UFO, or Not

I couldn't sleep. Call it a side effect of the caffeine I allowed myself yesterday afternoon, a byproduct of the sniffling and sore throat that has bested me for days or the encumbrance of a busy mind. Perhaps we should call it s symptom of all three and more since they all seemed to meld into each other throughout the night. Regardless of the cause, it was 4am and I'd barely been able to score a twenty-minute nap since crawling into bed nearly 5 hours earlier.

Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart wasn't boring enough to lead me off to sleepytime nor was my usual go-to when I need to fall asleep quickly: YouTube videos of 80s cartoons.

So, I picked up my phone and read some news. And then some more. Finally, at 4:30 I decided to head to the gym. I didn't feel like working out, but lying there in bed for another hour or two didn't seem like a plan either.

Normally I walk to the gym and this morning was no different. It's barely a mile away and driving seems counterproductive when I'm going to work out anyway. Besides, the walk provides me some much needed alone time away from electronic distractions, the dogs and anyone else.

There I was, pre-dawn light not even on the horizon yet, and only the artificial lights of city living to keep from walking in blackout conditions. The partly overcast sky reflecting the orange tungsten glow back down to those few of us awake enough to witness the effect a black tapestry and occasional star peeking out from behind clouds. A local park, the darkest part of my walk, was also the longest single portion of my commute. With a few minutes of greater darkness I glanced up, seeing constellations usually reserved for early birds, unfamiliar shapes in the sky making me feel like I walked on a foreign world beset by foreign stars.

And then I saw it. A V shape in the sky, pale against the pre-dawn heavens, almost ghost like, moving east to west. No lights and no sound. It was large, larger than and aircraft, or at least lower than any aircraft should be flying. I watched as the V shape moved across the sky, wondering as it did if I was witnessing some secret stealth flight reserved for early mornings and minimal eyes. For a brief moment I thought about trying to capture it on camera, but my phone was my only choice and the sensor isn't strong enough for the night sky. Instead I watched, I watched as it passed between the few visible stars and myself only to witness the starlight pass though the V.

Huh?

I looked closer. The ghost like paleness turned out to be just plain old whiteness. The V shape was nothing more than a small group of geese making their way west in the early morning darkness.

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