Nightlights

The Southern Cross. Crux Australis. I am told that these are the only two weeks of the year when you can actually see it and Polaris at the same time. I am also told that Key West and the Dry Tortugas are the only two places you're gonna get the chance. For some inexplicable reason, I have wanted for many years to catch a glimpse of that southern constellation. So, tonight I decided to forego my usual fall-asleep-in-front-of-the-television routine and climb up to the third tier to look. After having built it up in my mind all day, I was very excited as I gazed across the water toward the horizon. Sadly, I was to be disappointed this time. Nothing brings the glow of suburbia to your watery doorstep quite like a gleaming white Hatteras lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree. That combined with the moon served to more or less blot out the southerly view of the stars. Bummer. It was about this time that I became aware of an issue in the campground that needed handling as well. After going through the irksome task of getting back into uniform (which was still slightly damp) and rectifying that situation, I was in a fairly sour mood. I decided to take a lap around the moat wall to make sure the little problem stayed rectified after they thought I'd left. It was then that I discovered the night was not a complete loss at all. I may not have seen many stars in the sky, but there were plenty in the water. The moat on one side and the ocean on the other, I was surrounded by little greenish lights that slowly grew and faded. Bioluminescence. Fascinating. As I was feeling terribly curious about what was actually making the little lights (not hobbits), I shined my flashlight into the water and got to witness even more cool stuff. There was a lobster scuttling around, trying to avoid the beam of my flashlight, some ballyhoo feeding rather noisily, and a sea cucumber actually doing stuff. Well, at least, it qualified as doing stuff for a sea cucumber. Compared with their usual activities of laying around digesting things, it's pretty spectacular to see one bent upward like and arm bent at the elbow. Pretty cool. At that point I began to ask myself why I'd never done this before. I guess I never realized there was anything to see. I mean, I'd been told about it, but it just never seemed that interesting before. I guess sometimes you've just got to experience it firsthand. Now off to bed. Aha! Now I remember why I've never done that before! 3 a.m. visitors come all too soon.