Just being myself is, at times, about as much as my friends and family can take. I offer a story to illustrate, because I don’t mind calling myself out on my stuff. This time, I was on a camping/hunting trip out on the badlands north of the Cuyama Valley.

I love sleeping under the stars, and on this Thanksgiving weekend about 20 years ago the skies were clear and stars were splattered across the sky, seeming to fill it up with a dazzling display of points of light. Thanks to a dark new moon, the star show scene was intensified.

After cooking up a tasty campfire dinner of fresh quail and long-grain wild rice, eating, cleaning up and swapping tales around a flickering campfire, the three of us turned in. It was myself, my son Dave and our friend Mike.

I wrapped my bedroll around me, lowered the brim of my hat and dozed off into dreamland. The night was chilly; in fact, by morning, cups left out with water now had ice.

A critter moving nearby woke me up in the middle of the night. After listening intently, I was able to identify the critter as a coyote. I rested easy, knowing we had done a good job of cleanup and stowing all food stuffs. They particularly like to steal meat and candy, the thieving li’l varmints!

I was now awake, so, I raised the brim of my hat and gazed contentedly at the brilliant star show. Man-o-man did I feel lucky to be out on the land and enjoying such a show thanks to a total lack of light pollution out on the badlands with hills around us.

From the eastern sky, movement captured my attention as a shooting star barreled into the atmosphere. I slapped my hip like a holster, jabbed a finger at the star and loudly yelled, “Blam!” – all before the shooter cleared the sky. Then I started laughing loudly.

Dave and Mike came scrambling up out of their bedrolls, blinking and demanding to know what was wrong. Dave asked, “We under attack?” Mike grumbled, “Should I get my weapon?” Once they were both standing there shivering and looking at me intently, I just smiled, waved at the sky and said, “Shooting star thought it could outshoot me!” The guys looked at each other, Mike slapped his forehead, Dave rolled his eyes and they both hunkered back down into their bedrolls to warm back up. Well, the incident cost me breakfast duty in the morning, but ya know… it was worth it!