Four Minutes

Tonight I made McKibbin venture out to Pioneer's Park with me. We had an outside chance of spying the International Space Station.

I spent the fifteen minute drive from our house to Pioneer's Park gate listing the reasons this purposeful excursion couldn't possibly work. Seeing the Space Station was, at best, a long-shot. I didn't have a telescope. I probably wrote it down wrong or jumbled up the details. I didn't have binoculars with me. I can work up a pretty negative outlook when I get going. I parked the car, probably muttering, and in a doozy of a foul temper.

McKibbin suggested we climb the stairs of the sledding drop. It was the highest point around and probably the best place for staring at the night sky. Rumor had it the Space Station would be in the western sky. Visible at 6:41 pm, traveling north, and it should disappear from view at 6:45 pm. We spent a couple of minutes pointing at various airplanes: is that it? what about that one? don't you think?

There. McKibbin pointed at an orange dot low on the horizon.

When he's certain of something, there is a particular quality to my husband's voice. I'd call it a tone to his voice but that makes it sound arrogant or annoying; neither of which is accurate. He just sounds solid. I know it when I hear it. My eyes locked on to the orange dot McKibbin found.

You're seeing the sun's reflection off the solar panels, he explained. That's why it's orange.

We watched the Space Station arc up the sky, and disappear.
Four minutes.
Sometimes words fail me.


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Currently Listening To: The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Still Chuckling About: Burn After Reading
Early Morning Indulgence: Chewing Mint Gum On My Way To the Gym
(Mmmmmm, Arctic Ice)
Dinner Line-Up: Spinach Salad, Eggplant Parmesan