Lasso the Moon

Lately, it seems that most of the time Ally and I spend together is spent watching the sky. She made a notation on her calendar that tonight would be the Perseid Meteor Shower, and gave me the stinkeye when she told me she had made the notation because I knew you would FORGET. "Oh yeah," I said amusedly, "that's happening tonight. I did forget."
Truthfully I didn't really want to go outside and watch meteors. It was mostly cloudy, and had been raining off and on. I wasn't excited about it. I had been sick and just wanted to stay in bed. But I decided it wouldn't hurt to sit outside for just a few minutes with her. Maybe we would see one or two flashing streaks.
We couldn't decide where to sit. The sky was patchy and changing from moment to moment. First it was clear to the East, so we settled up by the porch in the front yard. Presently we decided to move closer to the middle of the yard, where the trees didn't obscure so much of the southern sky. Now we we could see two directions, and the sky was momentarily clearing. We chatted quietly as we sat in the front yard. She was keeping count of how many we had seen. So far I had seen three and she had seen four. I was watching intently for number four when an almighty BOOM sounded, so close and so loud I almost fell out of my chair! The streetlight went out and so did the lights for half the neighborhood. Down the street, flashlights came on from a dozen directions and we forgot about the stars for a few minutes. Fortunately the lights were still on at our house, although it actually was our transformer that blew. Soon enough, the TXU man arrived with his truck and flashing lights and in a short amount of time all was well again. We moved to the backyard with our chairs and resumed our neck craning. And it was worth it.  My earlier disinterest was long gone, as we oohed and aahed over the flashes and streaks from the Perseid Meteor. Loathe to go in now, we watched for just one more. Just ONE more she said. "Send us one, Lord." I spoke out loud. A minute went by. Suddenly, from behind us came the biggest one we had seen all night! For a comet it was relatively slow, and we watched as it trailed across the sky directly above us, long orange tail streaming out behind in a heavenly show of fiery sparks. It.was.spec.tacular.
The girl has me hooked. I downloaded a sky app for my phone that maps the stars and planets, including some of the constellations. Every night now, if it's clear, we walk outside after dark and find Mars, look at the stars, and locate the planets. A week later I upgraded the app. I actually paid, I was so interested, to see more, to learn more.
Yesterday we even drove out to the lake. Few trees, few lights, and fairly quiet. We stood by the lake and looked at the sky in total awe. Standing on Earth we could see four other planets splayed out in a perfect arc across the sky. Mars, in the East, followed by Saturn, Jupiter, and the brightly lit Venus, in the west, hanging just below the beautiful crescent Moon.
It was breathtaking.
And humbling. I felt so small.
Soon enough the world invaded our quiet space, with loud trucks and even louder music. The people with the blaring music parked directly behind us and made thinking impossible and talking even more so. Reluctantly we got in the car and headed back home, where the view might not be so great but at least we could hear ourselves think.
She doesn't know it yet, but I decided today that she is getting a telescope for Christmas. I sense that there are going to be a lot more posts like this, and a lot of cold nights spent outside in coats and hats, and sipping our Lunar Hot Chocolate. Good times ahead.