Dark day...bright night

It was a dark day for my beloved alma mater today. A senseless killing of a brave law enforcement officer on the campus of Virginia Tech. So terribly sad for not only the family of the officer and the Hokie nation, but the family of the shooter. Someone must be full of questions, grieving his loss. I pray that, once again, the Virginia Tech community can come together and become stronger after yet another tragedy. My heart breaks for the loss of life and innocence. My love for this place goes beyond just simple school spirit. It is where I was born...where I first gained my independence...met lifelong friends...met the love of my life and started a life with him. We are Virginia Tech....we will prevail.

Brian and I were feeling very glum and heartbroken this evening considering the circumstances. We were very much in need of a distraction, and a happy one at that. Then S reminded us of her extra credit science homework observing the night sky. A collective groan arose from both of us as we remembered its due date of tomorrow. Because of the rainy week we've had, the project had been postponed and had to be done. So, after downloading the app "Star Walk", we piled in the car and drove to a friend's subdivision that is nice and dark and treeless. Somewhat skeptical of this new app, we exited the nice, warm car and entered the cold and moonlit night to start getting our eyes accustomed to the dark. Then, in true astronomy fashion, we whipped out our cell phones, activated the app and started holding them up to the night sky, waiting to see what popped up. S is big into astronomy right now, so every name of a star or planet or constellation that popped up was met with squeals of delight. The boy was running around saying that he would "find another earth" for us. G helped point out all the planets and kept track of them until S could write them all down. The night was nice and cold, Ursa Minor was visible and Jupiter and Uranus were shining brightly in the moonlit night sky. Polaris clearly and brightly owned the sky. We left the house with heavy hearts and entered it, spirits buoyed by the miracle of God's night sky. Crushing day....magical night....