random thoughts – Day 2,066 (Wednesday) – aurora

Last night, driving home from dance class along some back roads and the regions major roadways, it was dark. It was a lot of the usual sights along the way. There were trees along a stretch of Route 117 and in another spot, orange barrels with reflective tape placed around a new looking rotary. A few idiots blazed down Route 2 much faster than the speed limit. There was nothing unusual seen along the way.

Back at home, feet up, TV on, I popped open Facebook and the feed began filling up with photos of the aurora borealis in pinks and greens from friends in the Midwest, Tennessee, New Hampshire, towns around the former residence of Lowell. I went outside to have a look. Many times. At first, it was cloud cover. Then it was more clear, but just a dark sky and sometimes a star.

Not the aurora,
sky version.

I looked upwards from the front of the house, and then from the back. I looked up through the skylight in the kitchen. Nothing. Just like the last time the aurora was allegedly visible in my area, I saw nothing and my camera captured nothing. The biggest difference was that this time I wasn’t alone and cold on a gold course in Dracut, I was alone and cold in my yard in Gardner.

Hope was finally abandoned and I went to bed. While doing the final doom scroll before sleeping with even more aurora images, I saw a really cool photo someone had posted of the aurora outside their window, which they took while laying on their floor. When I woke up at 2:46 this morning, I raised the shade and looked at the sky, hoping for something like the window picture seen earlier. Photos were taken, but it was more nothingness.

Not the aurora, TV version.

Once again, the aurora borealis was visiting my area and I saw nothing. There were even more aurora pictures this morning. The closest thing to the aurora I saw was the newly frequent error message about "an issue with my streaming device" (also known as the Xfinity issued cable device) while watching Netflix.

To say I had another raging case of aurora envy would be exactly correct. Allegedly, it may be visible again tonight. I’ll be out in the yard, or maybe I’ll take a drive in search of a more open area with the hope I’ll get to see it.