Lights Out

I wouldn't have realized that this evening was "Earth Hour" without an informative email from my brother. The plan is for as many people as possible to extinguish their lights from 8:30 to 9:30 local time. Star gazers, like my brother who lives in a metropolitan area, will enjoy dark skies. When we were kids, we used to put the reclining lawn chairs out behind the long outbuilding that we called the garage, and watch the night skies. We saw falling stars and constellations and talked about A Wrinkle in Time as if it were a true story, rather than a novel.

Tonight, power usage, for that one hour, will dip significantly. At my house, we will put out the lights and light a few candles, tell stories, and see if the cloud cover breaks up enough to allow a glimpse of the night sky. I've always enjoyed evenings when the power went out unexpectedly. As long as we were warm enough and could find the candles and matches, things were good. I wonder if I could talk my family into Saturday night "power outs?" Hmmm...

Here is a link explaining all about Earth Hour:

http://www.earthhourus.org/

Here is a link explaining Dark Skies Awareness:

http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/idsw.php

Wherever you are, whatever your source of light this evening, I wish you comfort.