Northern Lights in Ohio! Whozza? Whuzza?

The largest geomagnetic storm in 21 years hit our tiny green planet this month. For sure it marked the beginning of the end of the world. Scientific America certainly made it sound that way.

“A sufficiently intense bombardment could raise a geomagnetic storm that would push satellites out of orbit, short out submarine cables that suture together the Internet and plunge the world into darkness with massive blackouts from collapsed power grids.“
— Scientific America, May 6, 2024

Yeah. I kinda rolled my eyes too. I still remember all the doom and gloom and soapbox preaching back when calendars rolled over from 1999 to 2000. That R.E.M. song always springs to mind: “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

Experts. Psh.

Still, coming on the heels of April’s total solar eclipse, it makes for some fun speculation. Wiccans, druids, and pagans got a huge power boost from the eclipse last month. Coupled with this month’s destruction of all modern technology from the geo storm, they are now poised to rise up and take over the world. Couldn’t be all that bad, right? We’ve had worse rulers recently.

It got our family off our butts and up on the roof all week, searching the sky after dark for pretty colors and potential extinction-level incoming asteroids. That was fun. Ohio in the springtime isn’t great for sky-watching. Too many clouds and biting insects swarming around at night. If you squinted hard enough and let your eyes drift slightly out of focus, you could kind of sort of maybe see some hazy streaks in the sky? I dunno. I never saw anything. Except the Big Dipper. But our daughter, Tessah, captured the image up top using a long exposure on her iPhone. I messed with the highlights and saturation and vibrance a tad to make the colors pop, et voilà.

Also in May, it’s possible a certain television program might have come out and filmed some stuff at our house again. Due to certain non-disclosure agreements and contracts that were signed, I can’t say who, but I can give you a little hint. The episode should air some time early next year. If there actually was an episode, and if anything actually happened at all, because I ain’t sayin’ nuthin’.

What else?

We are currently enjoying the weather outside. Kind of. There’s usually a period of about four hours in between downpours, tornadoes, and scorching heat that are actually quite tolerable. Wendy’s dog, Mercy, likes to be outside and is thinking about eating those dandelions in the yard. Meanwhile, Camden’s dog, Aspen, is full of side-eye when she’s not bouncing around the house like Tigger.

What’s happening in your neck of the world? Drop me some comments and fill us in.