Volume Four Number Four

434 words, 1 page

Do you think star gazing counts as an adventure? Maybe it does if the stars are so bright that you need to wear sunglasses to gaze at them, as was the case last night! I was reading a book by the light of the Milky Way! Sirius was flashing and pulsing and sparkling like a signal light on a mid-channel buoy! I need another sentence that ends in an exclamation point!

I came home from the Miss Lake Chelan Scholarship Program (can't call it a pagent anymore) having been wearing my official KOZI newsguy hat. The snow is melting more every day, and the front deck is finally all clear. Some mud spots are even drying out and the faintest fragrances of spring occasionally reach my happy nose. I parked my dirty old rig and walked to the front of the house to ponder the heavens with scarecely a blink of light pollution. Unbidden, my arms shot up in praise to the Creator! The heavens declare the glory of the Lord!

This morning when I stepped outside at 0400 to drive down the hill to work, I caught my first sight of Scorpius this year. Scorpius is my favorite constellation: it's never in the sky at the same time as Orion - I have my reasons. Usually I see it reclining on the southern horizon in the summer evening sky, but at 0400 apparently it pokes up from the southeast. Antares, the orange/red star at the bend of Scorpius' neck winked at me this morning and I winked back.

H.A. Rey, the guy who wrote the Curious George tales, has also published America's best star gazing book. It's called "The Stars," and I can bust it out anytime to refresh my memory when I forget the names of the seven magnitude one stars all hanging out around Orion. I live in the best place on earth you know, I swear there is none better, anywhere!

I raced through a book on waiting recently, and it did me a lot of good. In all seriousness, I plan to read it again, take notes and maybe post a bit of a review here on the bo-lilly-log. I'll include the tale of escaping the ticket that I surely deserved on the morning just before I read the book about slowing the heck down!

Stay tuned. . . (as I am now apt to say)

Jake

PS - The frozen mud that previously paved my parking spot at home has now turned to thawed mud. Changing the starter could have been a much worse experience!