Day One-hundred-and-eighty-six: Star gazing

I'm making these notes in the wee hours of the morning of the next day because, now last night, four of us froze staring at the night sky. Each of us saw shooting stars individually and in pairs. Once three of us saw one. Then finally after a long dry spell, we all saw one. We then decided to quit, warm up, and make our way to our individual beds.

Even without the shooting stars, the stars were spectacular! The dusting cloud of the Milky Way was visible. This meant a lot of individual light points were also visible. While the hills cut off a lot of the sky, they also stopped all the light pollution except for the local housing complex, my parent's place. We star gazers went in early on and turned off all the lights that weren't being directly used by any of the occupants. The few that were left were shielded from my eyes by the brim of my winter fleece hat. The hat also shielded me from that half of the sky as well.

Except for our talking, particularly to point out shooting stars that the others may have missed, most often one that I had missed, it was quite a meditative experience.

When I first moved to Pacifica, I was amazed at the greater number of stars I could see over the ones I could see from Fremont. Even when it's not overcast, it is nothing compared to this West Virginia night sky. This was the kind of night sky I would love to see every night in my Life after Layoff. I would never grow tired of it. However, I would grow tired. I don't think I want to regularly stay up past midnight, even for these glorious skies.

On a sadder note, tonight is my last night with my parents and sisters, until some future time as yet unknown. My oldest sister, still younger than me, didn't come back over due to a worsening cold. I don't know whether or not she will come back over tomorrow before I have to leave. I may just have to drop in on her to say goodbye. It will have to be short as I want my youngest daughter and her husband to see Marilyn's family as well.

My oldest daughter and her husband left this morning. Surely, and not so slowly this winter family gathering is disbursing, back to individual lives. I'm sure there will be other crossing of paths but probably not such a large one for some time, at least that I can attend. (But what is a Life after Layoff for if not this?)

Our long walk today wasn't particularly long, just rugged, even more so than my little jaunt down the hill on the walk yesterday. Maybe it was more so because this time the direction was up. Once again it was Docent lead as my father walked with us and told us about the land, people, and certain events. It was a slice of geographical and family history. (I really am going to have to take notes but don't see how I could have on this walk.)

We did walk over the former "bridge to nowhere," now properly serving its purpose to somewhere, crossing the creek so my father can get his ATV on the larger land portion of his 106 acres. Although given its ruggedness, I'm not sure what he is going to do or where he is going to go once he is over on his ATV.

I am trying two of my middle sister's ear plugs tonight. Hopefully they will allow me to sleep better in the few, shorter hours I now have to do so.

Day Twenty-eight: Floor art

As part of loading the shed, and my oldest daughter helped me stow the last of the big items from the garage into it this morning, I went through the various framed art work that my wife had collected over the years. Very little of it is actually hanging, which is why I call it floor art.

Several of the more commercial pieces in metal frames went into the shed. One of the ones that didn't was one that my wife put up in Fremont. It is a pen and ink drawing of a house with words around it that say: "I hear your footsteps down the hall. You are home again, ..and safe. All the burdens of the day are lightened--and all the night noises... ...are music to my ears."

I don't know whether I ever really read it when she had it hanging up in our bedroom, but reading it now is really bittersweet. It brings back all the memories of far better times and the acute missing of her footsteps. I can't get rid of it, but I will not be hanging it.

The garage may be usable after I give away or sell the remaining stuff that is designated for disposal. It looks a lot emptier and I can get to the shelves that line it now. I may put a few more of the boxes currently on the garage shelves in the shed and have left a lot sorting the stuff that I may use more frequently back into the garage and less frequently in the shed.

Today was overcast all day and fog drizzly, so, I decided to stay in all day. I even took a nap.

While I didn't drive and burn gas, I did restart my thermostat over the weekend and have yet to turn it back off again. I'll get out another sweatshirt tomorrow. It doesn't come on when set to 58 degrees. Yes, Life after Layoff is cool.