Strange tales: The rocket

I got to thinking about an event from September 24, 2022. I realized I never recorded it here. I was able to track it down on Facebook, but there's a lot more to the story:

I was standing outside talking to a friend about 7:40 tonight when we noticed a glowing thing moving across the southern sky from west to east at the speed of a slow plane , but with tails like a comet (but pointing towards the sun) or an outgassing rocket. Cold war nuclear jitters are back, so that seemed like a possibility, too. Turns out it was a Space X launch from Cape Canaveral (to release more Starlink satellites.) I got lousy video of it, with me breathing heavily and saying "WHAT THE F**K IS THAT?!" Here are some excellent photos NOT TAKEN BY ME that I collected from Twitter, taken by people from all over the Northeast.

All reactions:

45Dena Marie, Dannielle Elizabeth and 43 others

The story actually began a few months earlier. A friend's cat had gone missing. She was fairly sure it was still somewhere in or around her apartment. I happened to know where she lived - it was a building where I had gone to poetry readings back in the before-times. I hadn't been there in a few years, and more importantly, I hadn't seen this friend in many years. I have a large Havahart trap that I have used to catch groundhogs, one mystery animal that might have been a skunk, and numerous cats, and I volunteered to bring it up to her. It was one of my first major outings since getting vaccinated against COVID-19. I made the hour-plus trip up, showed her how to set and open the trap, chose a likely-looking location to place it, and then spent about another hour catching up - all while standing ten feet apart. We eventually made our goodbyes, and, after a false alarm when we heard something moving in the dark, I began the hour-plus trip home.

The cat randomly showed up at her apartment door later that night.

For one reason or another, I wasn't able to make it back up to retrieve the trap for several months. Eventually we made plans for me to come up. I was late getting out of the house, as usual, and arrived right around sunset. My friend handed over the trap. I put it in the car, and then we stood around talking and catching up. The night got darker and the stars came out. We were looking at the night sky and talking when suddenly something came into view. 

I didn't know what it was. It looked like a comet with multiple tails, but it was moving so fast across the sky - about as fast as a distant airplane - that if it really were a comet, it would be so close that we would be in big trouble. As I noted on Facebook, I also thought it might be a rocket - or maybe a missile. Being a Gen X Cold War Kid, the terrifying thought of seeing ICBMs crossing the sky has never left me. I had not heard anything about rocket launches that day, and I hadn't heard any rumors of war. I tried to capture it with my phone, but failed, badly. 

My friend lived in a dead zone for my cell phone. I wasn't able to access the Internet to check the news, and I wasn't able to call out to see if anyone else knew what was going on. I made my goodbyes to my friend, hopped in the car, and headed home. After about twenty minutes I was in a position where I could call home, call my mother. (Back then, that was still an option.) She hadn't heard anything on the news, but would call my sister to see if she had heard anything. I continued on my drive home. 

By the time I got home my mom had gotten in touch with my sister, who confirmed that what I had seen was a planned Space X launch from Cape Canaveral. It had traveled up the eastern seaboard and been seen and photographed by many people, none of whom had been aware of the launch. Even my cousin had seen it and had gotten some excellent photos.

Three months and three days later, my mom's leg would break as she was heading out to meet some friends with my sister. That would be the first in a series of events that would result in her death on February 24, 2023 - five months after I had seen a mysterious rocket crossing the sky.

NOTE: Apparently, the photos above are displaying as live links to Facebook. which means that if Facebook ever changes their file structure (again), the links will be broken. Here's a screen grab of the linked content: