Milky Way
Many many years ago, at Pennsic...
Yes, I know, a lot of stories start this way. No shit, there I was... but this isn't one of those stories.
Many years ago, at Pennsic, I drove up to the encampment, and disgorged a few people and their stuff out of my car, and then went off to park my car. Given the lateness of the hour, Karl G. chivalrously offered to go with me, and walk me back to Badger Camp afterwards.
So off we went, and parked my car, and walked back.
Halfway between the dusty parking lot and the commotion of the camps, Karl stopped me. "Look up!" he said. I looked up, and up, and up... a dark sky full of stars, stars you never see in the city. The Milky Way sprawled across the sky in all its glory, a familiar sight to our ancestors but not to us. Maybe the sky wasn't as clear and pure as I'd seen it from a mountain in the wilderness, but it was a beautiful sight just the same.
A different woman could have looked at that sight and simply taken it for what it was, enjoyed it for what it was. But not me, no.
I looked up at that sky full of stars and exclaimed, "but it's so much prettier in the infrared!"
Yes, I know, a lot of stories start this way. No shit, there I was... but this isn't one of those stories.
Many years ago, at Pennsic, I drove up to the encampment, and disgorged a few people and their stuff out of my car, and then went off to park my car. Given the lateness of the hour, Karl G. chivalrously offered to go with me, and walk me back to Badger Camp afterwards.
So off we went, and parked my car, and walked back.
Halfway between the dusty parking lot and the commotion of the camps, Karl stopped me. "Look up!" he said. I looked up, and up, and up... a dark sky full of stars, stars you never see in the city. The Milky Way sprawled across the sky in all its glory, a familiar sight to our ancestors but not to us. Maybe the sky wasn't as clear and pure as I'd seen it from a mountain in the wilderness, but it was a beautiful sight just the same.
A different woman could have looked at that sight and simply taken it for what it was, enjoyed it for what it was. But not me, no.
I looked up at that sky full of stars and exclaimed, "but it's so much prettier in the infrared!"