TURN ON THE LIGHTS !!!!!

 I have never seen the Northern Lights.  I have been to Alaska where they are supposed to show up ALL the time but on none of my trips did I ever see ONE single flicker of a Northern Light.  I did not despair because I knew I would see them someday even if I had to look down (or up) from the grave.  

Then I began spending my summers in Michigan where you can't get much more northern without becoming a Canadian.  I have been told by many of the "Yoopers" who live up here that occasionally you can get to see the Aurora Borealis. I personally did not believe this but folks have insisted that it does happen. 

And lo and behold there on the evening news on Thursday was the weather man giving suggestions for getting the best possible view of this spectacular show that God sees fit to entertain us with. The Northern lights were going to dip down from Canada and the Arctic so that those of us fortunate enough to be living up here would get to see the show.  Unfortunately Friday night was very cloudy so there went that opportunity to be wowed.  BUT Saturday night was going to be CLEAR !!!!  HOORAY !!!!!  

The problem with trying to view the Northern Lights is that they only appear at night.  LATE at night !!!  Like after midnight.  And you have to go OUTSIDE to see them. .  On a normal night I am usually just getting to sleep around midnight but I have been comfy in my PJ's for hours before.  I have showered and gotten settled on the couch or in the bed ready to spend a couple of hours watching TV. But now I have to weigh the pro's and con's to looking at a bunch of lights in the sky OUTSIDE where the temperature is in the mid forties and the wind is blowing across the open field like on the plains of Northern Siberia in January.  AND,   I have to be dressed in sweat pants, sweat shirt, jacket, wool m socks and boots because it is also very damp.  

I couldn't resist !  I took my shower around 8, put on some comfy clothes and watched some TV with The Man until about 11:30 PM.  Then I changed into the warmest clothes I have, made sure my phone was fully charged and went outside where I saw . . . NOTHING!     It was a lovely clear but cold night.  Lots of stars, no lights from any houses or traffic because there are no houses or traffic. I wandered around with my flashlight so I wouldn't fall into a woodchuck hole or get eaten by a bear.  I kept looking up but there was nothing but dark dark skies.  This was around midnight and I decided I must be nuts so I went back inside feeling rather disappointed.  The Man was still awake so I sat on the bed and chatted about the 2 hockey games he had just watched and then decided I would give the lights one last shot.  

Back out I went and still I saw nothing.  Because it was so chilly I decided to come into the parlor, (which has no heat) and sit in the big armchair in the dark.  By now it was going on 1:00 and I figured it was a bust so I might as well go to bed.  As I stood up to go into the house I realized that the sky was brighter than it had been before. Could this be it ????  I went back outside and sure enough the sky was lighter.  There were white wispy cloud like lines flowing up and down in the dark night sky.    Could this be it ?? For some reason the Northern Lights in the UP do not show up in color?  I was disappointed but decided to take a picture of the white ish sky so that I could show people that I DID SEE SOMETHING.  

And that was when I looked at the picture that I had just taken.  What I saw was a sky FILLED WITH COLOR !!!!  I looked at the sky and saw nothing. I looked at my photo and saw The Northern Lights !!!

Naturally I immediately decided I had a brain tumor because I couldn't see any color in the sky so it must be my brain getting ready to explode.  What other reason could it be ?????   

I took a total of 8 pictures of the lights in the sky that I couldn't see.  They were green, pink and red all flowing into one another. They must have been amazing to actually SEE but at least I have the photos to prove they were there.  I would LOVE to get them downloaded into my computer so I could show them to you but for some reason I can't get them into my computer photo gallery.   

Anyone else feeling like they're in the Twilight Zone ??????