The Sky Went Out Tonight

Did I tell you about renewing a friendship with Steve and Midy, our friends from 25 years ago? We knew each other when our boys were just infants and Steve and Midy were newly married. We had a really nice friendship which included backyard BBQ's and laughter and a card game called Pounce (which I can no longer remember how to play).

We have kept in sporadic touch over the intervening years and were delightfully surprised to find that S & M had moved back to Salmon (30 miles away) to live near her mom a couple of years ago.

We invited them over for dinner last week, and as the mountain evening darkened and cooled off, we sat out on the deck and renewed our acquaintance. Around 9:00 it was dark and chilly so we each wrapped up in a blanket and leaned back in our deck chair to contemplate the night sky as we visited. It was one of those sublime experiences. The sky was black, no city lights intruded, and the stars overhead were brilliant and plentiful. We enjoyed the view and discussed the constellations at length before reluctantly gathering up our blankets and saying 'good night.'

Tonight, Dave and I sat out again. It is warmer this week so we didn't need blankets. There are also numerous forest fires raging in the Northwest states and we can smell the smoke continuously. The sky had been yellowy gray and oppressive all day. I had even found bits of ash on our deck chairs this morning.

Tonight, we leaned back and looked up at the sky expectantly... and... nothing. It was as though someone had turned the lights out in heaven and no one was home. The sky was one big blank.