An ambitious plan and a UFO

There are reasons and excuses of course, but this week it struck me exactly how infrequently I update here. Once upon a time I kept people informed. While riding home I had an idea. The idea was a personal challenge to get back into the habit of writing in the style of National Novel Writing Month; I'm going to attempt to post something here each day for the whole month of March. Short or long, profound or inane, rain or shine. One of the re-class options I am exploring is Public Affairs which is the Army's journalism branch. If I go that route, it would be good to be practice of articulating ideas under a deadline, right? Wish me luck.

I saw a UFO in Harker Heights around 0530 this morning. I mean that in the strictest sense; it was in the air and I could not identify it. Allow me to paint the scene: I'm bundled up and riding in to work on the highway when I see an oblong red light in the sky. I initially thought it was a vehicle taillight refracted in my helmet visor since it was about the same color and brightness as those ahead of me, but that's optically absurd. I moved my head side-to-side and it behaved like a real object at a medium distance just off the highway but maybe 200 feet in the air. It seemed stationary and as I passed it I could not see any tether (if it were a reflective or self-illuminated balloon) or support (from a pole below or helicopter above). I tried to put it visually between me and the nearly full moon, but that would have required taking the motorcycle off the main highway. It was visible in my rear view mirror after I passed as well.

Similar sighting from 2 July 2010 on latest-ufo-sightings.net; I only observed a single oblong light parallel to the ground

I think non-terrestrial life is extremely likely and that interstellar travel could be physically possible. However, I think that the colloquial tales of alien activity on Earth are just a 'modern' versions will-o-the-wisp and similar folktales, rather than how extraterrestrial contact would actually be made. Just think of the resources we've expended going to the Moon and close-Earth orbit; would any civilization really spend hundreds of times more to travel here just to lurk about mutilating cows and tinkering with rural people's dreams? I have to believe 'no,' even if I want to believe.

Call me Doubting Doggett if you must

Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen.

Photo from Harpoon Brewery

This is a retro-review; I tried a 6-pack of this when I worked in the Adirondacks. Some of you will know just how long ago that was but the name is too perfect to pass up here. I remember it being better than Blue Moon, but keeping with that Hefeweizen mouthfeel which precludes having more than 24 ounces or so per evening. Some styles and recipes seem to get better as you drink more, but the Hefe isn't one of them for me. I can't remember trying anything else from Harpoon, but this was a solid and refined American-style brew. I haven't got it again, since most places that carry it also have Magic Hat's Circus Boy.