Year of the Snake
Just now I saw something strange out the window, looking east. At night we often see the bright white lights of airplanes as they turn west and then south toward the airport, so at first I thought it was four or five airplanes in close succession… except they looked too close together, and they were bright red lights. As I watched, more appeared. Six, seven. Two that had been so close together I’d thought they were from one plane separated and became two planes. Eight, nine. That was enough to drive me back down the stairs and get the binoculars. By the time I’d made it out onto the deck the clouds had obscured all but two of the lights. I raised the binoculars, found one of the lights, and saw that there were more coming up from the far ridge, and that they were indeed quite red. Bing! Aha! Lanterns! Burning lanterns being sent up, like the ones we saw in Yachats last July before the fireworks show started. I must say I was relieved. I’ve seen other weird inexplicable stuff up in the night sky, and it was a very nice feeling to figure out a sane, normal reason for this weird sight. Came back upstairs, announced my findings to Big M, and he said “Oh yeah! Chinese New Year!”
Of course!
Happy New Year!