Meteor Shower Debaucle

We decided at 12:00 am last night to head up the Canyon with our dog to one of the parks there and watch the Perseid Meteor Shower.  The Perseid Meteor Shower happens every year as a result of the super comet, Swift-Tuttle, and it's minuscule remains rocketing through the sky at incredible speeds.  It was at its height last night, averaging 40 - 50 sightings per hour.  Tonight will still be a good night to view it, although sightings will be down to 20 per hour (possibly higher in the northern hemisphere)!
Apparently, people are very much aware of this phenomenon and the parks were full of expectant observers.  We scouted out the park and found a wonderful spot to view the night sky.  We first put down a tarp, followed with two sleeping bags to lay on with two blankets on top and 4 pillows.  We were set!  It was so warm and comfy looking up at the night sky.  There must have been at least 150 people spread around the park, mostly younger, since midnight is a little hard for most folks to herd small children out to watch night spectacles like this! 

Every time a comet made a path across the night sky, there were exclamations, yells, screams, applause, you name it. This was a very enthusiastic crowd.  I wasn't above making a few appreciative exclamations myself!  I was prepared to spend several very enjoyable hours watching this, as our dog Evee curled up on one side and DH on the other.

All of a sudden people started yelling and screaming, only this time it wasn't because of any fireworks in the night sky.  The sprinklers had come on.  These sprinklers weren't just little sprayers either.  These were geysers, shooting water 100 feet in all directions.  We were right in the path of two of them.  I immediately shot up, grabbing my two pillows and flip flops.  Greg, on the other hand lay there, covering his head with the blankets.  I told him to "Get up!  Grab the stuff!"  A few seconds later he did.  But not before the water had soaked our spread pretty thoroughly.  His reasoning was that at least he was dry!

We took stock of the damage and being the survivors we are, decided to rearrange our pillows and blankets elsewhere where the sprinklers weren't on, as did the other observers in the area.  We found that if we flipped the tarp, blankets and pillows, they were still fairly dry.  So back down we went, thinking, "Wow!  The county might have known people would want to watch this...."

It was a beautiful 10 minutes....because that's all we had before the next set of sprinklers, in the path of which we were, went on full force. This time, I just stayed there keeping my head under the blankets until the full force of the water made a pass.  Now, everything was totally soaked and my night was done.  I was DONE.

So much for watching the beautiful display in the comfort of our makeshift observatory in the company of DH, maybe falling asleep in the warmth of his arms.  We had to cut bait and run! This is one where the story is better than the actual experience!  I believe Greg has his own version here!  (Hopefully our versions match!) Have a great day!
 

Hugs,

Helena