I hear that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I had to give it a shot. I went out to the deck at first and I saw a few, and decided I could see more of the sky from the front of the house. So I got me a chair and recline as close to parallel to the ground as I could get, trying to fit as much of the sky as I could into my wide eyed stargazing. The meteors were of the blink-and-you-miss-it variety except for the few I saw whose remants lingered for a few seconds. Those things were moving fast. Like if one was coming towards you, there was no dodging it.

I hadn’t looked skyward in awe like since I was a teenager. I saw both dippers, Casseopiea, and I think Orion. My eyes were tearing from trying not to blink. I wondered how long those particles had been moving around in space then making their final appearance in our atmosphere. I also thought about the science of astronomy and how amazing that we’re able to predict when we’ll be able to witness such events.

I estimate that I had seen about 50 of these streaks of light before I heard branches breaking in the blair-witch-looking-woods next to the house, coming in my direction, and a sound from a creature I could not identify and wished not to. and that was that.