December 17, 2015- Star Gazing and Dream

We went to the Observatory at UCC in Cranford once but I forget which planet we were looking at or even when this was- probably sometime in the mid-80s. We gazed at Halley’s Comet in 1986 and the Soviet space station Mir through my brother’s telescope; I wished that we had used it more.

   We sometimes watched “The Star Hustler”- Jack Horkheimer- on PBS when we were kids. I somehow came across his website online but now he’s known as the “Star Gazer”. “Keep looking up” was one of his sayings. I forget how long ago he passed away.

 

 

 

 

October 23, 2014- Mookie and Stargazing

I was sitting in my room stressing out about having to drive my mother to her doctor’s appointment one minute and the next I was outside in the yard of my old apartment. It was now night time; the moon looked full, big, and bright.

   I heard a couple of dogs barking. One of them was our Mookie. She ran over to me and I petted her. The other dog was in our neighbors’ yard. My father did not live there in this reality.

  My mother, Kathy, and her mother, Helen were coming out of the front door of our house. I didn’t even go over to say goodbye to our 2 friends. I watched them get into their car from the back porch.

   My brother’s binoculars were on the bench there. I looked at the moon through them. I could also see a red planet; was this Mars? I can’t remember if that is the red one. It looked close. In reality, I doubt that it could have appeared this way.

   Mom went back into the apartment. Mike must’ve been out somewhere, possibly with Tony. Mookie stayed on the back porch with me.

   I pet her some more before doing further star gazing. I have always liked observing the night time sky but didn’t do so as much as I should have.

   Sometimes it is kind of scary looking into space though because I wonder if there really might be unfriendly aliens out there that might invade Earth someday.

   I was back in my room a few minutes later. It was nice being with my Mookie on the holodeck even just for that little while. It’s hard to believe that next July will be 10 years since she died. I still miss her a lot.

 

 

Note- internet photo- Jack Horkheimer