Watching meteors

When we were kids, Dad would take us out to the country place (where we now live) to lie out under the stars to watch the Perseids. Forty-five years he's been gone. I sure miss him.

I did the same with my kids, after we abandoned the orange glow of Windy City; but not since they growed up. We do have a pretty good viewing spot, but, not as dark as it was fifty years ago. The neighbor across the road with the giant spotlight on his roof? If shooting it weren't immoral, I'd... think more about it.

Several years ago, I remember the winter storm (Leonids?) was impressive, they were coming down so bright and heavy, not those tiny "was that one?" peripherally-seen scratches. I didn't want to go to bed, but it was cold and I had to anyway. During the night, there came a blast of light so bright that it actually woke me up, inside, in bed, on the other side of the curtains, and I had my eyes open in time to see the light fading. Now that was a showy year. Stop me if you'd heard that one.

Thanks for the reminder, CAC. Now if the clouds will cooperate, and all this rain we've had doesn't rise up and cloud the night sky....