by Tom Shafer
February 28, 2020
So once again last evening, I slipped into my hot tub around 1 a.m. after a day filled with success (I hope) and pain. The success stemmed from finally contacting USOPM, the retirement arm of the federal government, about my special needs sister being disenrolled from my deceased father’s annuity – which covers her healthcare through FEPBLUE’s BlueCross BlueShield program. A very friendly and helpful customer service representative discovered that her removal was clearly a mistake (something I knew) and assisted me in taking the proper steps to undo the error. Because I am dealing with many sister-related issues right now, this was a welcome step to correct one matter that very literally came out of leftfield.
The pain unfortunately had to do with two ongoing problems, namely my hips and my IBS. Clarification about my hips will be coming soon because I meet with my surgeon on Monday, and I know we will be scheduling surgery, hopefully within a couple of weeks. The IBS, well, there’s no solution for that, and luckily (I guess) the bad flare-ups only occur once every ten days or so; yesterday just happened to be one of those days. Thus, the hot tub would be even more necessary and welcome.
And, speaking of gastronomical, as I settled in, a vivid, clear, and crisp (20°) sky revealed brilliant stars overhead – and an extra one in the cup of the Big Dipper. Quickly, I recognized that it was moving, and knew from size and brightness that it was the International Space Station (BTW, if you follow this link, you will be directed to a live Earth view from the ISS — how cool!). I follow the ISS with a NASA app so I see it often, but tonight I had purposely been off the grid. This was a pleasant surprise, and I followed it as it ambled slowly (from my perspective, though I knew it was travelling nearly five miles a second or roughly 17,000 miles per hour!) from southwest to northeast.
Every time I see the ISS, I wonder what it would be like to be onboard, completing various scientific tasks and other duties – but mostly, I wonder about sitting next to a window, gazing down at our gorgeous planet, observing lightning-plagued clouds and white-clad mountainous landscapes, and experiencing sunrise every ninety minutes or so! If I sound a little jealous, well, you would be right!
My mind also wandered to a couple of other space-related stories from the week. One, involving Betelgeuse, has definitely deflated the astronomical world. As I have already reported (see the post “Betelgeuse, Coyote & Badger, and Mayor Pete”), back in December of 2019, the red giant star that anchors the eastern shoulder of the Orion constellation started dimming rather dramatically – and quickly. By early January, it had dimmed by almost a third, and astrophysicists were theorizing that it might actually go supernova (“Blown up, sir!”) – which would be a great big deal. However, in the last several days, Betelgeuse has begun brightening again, and those same astrophysicists are now speculating that some sort of cosmic dust hovering just outside its atmosphere may be responsible for the apparent dimming. Of course, this is just a theory, so those of us hoping for supernova are still holding tightly to that possibility.
In happier (?) news, the moon has a little brother (or sister)! Yes, Earth has gained, temporarily, another orbiting orb (albeit an oblong one) and actually, it has been here for several months, and maybe even three years. A couple of astronomers working for NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey discovered it in February, and it was confirmed by other astronomers throughout the world. Likely, it is an asteroid that got a little too close to Earth’s gravitational forces and was unceremoniously pulled in. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see 2020 CD3 (the mini-moon’s technical designation) because it is the size of a compact car and takes approximately four months to circumnavigate tenuously our world. And don’t get too attached; it is already moving away from Earth and will probably exit gravity sometime in the next several weeks. I’m glad that the moon has had a sibling – even for this short period of time. Though neither Mercury nor Venus have moons, all of the other planets have multiples (Jupiter and Saturn have 129 between them!). Even the much-maligned Pluto (planet or not?) has five orbitals, including the sailing rock band Styx. At least Earth still has bragging rights over the moonless Mercury and Venus.
And, while I’m covering these intergalactic astronomical events, I should also report a local event from last September (Tuesday, September 2, 2019). Once again in my hot tub (and no, I don’t live in it!), at around 12:30 a.m., I witnessed a pulse of light moving west to east, perhaps 10° to 15° from the southern horizon. It was a greenish, easily perceptible flash that moved very, very quickly, and did not seem to be more than 1000 feet off the ground. It was not large enough to be a plane, and frankly, it moved faster than one. If it was a craft, it appeared to be about the size of a drone – and perhaps that’s what it was. Some of our military drones can travel at speeds ranging from around a 100 mph all the way up to 400+ mph. Now, why a military drone would be flying in civilian airspace over semi-residential areas is a whole other question.
Of course, I googled this type of phenomena but found nothing that was even remotely similar to what I had witnessed. I suppose that technically, mine was a UFO sighting – as in unidentified flying object. But this one pales in comparison to my Christmas night occurrence back in the ‘90s (see “Ghost UFO!” under the For Your Consideration tab for more details). And, I’m not even suggesting that this was extraterrestrial in origin. It was just a fast pulse of light, something I had never seen before. Oh, and to add to the intrigue here, just seconds after this flash, I heard a very deep voice (any words unintelligible) from the woods behind my house. Oooooooooo!! Perhaps Sasquatch was teleporting to my woods from his sister’s residence in Washington State.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
And who wouldn’t want Sasquatch roaming around the woods behind his house?
