A Perfect Night for a Drive

Its one of those cold and clear nights, when there isn't a cloud in the sky, the wind scours your body beneath every layer, and any water you spill while filling your car's battery turns to ice instantly. In Siberia, this weather would be typical; welcome even. Here at the North American latitudinal equivalent of Siberia, where the northern lights dance around the wings of planes approaching Minneapolis, this weather is met with moans and a flurry of donned scarves and mittens.

Tonight, driving back from my favorite coffee shop, after the trial of push-starting my car, I took the long way home in an effort to re-charge Gus the Volvo's battery. Driving up SH 169, headlights piercing the utter darkness, I caught a glimpse of a star, shining alone in the pitch black sky from out of my passenger window. Inspired, I opened the sun-roof, and gazed up into the deep. Stars twinkled like I had never seen before. The sky was so clear--- I did not know that you could see that many stars in one area from below the manually opened sun roof of a 1981 Volvo! It was the most amazing sight. It is lamentable that I have no one to share that view or feeling with.

I would have longed to drive forever, cranking the heat up, and driving through the chill Minnesota night with the sunroof open, staring into that abyss, in which the heavenly bodies twinkle and meteors arch across the horizon. But I returned to my existential void and managed to find a space in the close(r) lot, right next to someone I know who can give me a jump start tomorrow so I can go buy a new battery.