Islands and Perseids

Pats and I headed to Block Island this afternoon, where we tooled around on a moped, ate, shopped, strolled, and returned to relax this evening. It was the best trip to Block Island I've ever had. It's also the first one where I had the great good sense to leave before it got dark. Overall it's been a "Best of Rhode Island" weekend for both Pats and myself, and I'm appreciating my new old home again through her eyes, as I did when she first visited in May.

Once we got home we watched a documentary on glaciers, in which the host was kayaking at the mouth of one. We decided to go kayaking tomorrow morning as a result.

While researching kayaking online, I stumbled upon the Perseid meteor shower, gearing up for a peak at 2 am, Monday. We went out around 11:15 pm and saw a handful of large glowing meteors with long pluming tails. I'm going to try to get a couple hours sleep now and wake up at 2 am to see if I see more.

I really need to get a telescope. My front yard is actually very good for stargazing, overpowering street light notwithstanding. I have so missed living in a place with less light pollution than the midwest. Iowa is too flat, so you'd get ambient haze for 60 miles. Chicago has plenty of lights at night, so close and dazzling that you almost don't miss the stars. Planes descending into O'Hare from the East over the Lake are like animated stars. You make it work. And sometimes there are surprises, like the aurora borealis one cold November night in Waukegan, when I didn't believe it was possible to see what I know that I was seeing.

But to watch the sky tonight, as my eyes adjusted and the depth increased and more and more lights appeared . . . it reminds me of the stars in Maine, where billions of lights and the swirl of the galaxy and the aurora borealis are regular attractions.

I missed the sky when I left Maine. I missed the ocean when I left Rhode Island. Finding them again feels like home.