I find myself wandering up the leafless mountainside, wrapped in the dark of winters night. I'm hoping for a break in the cloud cover and snow showers. The Geminids are always my favorite.. they fill the air with as many as 100 shooting stars per hour! That's a lot of wishes!
It's a bit after 3.00am... what am I thinking??
There is a new dusting of snow swirling around my feet as I pick my way around the rocks, my headlamp all the brighter by the ice-filled air's reflection.
The wind is sturdy.. the temperature before leaving the house was a bit south of 12.. and still heading down .
The anticipation grows as I think back to all the past meteor showers..so many!
.. being all snuggled down in sleeping bags with my family all around, keeping our field of vision as broad as possible to not miss a single flash; driving down a mountain road and pulling off to the side so as to view the show without driving off a cliff; night hiking in a high meadow in West Virginia with folks who had NEVER seen a shooting star (!)
... and then sitting on a bluff above Maine tidewater with friends, watching the always- good, Perseids..
In a really good meteor shower, there comes a point where, after a few good wishes you run out of things to wish for, really!... unconsciously then, I start counting my blessings.
Tonight, though, I'm alone and the sky is a cottony-black and filled with drifting and blowing snow.. an extended shower? or the real deal?
Regardless, I'll have to find satisfaction in my memories and in the streaking white snow.. I think I'll head back and kick up the fire.
