The date was Wednesday March 26, 1997 and I was watching the sky from the top of White Knoll in Lexington pursuing the comet Hale Bopp because it had recently become highly visible, hanging in the lower half of the night surrounding me.

I was amazed at the consistency from day to day over time and don't recall getting tired of watching it though I was out there for hours at a time.

This was back in my old Marlboro Medium and Mountain Dew days so perhaps I was merely loaded down with the stimulus barrier of that reduced nicotine and jacked up on all the caffeine ...

With no binoculars, telescope, or anything else.

I recall the news announcement stating that thirty-nine bodies were found in the rented property occupied by the Heaven's Gate cult due to mass suicide.

I remembered seeing the interview of the weirdo 'Doe' (sic) aka Marshall Applewhite earlier who would call himself a religious leader speaking spurious ideation when in fact he was just another West coast crazy cult leader who organized and orchestrated the mass suicide of those "vehicles" of innocent followers over whom he held dominance and influence.

So yeah ... the lack of significant connections at that phase of my life likely clouded my usually sharp perception of impending doom but when that slug was on television talking about going to the mothership in space I failed to make the connection that he was speaking in terms of souls only and not physicial bodies.

I had called so many tragedies before the fact both prior and after that time.

So as for me, Hale Bopp came and went. Heaven's Gate came and died. It's left me wondering about the wherefore and the why of intervention and how this mess escaped everyone during that tragic timeframe.

So much for my interest in earth bound astronomy.