Seeing The Northern Lights With David, Theo & Ruby At Dune Peninsula Park In Tacoma

At some point in time yesterday I was told that the Northern Lights Auroa Borrelis light show was going to be visible all the way to the southern United States.

I erroneously opined that this was erroneous, that it is rare for the Northern Lights even to be seen in the northern states, like my old home zone of Washington.

Well, I was wrong. Such happens so rarely it is an unsettling sensation.

All my years in Washington I only saw the Northern Lights once, in the early 1990s, from the roof deck of my house in Mount Vernon, looking at the lights through the wall of trees. I had never seen anything like it before, like a fireworks display on steroids.

When my little sister, Michele, flew the family to Paris earlier this year, or was it late last year. I don't remember. Time flies. Well, the route to Paris had a stop in Iceland on the way. Favorite Nephew Theo was hoping he'd get to see the Northern Lights in Iceland. But, that did not happen.

So, I emailed Michele yesterday, in the oft chance she was not aware that the Northern Lights would be appearing in Washington last night, and tonight. I suggested a better chance might be had by driving over the Cascades to Eastern Washington where cloudiness is much rarer than it is in Western Washington.

Well, Michele emailed back that going to Eastern Washington was not doable due to other plans, something to do with Theo and Ruby and soccer.

But, they'd been told that a new Tacoma park, Dune Peninsula Park, between Point Ruston and Point Defiance, was expected to provide excellent Northern Light viewing, if the clouds cooperated.

Well, the clouds did cooperate, as evidenced by the photo above, sent to my phone, this morning, from Michele.

Last night I totally forgot about the Northern Lighs and did not look outside to see if I could see them. This morning I saw photos of the light show taken in Austin, a Texas town a couple hundred miles south of my North Texas location.

I will try and remember to look outside tonight. Currently the sky is cloud covered....

Day 8 Of March In Texas Is Beginning Warm With Incoming Solar Flares

The solar flaring sun had already arrived, this morning, by the time I opened my primary viewing portal on the outer world.

I am almost 100% certain I am currently too deep in the South to see any Northern Lights.

I have only seen the Aurora Borealis once. It was a some point during the 1990s, in Mount Vernon, in Washington. The Northern Lights were far more spectacular than any fireworks display I have ever witnessed.

But, minus any loud booms.

Speaking of loud booms.

In addition to the sun's electric storm the weather predictors are predicting an electric storm of the thunder and lightning variety, for today, at my location on the planet.

Currently, at this early morning point in the day, that aforementioned nuclear sky orb is heating the outer world to one degree shy of 70 degrees this 8th day of the 3rd month of 2012. Already over a third of March has passed into history.*

I think I will go swimming now and obsess over how quickly the days of my life are passing.

*UPDATE: Oops. I should have said already a quarter of March has passed into history. Thank you for anonymously correcting me, Anonymous.

Looking At August 5's Pink & Blue Texas Sky While Thinking About The Devil's River

I think those pink things in the blue sky are clouds, not Northern Lights. I'm almost certain our Aurora Borealis outbreak ended yesterday. Then again, I woke up with my head feeling brain pain, like yesterday, when I thought my neurons were being tortured, somehow, by the Sun's Sunday flareup.

I do not know what a reddish sky means when one is 100s of miles from the nearest sea. When I lived in Washington, about 10 miles from the nearest sea, from about as far back as my memory goes I remember, "Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailor takes warning."

Well, it is 10 minutes since I took that picture with the dire sky warning and solid blue has now returned. So, I'm fairly sure I do not need to prepare to batten down the hatches.

Yesterday's blogging about J.D. Granger's bizarre plan to have a tube float happy hour on the polluted Trinity River brought a comment from Don Young that pointed me towards Devil's River by Del Rio.

The Trinity River is pretty much the dirtiest river I've ever seen. But, Texas also has the clearest rivers I have ever seen, such as the San Marcos River that flows from Aquarena Springs. Aquarena Springs may be the clearest water I have ever seen.

What sold me on the going swimming in Devil's River idea and visiting Devil's River State Natural Area is you can also go mountain biking there on a 22 mile long trail.

I think I'll take a virtual trip to Del Rio today. And maybe a real trip to the Tandy Hills.