This week is the annual Perseid meteor shower and supposedly you can see dozens of shooting stars an hour. On the news last night they said that last night was the peak, the best night to view it. So before we went to bed I headed out to the backyard for a smoke and to see if I could see anything.
And I did!
Not a shooting star... a U.F.O.!!!
Or rather, a "U.B.O."... "Unidentified Bako Object". Seriously.
I was kicked back in a lounge chair, staring at the sky, when suddenly I saw a single bright blue light making a beeline east to west. It was traveling faster than any plane I've ever seen, it made not a sound and left no trail. It wasn't on any flight path I was aware of - planes going over Bako travel north to south, hugging the coast.
The most surprising thing about it was how utterly unsurprising it seemed. Bakersfield is home to all kinds of weirdness and freakish anomalies. What's one more? U.F.O.'s? Sure, why not. For all I know, the miles of farmland surrounding this town probably hide dozens of crop circles.
If you think about it, it makes a certain amount of sense. Bakersfield is ringed by all manner of military bases. And it's a straight shot east to Area 51 in Nevada. Which just so happened to be the direction the thing was traveling from. If I was the military and I was testing alien spacecraft, I know I'd choose Bako as my flightpath. Taking off and landing over a bunch of clueless hicks who'd never in a million years question the military. Sounds perfect! And on the off chance one crashed and irradiated the whole town or wiped it off the map, I doubt anyone would notice or care.
"Didn't there used to be a town between Los Angeles and Fresno? Huh? Never mind..."
So I'll keep an eye on the news and see if anyone mentions it. Probably not. These people never seem to look up.
This morning when I got up the air was funky and foul, which we've learned can only mean one thing... must be one of the days they burn the cows.
Coincidence?
I think not.
