A Free Picture

On Friday morning, when we were camping at the Frio River last weekend, we got up and started making breakfast. Our campsite neighbor came walking over.

"Excuse me," she said, "Sorry to be weird, but I was wondering if you guys wanted this picture I took of you."

She took a picture of us? That's kind of weird and creepy. Especially when you're out camping and you don't even have walls to put between you and your stalker. What was this all about?

"What?" we asked.

"Oh, last night, I was taking pictures of the Northern Lights, and I got one that had your family in it. I thought you guys might like to have it."

She held up her phone, and showed us a really neat picture. Both me and my wife filled with regret. The Northern Lights were visible last night? Here? Crap! We knew that they were supposed to be visible in a lot of the states they normally never visit. My wife had been glued to her phone for our entire five-hour drive over from Houston. One of the things she'd seen was a story about that.

"The Northern Lights are going to be visible in most of the lower United States tonight," she'd blurted out at one point during the ride. "I bet I know what state they won't be seen in."

With that, we'd all forgotten about the possibility at all. The Northern Lights were right above us, and we hadn't even looked up. I haven't seen the Northern Lights since I visited my then-girlfriend now-wife-of-25-years in Edmonton in January of 1998. They were right there above my head, in friggin' Texas no less, and I didn't even think to look.

"Oh, this picture is great. Thank you," we said.

She airdropped the picture to my phone, and I have it to show to y'all.

So great. You can even see Cassiopeia up there. My phone could never manage a picture that nice. One of downfalls of buying a phone about two years or more after its been released so that I don't have to pay $1,000 for the pleasure of owning one. Usually, I don't mind, but when I see a picture like this, I feel it a little.

The good news is that I just heard that there should be more instances of the Northern Lights making excursions down south over the next several months. Maybe I can manage to see them with my own eyes again, instead of just getting a picture of myself with the lights that I never looked up at.

PS - The saddest part is that I sat out there for another hour after everyone else went to bed getting in my 1,000 words on "Lazerfist Saves Christmas" and still never looked up in all that time. That bright light that you see around us had been turned off, and there was nothing to hinder my sight, but I still never looked up.