This year was great!  We did not get far enough out of the city for the best
viewing, but it was good.  I had told our daughter Jodi that we were going
to try the "Women's Forum", which is a view point overlooking the Columbia
River, at the West end of the Columbia River Gorge.  It is well out of the
city backscatter, high up, with wide horizons.  Turns out everybody in
Portland was doing the same thing.  What a traffic jam!  We turned around at
the designated place, then went back about half a mile, and found a spot
along the road, next to a field.  Turns out we had parked three cars in back
of our daughter and her friends!

Show was great.  Most meteor(ite)s leave a trail that lasts for half second
or a little more than a second.  One lit the sky like lightning, then the
trail didn't fade.  It turned to a small cloud and the cloud just kind of
hung there over us.  We just stared in disbelief.   It must have been *RFC*
(really close).

Watching such events makes us think about the meaning of life, the universe
and our place in eternity.  John Ashcroft must be thinking really hard about
how to stop this.

Tom Salicos
Still sleepy