Star light star bright

I ran out of time with my last blog but I felt I needed to post something just to get myself started.

Why I ran out of time was because I went and saw the new bio pic about Bob Dylan entitled "I'm Not There".  It was a very interesting movie, not at all linear.  There were six different people playing the "Bob" part but none of them were named Bob in the movie.  And there wasn't much of a narrative thread, but I enjoyed it.  

I am jealous of songwriters and poets.  They can get their points across in so few words, distill what they mean into a couple of poignant phrases.  I write and write and ramble on and on and never really get to the core of what I really wanted to say.  Sort of like the difference between drinking vodka and watered-down beer, both will get you drunk but it takes longer, and there are more bathroom trips with the watered-down beer.   Enough writing though.....

I walked back from the theater, and I really miss hiking at night.  Or not so much hiking but walking at night.  At my parents' farm my mom and I would take the dogs out walking through the fields and admire the night sky after dinner at least twice a week.  During the summer we would go right at dusk and end up straining to see the first stars and pointing out Venus on the horizon.  During the winter most of the time was spent tracking Orion as the constellation moved throughout the season.  Neither of us were super knowledgeable about the stars or the constellations.  We picked out the ones we knew and made sure we were out during the Perseid meteor shower in early August.  It was just a relaxing fun time to talk to mom and enjoy nature.  

Now I'm in the city.  I am in a rather small city and a great neighborhood , but walking alone at night in the park is still not the best idea and besides that practical reason (you know not wanting to be raped and murdered) you can't see any freakin' stars here.  I mean it, just now walking back from the movies I could just barely make out the three bright stars that make Orion's Belt.  Those are very bright stars.  Light pollution sucks, and what is the point anyway in having street lights if everyone has their headlights on.   Also letting your eyes adjust to darkness and leaving them there for a little bit is healthier than switching back and forth from bright to dark all the time.  I have no source for that information it just seems to make sense to me and it supports my argument so I'm gonna stick with it.  There are definite advantages to living in the city.  I'm not driving as much, both back and forth to work and just running errands.  I can meet people for last minute plans.  I like the whole artsy-fartsy vibe.  But I do miss certain things about the country, the night sky is towards the top of that list.