They're out there! :(

So, we're out walking the dog.....about forty minutes ago. It's
dark.....not quite totally dark, but getting close. We get off the bike
trail at the school and I see a rotund little figure approaching us at a
high speed waddle down the middle of the street.....and it's mumbling
something incoherent. Oh, great thinks I (it ain't the worst neighborhood
in the world......but it ain't the best either). The figure closes the
distance rapidly and I catch an occasional word....."one minute.....better
hurry.....it's coming."

Well, thinks I, Cullen's got a bum flipper, but Becky is tall, she can get a
foot up two feet over her head and she's wicked fast, and I've got a six
foot long cherry stick......how ugly can it get?

"Hurry!" he says.

Huh?

It's coming over in about two minutes!

What is?

The ISS!

What's an ISS?

The International Space Station!

Oh? Where? Hey, Becky.....c'mere, this may be good.

It always comes out of the northwest....should be about a minute or
tw.....THERE IT IS!

Well, I be go ta hell (there it was!).

Wow, he says, that may be brighter than Venus!

Mmmmm.....nah, at least as bright as Jupiter, though.

Oh yeah, at LEAST as bright as Jupiter!

We chatted for a bit as we watched it zoom above our heads.....FAST!

It makes about 12 orbits per hour, he offers.

Hm......nope, that doesn't make sense.....that'd be once every five
minutes.....ain't moving THAT fast.

Oh.....no......sorry....about eighteen orbits per day.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

How high is it? I asked.

About 125 kilometers.

And how fast is it moving?

About 18,000 mph.

Pretty soon it's going to wink out as it gets in the Earth's shadow.....I'm
glad I got here in time.....my friend just called me a couple of minutes
ago.

Sure enough, less than a minute later it suddenly got dimmer and then faded
out over the course of three or four seconds just before it would have been
obscured by the only cloud visible in the southeast.

Cool.

WAY cool!

I was looking up all this time so I can't be sure.....but I think he was
wearing a pocket protector and taped up glasses.

Crazy people can be very interesting sometimes.

Wolfgang