Southern Lights

Patsy Cline, in her signature emotional voice, sang "Walkin' After Midnight."  So smooth.  Most nights I am out walking, but I don't do any walking after midnight.  I'm in bed.  Walking at night here in the country is peaceful and quiet.  There is less traffic.  But my favorite part of walking at night is the sky.  You can see, over the course of the month, all the phases of the moon.  On certain nights, because we're away from most light pollution, you can see the magnificent stars and even planets in the sky.  

Most nights, I see numerous planes crossing the sky and often wonder who is on the planes and where are they going.  I've seen satellites and shooting stars.  But what I saw the other night is something that I've never seen before.  There is a little course, a trail that I walk each night.  One lap is about 1,000 steps in working toward my 10,000 step a day goal.  Barely had I gotten started when I noticed that something was odd, different.  Was I going crazy?  The sky in the north was red!

It was after 10 pm, and I ran in to get Tricia to come look and confirm that I was not losing my mind.  She was in bed in her jammies.  I told her, "I think you're going to want to come see this."  After much coaxing, I was successful in getting her to come out in the front yard.  She didn't have shoes on, so she jumped on my back and I carried her out near the road and out from under the trees.  I pointed it out to her.  She saw it too!

What could it be?  She got on a Jersey cow website, of all places, in which people from all over the United States were posting pictures of the Northern Lights.  Northern Lights in South Louisiana?  Could it be?  Yes.  We learned that there was a massive geomagnetic storm caused by a solar flare that impacted the earth's magnetic field allowing people like yours truly to witness something that we may never see again.

I quickly got on the phone and called Mom.  She had on her bucket list to see the Northern Lights and even went to Iceland to see them.  She didn't have success.  But lo and behold, she was able to see them here in South Louisiana.  Go figure.  I captured the photo above to prove that if you can't go see the Northern Lights, sometimes they'll come see you.