You know it's an incredible meteor shower when you can clearly see it from the city. Roughly one every 30 to 90 seconds, as I write. I can only imagine what it looks like out in the sticks. And yet nobody here is watching.

Last night, some dumb fuck tried to break into my apartment. I spent tonight wide awake, drinking, watching John Wayne flicks on cable, and patrolling outside once every half hour; generally feeling pretty helpless. As of 4:30 AM, a meteor shower is in full effect over the NE U.S. -- primordial flecks of rock striking the armosphere at dozens of miles per second. But in the city, you have to be looking for it in order to see it. I'm sure whoever had such designs on my stupid VCR and PS2 last night isn't looking. Then again, they're probably sleeping soundly (or getting laid) while I wander wide awake, fearfully listening for the sound of another breaking window.

But dawn if fast approaching, and in the meantime I can appreciate a display of nature far removed from the superficial avarice of man.

Or something. I'm pretty tanked up right now. Hope some of you got a chance to appreciate this (or a similar) display of nature's indifference to human stupidity. It's quite humbling. :)

I pretty much live in the woods(NO CANADIAN JOKES, DAMMIT!), and I didn't see one fucking rock, and I got a clear view from my window.

Someone broke into this house one morning , early , while we were all asleep . Took what they could grab (jackets , wallets , a laptop computer containing about 6 months of my fathers work).

It changes how you view your own house. Introduces a degree of Paranoia about the place. You dont feel as safe anymore. You find yourself wandering around with a baseball bat at every creak you hear (and in an old house like this , theres plenty of them).

We installed new locks , new alarm system (since they got past the old one) , and somehow , still dont feel secure.

I guess once someone has gotten into your place , its just not your place anymore.

I'm fortunate. I've never been broken into, despite living pretty near what some might call a neddy area.
If I did get burgled, though, I'd like it to be by DexX's friend Rufus.

I can definitely relate to that feeling of paranoia, KKP. but I guess I was lucky in that noone actually got in. The exterior lights have been shutting off at 3:00 AM due to a badly set timer. The pricks struck at 3:20, probably thinking the place was deserted. Then my shrill, girlie-man screams set them to flight.

Now that the lighting situation is corrected the paranoia is subsiding a bit. I might even get some sleep tonight.

Sorry to hear you didn't see the show Josh -- supposedly 1000 rocks an hour, some bright enough to cast shadows.

I'm never at my parents' house. This is just where I keep my stuff and have a computer. The rest of the time, I'm at my boyfriend's house, which is in a really bad neighborhood. Someone is ALWAYS awake there. Most of the people in the neighborhood are crack addicts or drug dealers. Someone is always trying to get in the house. We have to lock the doors when we're wide awake and at home. There's a crowbar in the the entry closet. It's so much fun. And then there's me, trying to add normalcy to the look of the inside of the house by redecorating the living room, making the bed every morning, doing the dishes, ect. It's crazy to be functional in a dysfunctional world.

Ack! Fractious thread!

The Leonid Meteor Storm:
Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant. We AUssies had the best view this time around, and wow... we went out to a big park out the outskirts of the city a few years back to see it and saw fuck all, except one huge scary one that left a vapour trail which stayed visible for over ten minutes.

This time we were watching from my in-laws' new farm up in the hugh country of central Victoria, and the meteors did not disappoint. Between 3:30am and dawn, we probably saw two or three hundred meteors, most quite small, many very bright, and a few that were just amazing, including the highlight of the night - a dazzlingly bright one that splintered toward the end of its arc and glittered like a handful of diamonds. Beautiful.

Unfortunately, I have heard that Jupiter has modified the orbit of the comet whose tail we pass through, causing us to see the meteors. Apparently this year was the farewell performance. :(

Burglaries:
Yeah, Rufus was a funny bastard - truly the world's most incompetent burglar. Even so, the paranoia that moronic fuckhead has left is still felt, almost four months later. Several times I have stalked the back yard with a torch in one hand and a block of wood in the other. I actually slept with a cricket bat beside the bed for a few weeks. Whenever Pip barked in the night, I would run outside and look around, instead of telling him to shut up.

I am still angry, too. The dumb fuck still slives next door, and actually taunts me occasionally. A month or so ago he shouted abuse at some friends of mine who had been visiting and were on their way out to the car. If he shits me too much, I have a few ideas... well, to say more on a public forum would be foolish. :)

The meteor shower was a bust here. Lots of people got up early and drove out to the Potomac and wound up looking at fog.

I was burglarized in college once. Walked in, realized stuff was missing, saw the deadbolt had been dismantled off the front door, and then I did the stupidest thing. I drew my .380 and went house-clearing. I don't know what came over me. I should have left, but something just clicked on in my mind, not rage or fear but a kind of focus and a certainty that I had to find whoever was in my house and kill them. It seemed at the moment as if there was nowhere to run. I mean, they're in your damn house, where you supposed to go? The answer, of course, is to the nearest payphone and call the police. Instead I went up the stairs and room to room like something in a cop movie.

They'd gone already, and it hadn't been long. If I had it to do over, I'd like to think I'd be smart, but you never know how you'll react. I don't have firearms anymore.

Chicka, I've lived in neighborhoods like your boyfriend's, and I sure as hell carried a gun then. Guests would see the thing on my hip and go, "You carry it even in the house?" Yes, especially in the house. Funny, I'd always been against handguns, and I got rid of them as soon as I moved somewhere else, and I would hardly recommend them to anyone. But when I wanted one, boy did I want one.

Actually, I did get to see supposedly the best part of it (my old neighbor stayed up al night and morning to watrch it). I was watching T.V. at about 7 am and I realized I forgot to put my bike up on the deck. (It is quit expensive, 500 bucks canadian) So I got outside, picked up my bike, and then I looked up and there were probably about 15 rocks every ten seconds, so I just dropped my bike and layed on my lawn and watched it. It was about -15 C* out there and I was in my pajamas, so I went in after ten-fifteen minutes. It was awesome though. Cooler than the northern lights up here. (around here we have ALOT of diffrent colors that our northern lights will display). The reason I said I couldn't see anything was because it was 4 am and I hadn't seen anything at that time.