The Perseids are the most predictably excellent annual meteor showers in the northern hemisphere, so predictable that there is a three day span where it’s worth the time to lie on your back looking up at the summer sky for the little bits of dust and ice (sometimes larger chunks) left in our planet’s orbit by a passing comet.

Now, one of the bits of logic that passes most folks by is even though we have a very predictable summer meteor shower, this is only because a comet crossed EXACTLY through the plane of our planet’s orbit around the sun. Get the timing just right and…

This happens often enough that our Biota Clock resets. Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, big cosmic chunk hits us, bye bye dominant brachiopods and crinoids, hello to the Rise of Thunder Lizards. Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, bye bye Thunder Lizards, hello to a world tailor made for talking monkeys. There have been several other mass extinctions, each with a cosmic collision…

“Did you see that bright one, babe?” asked Clare.

“Yes, and the green color showed that rapidly oxidizing nickel…” I started saying, and was softly interrupted by Clare.

“Can we watch the meteor shower and just hold each other?” she requested.

And we did. And we oohed and ahhed over a very good Perseids, holding each other under these giant denim quilts I own, laid out on my back patio composed of Monekopi sandstone…

“Shhhhhhhh….” reminded Clare.

And I held her. And that’s how we awakened the next morning.

Best. Perseids. Ever.