Keep writing

Time gets away so easily.

Friends to see, work to be done, house to clean. I really have to make time for anything I want to get done. In that spirit, I'm writing, despite being crazy tired. It's not going to write intself. (obscene echo, true story overheard - a girl to her boyfriend: "It aint gonna lick itself!")

Here's a short story I'll tell:

About two years ago the local newspaper, evil and insipid despite this, printed a story about an upcoming meteor shower. It would be bright and long-lasting in duration. It would be visible from Southwestern Ohio. I'd never seen one before and, true it sounded interesting, but I wasn't overly enthusiastic.

Mom had clipped the story out of the paper and was beaming with excitement and grinning as she handed me a copy. I'd gone with her to check out Halley's Comet when I was a kid and I don't really think I saw anything, so I wasn't too enthused, but played along. It was a week off and she wanted me to go at like 3a.m. The paper recommended people wanting to see the show head to East Fork State Park at Lake Harsha. The water meant few lights in the area and better viewing so, yeah.

The day rolled around and Mom came to my house at about 3a.m. as planned. She was in her new Toyota, the one that's now mine. On my advice we went, instead, to Harmony Hill in Williamsburg. Few lights- it was a forest and open field and few people, too, I thought.

It turned out that there were no people there but us. I remember wishing, despite the cold night air - this was winter and there was a frost - that I'd have brought lawn chairs so we could have leaned back and stretched out beneath the clear night sky. I found out later that the lake was producing a fog that occluded the show for everyone else.

Anyway, Mom and I saw a spectacular show of shooting stars. It was really amazing, maybe five a minute. Mom was thrilled, grinning one ear to the other. "Oh, look, Steve!"

I cried the other day thinking about that. That was really cool of her. She was an amazing mother.

Steve