Recently, Hubby and I did something we rarely do. We went out at night. We don’t do that much since neither of us feels comfortable about driving around at night. Too many critters waiting to jump in front of our truck and crazy drivers going too fast makes us prefer quiet nights at home.
We drove south of town one night to watch the northern lights. They were up there, but it wasn’t the fantastic show like you see in pictures on Facebook. Our photos of the sky showed the colors better than what we saw. The night was warm, so it was nice to be outside. We watched the sky glow for a while before coming home.
Another night, we attended a lecture by Adam Cheyer, the co-founder of Siri on your Apple phones and who is helping develop artificial intelligence. He noted that Siri can “do” things like call people for you, make reservations, order food, and such. AI cannot; it just answers questions. He thinks linking the “doing” functions and the “thinking” functions will be the next big thing. He had the same opinion of AI as I do: it can be used for good, but in the wrong hands, can be used for bad things. He said humans were still special because AI is not perfect. Humans have to be smart enough to know when AI is wrong and when it’s not. That requires using the gray matter between our ears.
Most rare, Hubby and I went downtown Rapid City for dinner with relatives. We never go downtown, day or night. Finding parking is too much trouble. That night, we parked two blocks away and walked over. Again, it was a pleasant night temperature wise and since it was Tuesday, there weren’t crowds. I got to stop at four statues of presidents: Clinton, Monroe, Polk, and J.Q. Adams. I took my photo with them since it’s probably the closest I’ll get to them for a while. We had a wonderful supper and a good visit with our cousins. It was a beautiful way to spend our evening.
The next night, we parked on Skyline Drive to watch for the comet. We went early and got a prime parking spot where we could put the tailgate down and sit on it. We were joined by a lot of others as it got darker. We had two pairs of binoculars. Hubby helped a Lakota family’s kids use them to find the comet. They were really excited to see it. My pictures of it were almost better than what it looked like through the binoculars, but I’m happy to say I saw it too.
I’m not sure when we’ll get out at night again. Jammy-up time starts as early as 4 p.m. and once those are on, it’s hard to persuade either of us to get out of them. Give us a good enough excuse, though, and we’ll delay for a while. Just give us some warning.
I will lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalms 121:1-2