This is what we did last night...

pic. by Fred Bruenjes

After a quick run to the grocery store for some ice cream sundae cones, you know the ones I mean right?, we headed up the canyon to the dam. All six of us watched out the back of the SUV to watch for the Perseid's meteor shower. I know the best night to watch was the night before, but we didn't have the kids with us then. So we ate our cones, watched for the meteors, ignored all the cars' headlights passing us, and just talked. About whatever the kids had on their minds. Stephen even got to show the kids the Big dipper (Ursa major) and showed how it pointed to the North Star (Polaris) and explained how that was the tip of the Little dippers handle (Ursa minor). He gave little lessons on the stars when a question was asked. It was cool. It was fun. The kids enjoyed themselves and boy #2 ate his entire cone, he usually doesn't. We cleaned up the kids after a while and headed home.

On the way down the canyon we had to stop because a semi-truck that was hauling smashed cars had tipped its load. So we had to wait a few minutes for them do some cleaning up. We didn't have to wait long because the workers were taking turns with waiting cars and trying to move some things.


Then when we got out of the canyon, there was a ton of traffic.?What? We looked to the right and saw the mountain was on fire. It looked as though they had it all contained and had gotten to it fast, but whoa, what if they hadn't? We might have had to take the long way home. Everything turned out fine in the end and we did get to see some meteors flashing through the atmosphere.