Working On A Quirky Graph

I often wonder what the average person would’ve thought centuries ago when weather changes and celestial happenings occurred at the same time. What did they think when they looked up to see a lunar eclipse? Did they sleep through it, unknowing of the way the planetary bodies moved and altered the night sky, albeit temporarily? If tornadoes or storms spun up the next day, did they automatically think to link them together or did they shrug as we do now and go about their day?

I purposely woke myself up in the middle of the night this week so I could see the lunar eclipse. The last time I was able to see one was 2013? I remember standing in a field across from my apartment with a group of my neighbors, all strangers, while we craned our necks up to watch the shadow creep across the moon, slowly turning it red. We all exclaimed over the coolness of the experience, and then as the earth continued to rotate from its position, smiled politely to each other and went back and crashed.

This week was more solo. Setting my alarm to wander out back to watch the shadow creep. wishing me and my phone’s camera got along better so I could get shots that didn’t suck, and cranky with technology in general.

After being, what I thought at the time, appropriately appreciative of the forces at work that are incredible, I stumbled back upstairs, fidgeting when I couldn’t get straight back to sleep. A couple of hours later I jerked awake, annoyed that I still had a couple of hours to sleep, and went to roll back over when I heard shots, loud and jarring, Instead of being worried or scared, I was so annoyed. I know I said out loud, to an empty room, ‘It is way to early for this! Why are you even up?’ Flopping back, I pulled my phone and found the video footage of the kids calmly walking up to the house next door and shooting at it, then doubling back and running down the alley. I grabbed it, and forwarded it to the last detective who had asked me to forward anything interesting to her.

Rolling my eyes, I tried to go back to sleep only to have my phone alert me to the police in my backyard with flashlights looking for bullets or casings that wouldn’t be there. I, being so helpful at why is it morning if it is still so damn dark, told them through the camera that the kids fired the shots from the alley and they wouldn’t find anything in my yard. They thanked me and then continued to look.

Now annoyed at the inefficiency I threw some clothes on as well as a hoodie to ward off the chill, and walked out the door to my backyard pulling up the video so they could see for themselves that the shots were fired from the alley. After showing them the video so the could go back and take another look where the kids actually stood and shot from, I started back for my house, lamenting the sleep I would not be able to catch up on, already thinking of coffee and a coding problem I had no business working on. As I was stepping in through the door, I could hear one of the officers say, ‘Oh, hey! Here it is!’

I laughed loud enough that I’m sure they heard me over the absurdity of it all.

The officers had me send the video to them as well and the detective sent a very nice note thanking me for all the assistance.

The same day, there were increasingly high winds and I kept a weathered eye on the trees I have in the back while I wondered if we were going to get the storms and tornadoes that had been predicted for that evening.

The winds did, in fact, bring along the deadly storms and all the treats that reside within them, hail, even stronger winds, lightening and thunder. I’m incredibly lucky as I had no damage to my dwelling, and while I flinched as the hail battered the windows, I was only truly inconvenienced by the sirens watching for my safety even when I wanted to try and sleep through the event. Waking to news that individuals died during the storms or as a result of the storms was humbling this morning. It struck me in all of the events in less than a 24 hour period, I’m not sure it even occurred to me where I sit in the scheme of things. I had no thought of my own mortality, no sense of awe in a visual reminder that I am riding on a rock, of which I cannot actually comprehend the size of, in a vast nothingness that goes on so far that we calculate the distance in light years. As I sit and type this I’m looking at a tree that has been alive longer than I will ever be, and more than likely will continue to live long after I have faded out of existence.

I cannot remember the last time I sat with myself and had moments of mindfulness. Not just of me, of who I am and my place in my own life, but of where I sit in the world, of my impact on those I work with, or the land I tend and the house I occupy.

Spring is around the corner. The weather will get warmer and more volatile, more storms and more inevitably more stupid behavior from those that allow their hormones to rule their decision making. I have another election coming up to work. After that, I think it will be time to get a pet. Maybe it is time again for me to take care of something other than myself.