Sunday, November 18, 2001
When you wish upon a star . . .
Here in central Virginia we are officially in a drought, some 11 inches below our average yearly rainfall at this point.
For past 3 weeks we haven't seen so much as a cloud, bright sunny days, beautifully crisp and clear nights.
For the past 3 weeks, I've had Nov. 18th marked on my calendar. For the past 3 weeks I've been eagerly anticipating the annual Leonid Meteor Shower, coinciding this year with a new moon, making the night sky as dark as it could possibly be. To top it off, I live in a community that bans streetlights and I'm some 15 miles away from the nearest town. At night it is dark, very dark. On any given night I can see the Milky Way and countless stars . . .
Yesterday, experts from NASA were saying we could expect up to 4000 shooting stars per hour from the Leonid shower.
Last night, for the first time in weeks, it was foggy and cloudy. I awoke at 4am, the peak viewing time for the meteor shower, and I couldn't see a single star in the sky, banked in as we were with low clouds and fog.
What does this have to do with the Red Sox? I don't think I need to explain it.
