I JUST TOOK AN ICE COLD METEOR SHOWER!

I JUST TOOK AN ICE COLD METEOR SHOWER!

“A rare celestial event, the Geminid meteor shower will be visible and people can see over 100 shooting stars every hour for the next couple of nights with the largest number early Tuesday.  Explaining the method to observe the meteorites, Devgun said: 'Look up at the sky between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. and you could see beautiful fireworks in the sky as the new moon is providing ideally dark viewing conditions.' As the earth moves around the sun, the debris gets pulled by the earth's gravitational force and falls with its long bright tails visible to the naked eye.
The celestial movement is called Geminid showers as they will seem to emanate from the Gemini constellation.”  1. Google Site Info. http://www.sify.com/news/watch-out-for-meteor-showers-on-tuesday-news-national-kmnqa6hdfia.html

Translation:—GO OUTSIDE IN THE Bitter Cold- away from lights, and look up!

I DID! I WAS AWESTRUCK. 

Here is the story!

Awake at 3:00 I knew I needed to go see the purported Meteor shower. The sky was crystal clear and it was cold. Pushing 20 degrees when I layered up and walked outside, there was not one cloud in the sky, allowing the heat- 39 degrees with wind-chill of Teens today for our high: (yeah right) to escape into the very place I was looking! Forecast 16 tonight—a record.

I layered and tried out part of my new Hunting Clothes. PJ’s tucked into white Gold Toed Cotton socks, with Blue Jeans pulled over them, and Reebok's! I did not use my Long Johns, woolly Insulated pants, Wool socks, or Boots. I had an Old Navy long sleeve shirt that I wore under little heavier sweater, bypassing the Fleece Pullover, and the warm Button down Camo Dress shirt, and put on a sweater to for the final layer, to be worn under the heavy hooded Jacket.! I had a Woolly stocking cap, 7-11 Burglars special, that didn’t cover the face, but definitely the ears, and the hood of the Heavy Jacket that fit perfectly over it all!
I can now hunt in any weather- as this is as cold as it gets, and I wasn't even using it all!

I was dressed perfectly until the very last! The wind picked up and eased me inside. But too late Mother Nature: I had seen what I went to see! Within 20 minutes! I stayed a total of 50 minutes!

3:45 am, I grabbed my Mag Lite, a New pair of thin gloves, my Camera, and headed out. It took my breath away, first the cold—it said 20 degrees on the porch thermometer, and the slight wind made it feel-well COLD!!! Single digit temps! Damn- it isn’t rocket science! The second was the stark beauty of the perfect sky. The Big Dipper almost straight up, as if it we going to be the the supply vessel to dump the sand grain to boulder sized meteors our way!

I settled down in the field and allowed my eyes to adjust. I was really not cold, even after I sat down with Blue Jeans and PJ’s as my only butt insulation against the crunchy dry ground!! I had layered perfectly!

OK—except for the thinner gloves I wore to work the camera! At first I would catch a millisecond glimpse of a Meteor, and then as my eyes adjusted, and  learned to look in one spot, and let the peripheral vision pick them up, I saw more and more!

The show began. More than one a minute! Soon I had seen 20 plus, with most being millisecond, but unmistakable flights of light.

Sitting in the field with no light pollution I was taken back to olden days-when Mayans, studied the same events, but understood them with knowledge that can only be gleaned by centuries of observation—designing calendars that are exact to the hundredth of a second from star gazing! Putting together calendar’s that will finally run out on 12-21-2012. And I’m trying to make sense of the immensity of it all!

Then I stopped analyzing, and just started looking. I grabbed the camera, turned it on- and the cold, instantly cause the battery to go from green to red. Thank You God! So no pictures, OK—that’s cool—just between you and I! Just mental images…I put the dead camera in a snap tight pocket.

One meteor stood out! God’s Power Point Presentation to me, where He graphed part of the beginning, and shined his laser pointer across a graph of the sky! Lasting a full bright second and a half, with a residual tail, it was seared into my brain! It was over. I could have seen maybe a hundred more, but that was the one I needed to see!

I smiled and rose to go back inside, as the breeze had now turned into a light wind. I resisted looking back, wanting to forever keep the last flash in my head forever! I also knew that IF anything were to happened Wednesday, Cardiac wise-God had given me his best! And I knew He was Sovereign!

I instinctively patted my left coat pocket, and, NO CAMERA! So; I turned around, walked confidently into the field, right to the spot and picked up the frozen worthless digital blob. Then I looked up. Damn. A tiny flicker! Now I had to stay until I saw a better one. Yes, I’m one of those types.  Being blessed with 3 more, one almost as good as the best one; I noticed the Big Dipper had now rotated as if to say, I’m dumping the rest of my bounty!

The wind had picked up now, and resisting and not glancing back even once, I smiled as I walked into the house, with the heat slamming into me, as I closed the door. The coldness burning my hands, from the too thin gloves was a small price to pay for such a glorious, IMAX- 3-D, Show! Temp now 19 and wind chill 11 and sometimes 8. But sacrifices must be made to see the best! Were it an easy, mundane, show, how poor the adventure? How lame the story!

On the way in the House, this song came to me as brightly as the flash of the ROCKS burning up! It’s what I want to be, and how I want to burn!

JMc