Kitchen Reno b4 & After

Here's the latest kitchen photo update just after the Caesarstone countertops were installed today.





















Compare with the night we took possession of the house way back on Nov. 11, 2002. That was even before I had a digital camera!

Check out the funky 80's range!
















I'd say that's a pretty dramatic "Before" and "After".

Sammy and Ozzy

I’ve been looking at this photo repeatedly ever since I took it, so I thought it was high time I shared it. It’s already posted on the Metro Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group site, but it needs more exposure. It’s just such a happy photo. It always makes me smile.

Sammy and Ozzy are half-siblings. They are 2 years apart in age and share either the same father of mother; I can’t remember which. The pair is owned by a couple with a small baby. At the ‘All Cocker Christmas Meet-up’ last Saturday Colleen told me they have matching sweaters for all 5 family members: Mom, Dad, baby and two Spaniels. Wouldn’t that make a great Christmas card!

I draw the line at dressing up dogs, but sweaters are OK in my book during cold winter weather, especially after a visit to the dog groomer. Shelby’s going to need a sweater on Saturday after her visit to Happy Tails. She’s long overdue for a trim.

Kitchen reno update

It's been a while since I posted an update photo of the new kitchen. It's coming along nicely. Countertops got measured and templated yesterday. They will be installed next Tuesday, then the backsplash tile can be applied.

Christmas is coming and it looks like it will be 95% finished so we can use it.

Metro Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group

I recently accepted the position of leader/organizer of a local Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group in Vancouver, BC.

http://www.meetup.com/cockerspaniel-107/

Sue, the originator of the group, stepped down due to more than a full plate of activities requiring her attention, not the least of which is caring for her father-in-law who is afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. He lives with them.

Until 2 years ago I had never even heard of Meet-up Groups. I can’t remember how I found out about them; technology changes unbelievably quickly these days. Some things I don’t even have time to participate in before something else takes its place.

Case in point, Facebook. I was never really interested in it in the first place (I think I’m too old and cranky for it), but now Twitter has shown up. And to tell you the truth, I’m not interested in it either. Oh, and don’t forget about Texting. Don’t get me started. I’m just proud of myself that I figured out how to input names and numbers into my cellphone address book (pat on the back).

An email recently was sent to all members of the Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group that it would shut down in two weeks if a new organizer didn’t step up to the plate. I gave it some thought for about a week. My decision is based on my devotion to my dog, Shelby.

She was really the inspiration for me taking up the internet search for a group of dog owners. Our last dear Spaniel (also coincidentally named Shelby) passed away almost 2 years ago, and we found out about our current Shelby shortly thereafter. She was 1-1/2 years old and needed a new home. We drove to Vancouver, WA to get her.

Long story short, I wanted to socialize her with other dogs and figured a group of same breed dogs would be fun. And it has been!

When I learned that the Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group might end, I just couldn’t let that happen. So now I’m the Organizer.

We just had our first Meet-up under my direction, and I’m happy to report it was a success. Eight Spaniels brought their people to Angus Park (aka Fraser River Park) in Vancouver, BC. They all got along famously and the weather was sunny. A bit cold, but a big improvement from the month of November when it seemed the rain would never end. Last Saturday would have been a wash-out.

Like they say, timing is everything.

Update regarding "Soggy News"

Success! My Courier newspaper was tossed onto my front steps, under the roof overhang this morning, as requested.

The squeaky wheel got the grease, so to speak.

The next test, of course, will be delivery during the rain. This morning was cold and clear.

Just another soggy news day

I've been having trouble with the delivery to my home of our local neighbourhood newspaper during this very wet Autumn. While I consider myself to be a reasonably patient person, I must admit I had had my fill last week. The following are 2 letters I sent to their circulation department, complete with photos:

First letter dated Nov. 24th

"Dear Vancouver Courier,

I have resisted the urge to complain about my home delivery of the Courier in the past largely because it’s not a paid subscription. But recent rainfall, combined with the lack of a basic standard of delivery service has prompted me to point out that my area carrier is getting paid for a job poorly done.

Last Wednesday I noticed the paper had not been delivered. On Thursday I noticed it still had not arrived. Then on Friday evening, upon arriving home in the rain from work, I was greeted by a sodden lump of newsprint in the middle of my front sidewalk. But what really annoyed me was Tuesday morning (yesterday), as I walked up the side of the house to exit the yard, there was Wednesday’s paper, lying between the fence and garden, nowhere near the front door or even the sidewalk! (photo attached)

Our front door has a generous overhang, and it really doesn’t take much effort to open the gate, and take 3 or 4 steps before lobbing the paper so it lands in a dry place. Is requesting dry delivery of a free newspaper asking too much? Because really, if it’s not delivered dry, what’s the point?

I realize it’s a free paper, but it’s not like you don’t pay your paper carriers. Your advertisers no doubt spend a lot of money to have their ads inserted into the Courier, and people don’t read sodden lumps of newsprint. They go straight in the recycling bin.

Thank you for your attention."

That wasn't too harsh, was it?

Letter No. 2 dated Nov. 25th

"Dear Vancouver Courier,

Well, it happened again last light; a sodden lump of newsprint was left on the topsoil beside my front walk (see attached photo) about 10 feet away from my dry front door overhang. I figured I might as well have some creative fun with writing this evening since I don’t have a legible edition of The Courier to read.

I was thinking, my neighbours and I would be just as well served by our local paper carrier if he were to simply dump his bundles of papers in a ravine somewhere rather than go to the trouble of walking the city sidewalks lobbing newspapers onto wet residential front walks in November downpours. At least he’d save some fossil fuel by not having to drive to our ‘hood.

If you insist upon delivering The Courier twice a week to my doorstep, which I’m quite happy to receive under normal circumstances, could you please (at least reasonably) ensure that the paper is dry? Otherwise, as I asked in my last complaint, what’s the point? Yesterday the bundle containing newspaper plus Christmas flyers was so waterlogged I couldn’t even separate the pages.

In stark contrast, my Vancouver Sun was waiting for me this morning completely dry on my doorstep (see other attached photo), a mere 10 feet away from the wet resting place of the Courier.

Of course, it’s a paid subscription, but it’s not like it requires any expensive special equipment to deliver a dry paper. The same delivery tool set applies both to free and subscribed newspapers. I know; I was a paper carrier myself for several years in my teens.

And I never left a newspaper in the middle of a sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Thank you for your time."

OK, it probably was a bit harsh, but I have a very low tolerance for poor service. But I stand by my conviction that there's no point doing the job if the end result of said effort has no purpose whatsoever, e.g. providing an unreadable newspaper. It only incites frustration in the homeowner, and creates more work to retrieve the sodden lump and throw it out.

The reason this whole newspaper thing burns my britches probably stems from my pre-teens when I took on a job delivering a free neighbourhood weekly, The White Rock Sun. I think I must've been around 12.

I vividly remember one incident in particular. It was a hot afternoon and I was walking my route with a fully stuffed canvas newspaper bag slung over my shoulder. I walked up the driveway, veered onto the concrete sidewalk, and lobbed the paper onto the front doorstep (a covered doorstep, I might add). No sooner had I turned around to exit the yard than the front door and screen door whipped open and an elderly woman’s voice said. “Young man! Do you realize that my newspaper blows all over the yard when you throw it on my steps? You’ll open the screen door and slide it through the mail slot next time, or your manager is going to hear about it!”

The door closed before I could say anything. And really, what could a twelve year old have said in defense? I had only been trying to do a good job. On windy days I did regularly take precautions by slipping the paper under the corner of a front door mat, or looking for a rock with which I could anchor the paper.

Of course, I'm sure my memory is crystal clear on that event some 30 years ago, and in my mind I had done all that I could to ensure that an intact and dry weekly edition of The White Rock Sun reached all those intended.

So, in firing off a couple of letters to the circulation department this past week, I must say I did so with some trepidation. I didn’t want to adopt that ”cranky senior citizen” stereotype. I may have sprouted a few grays since becoming a homeowner, but I like to think I’m encouraging a base level of service for me and my neighbours, by expecting the same service from my local carrier as I delivered when I was twelve.

New kitchen progress update

The kitchen is progressing nicely. We’re reasonably on schedule. But there are always a few unforeseen things that pop up. We had to remove all the original plaster from the walls, whereas we were only going to remove it from the exterior walls so we could install more efficient insulation and a vapour barrier. Also, the original shiplap floor boards were deemed to be insufficiently stable, due to shrinkage and cracks. They wouldn’t have been strong enough and stable enough to support our new tile floor. We replaced them with new, thicker plywood.


Currently all the gypsum board has been installed, and has had a couple of coats of drywall mud applied and sanded. We (my contractor and me) decided that all the seams and corners didn’t need to be filled and sanded because, realistically, many of them are going to completely covered by either tile, cabinetry or wood trim. That’ll save us a bit of time.

Once the ceiling drywall is filled and sanded sufficiently I can paint it, and then the tile floor can be installed. Cabinetry is due to be delivered on Dec. 4. Appliances arrive Nov. 28. The cabinetry installer wants the appliances on site so he can be 100% sure of their dimensions. Nobody wants him to have to remove and re-install a cabinet due to tight clearances.

Having a usable kitchen by Christmas is still a possibility at his point. Cabinetry installation is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 7. Then our solid surface countertops get templated and will take about 10 business days (2 weeks) to fabricate. That takes us to Dec. 21. Then the only major item left will be the installation of the backsplash tile.

I’m not sure what my contractor’s schedule will be that close to Christmas, but at least we’ll be able to use the room for the holidays.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Chantal Kreviazuk in concert

‘First and last’ seems to be a real theme for me lately in terms of music concerts.

We attended the Chantal Kreviazuk concert on Friday night at the River Rock Casino. I didn’t know beforehand, but as it turns out Vancouver was her first stop on the tour. A week and a half ago we went to see the 360 Degree spectacle that U2 brought to town, and that evening was the last concert stop on this leg of their tour.

In terms of degrees of acoustic intimacy you really couldn’t have paired together two greater extremes. At BC Place we were surrounded by around 60,000 of our closest personal friends, stuffed into plastic stadium seats just under the roofline (don’t get me wrong, I was still happy to be there!), whereas for the Kreviazuk show, we were completely surprised to discover upon arrival that we had plush, upholstered front row seats! Don’t ask me how we didn’t know. Probably has something to do with the stress of the “Renovation Zone” going on at home right now.

What a show! Both of them, U2 and this one, were awesome, but for entirely different reasons. The media has saturated the entertainment papers with U2 coverage, so I’ll devote some print to a very talented Canadian vocalist. She has Winnipeg roots too, in common with my wife, so that added personal impact for us as well.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Chantal perform. We attended a ‘Find a Cure for Cancer’ benefit concert at GM Place 8 or 10 years ago. I still have a promotional poster at home that I just ran across recently. It says the concert was Oct. 8, but doesn’t say the year. The artists on the bill that evening were: The Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden, Bryan Adams and Chantal Kreviazuk.

From what I’ve heard over the years, Sarah seems to get more coverage and is perhaps better known, and she is a talented performer, but Chantal has, in my opinion, has just as strong a vocal range as Sarah. As I listened on Friday night I was thinking, especially during some of the softer songs, that not many recording artists would be able to actually sing some of Chantal’s songs; her vocal range is that varied.

Instead of a solo show, she had back-up this time provided by drums, violin and cello. Not the expected accompaniment for a rock show.

Although that brings up another thought; how is her music actually classified? I wouldn’t say it’s rock. Perhaps ‘pop’, but that sounds too cheesy. She gets radio play, so I guess that’s all that really matters. Wikipedia slots her into ‘Adult Contemporary’.

I didn’t expect to recognize any of the members of the back-up band, but one I was familiar with. Kevin Fox, the cello player, was interviewed on CBC’s ‘Q’ with Jian Ghomeshi a few months ago, and he also played a song or two live in studio.

I told myself I’d remember the name of the violinist too, but to no avail. Chantal mentioned her name, her band and one song that Chantal really liked. Do you think I can remember any of those names? Nope. Her band’s name was something like “The ______ Lately’s”. Gee, that helps a lot, doesn’t it? I’ve never been great with names.

Another high point of the evening was the opening act. I wasn’t even aware there would be an opener. I get the feeling the organizers didn’t either until last minute because we were only told that there would be an opening act when we picked up our tickets at the front desk. And we were left in the dark as to who that might be until Meaghan Smith was introduced on stage. A curious way to handle it, I thought. None the less, I thoroughly enjoyed her acoustic set with her “husband for this evening”, as she put it, on acoustic guitar.

All in all, a very fine evening of Canadian music.

Not the usual "Car of Your Dreams" dream

Years ago, before I had much sense, I traded a ’72 Beetle for a 1940 Buick 4-door sedan that was not in running condition. It still ranks among one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. Fortunately that stinkin' Buick is long gone now.

Last night I dreamt about my parents driving that car, still the same burgundy red with silver roof, but fully restored, and in coupe format instead of 4-door sedan.

They were just leaving a large family gathering at a church. It seems to have been a gathering in their honour. I rushed outside to get a ride with them, and in passing declined a ride from someone that was going to the same place they were leaving for. I got to the car only to realize that there was no room for me in the car because the back seat was folded down flat for my Dad’s collapsed wheelchair. That in itself was strange because he always pulled it into the car to store it folded but upright, immediately behind the driver’s seat.

I was left standing in the parking lot as both cars left and I had no ride.

Kitchen Update 2

I must say, it’s quite fascinating to watch the progression of this kitchen renovation (even more so since I’m not doing any of the heavy lifting!). But I’ve found that it’s easier to track the changes focusing on one wall at a time, especially for those that have never been in our kitchen.

I’ve always liked progression photography, where one can view events unfolding over time, happening at the same location. A really good example I’ve seen is a series of photos depicting the controlled implosion of the Georgia Medical/Dental building that occurred at least a decade ago (probably longer). They are on display in my dentist’s office. Since I’m a photography enthusiast, it makes those semi-annual check-ups at little easier to endure. I’m a bit of a dentophobe.

Recently on another blog, I’ve been following past and present photos of locations in Vancouver. An archival photo is posted along with a current shot of the same location. Sometimes it’s hard to tell that the two locations are indeed the same. Most of the time, at least one heritage building is present to anchor the scene. What I find interesting is the tree growth over the time period.

A few years ago I bought an old framed photograph of the Lions Gate Bridge in a second-hand store. It’s one of those old black & white’s that was hand coloured. The whole North Shore that is visible in the photo is all trees. The Guinness family built the bridge initially to entice development of its newly acquired land, essentially the British Properties in West Vancouver.

I’ve tried a couple of times to take the same shot as it exists today, but as of yet I’m not satisfied enough with my attempts to display my past and present views of the bridge.

But I will show you one wall of our kitchen, past to current states. The first scene is, of course, anchored by our trusty carpentry spaniel, Shelby.

Kitchen reno update

The kitchen is progressing nicely. All the plaster has now been removed from the walls. We decided to keep the ceiling plaster intact in order not to trigger an avalanche of fine particulates of insulation.












Have you ever gotten insulation down the back of your shirt? It’s not even a little bit fun.

A layer of new gypsum board will be fastened to the existing ceiling to give it a smooth new finish.

Today the electrical upgrading will begin. We’ll finally have more than one duplex plug-in per wall. Back in ’62 no one could have anticipated the average home-owner’s desire for kitchen gadgets. And lights! We’re adding much more brightness to the room. Ceiling pot lights, under-cabinet puck lights, and two hanging feature lamps over the island will eliminate those over-the-shoulder shadows. I mean, what were they thinking way back when, only installing one or two lights in the middle of the ceiling to illuminate the entire room?

Kitchen renovation

Our kitchen renovation began yesterday...after 6 years of planning and saving.

The photos give a sense of my labours on Sunday in final prep for our contractor to start work. I spent 9 hours clearing out the contents; some went into boxes placed in the dining room, and some went downstairs to our temporary kitchen set up in the laundry room. I lost track of the number of times I went up and down those stairs!

Later I'll post a "before picture" of the kitchen taken the day we took posession of the house back on Nov. 11, 2003.

Blowin' in the Wind

Have you seen the new wind turbine on the top of Grouse Mountain? Somehow I had my head in the sand and missed all the news stories leading up to its unveiling.

I was traveling to work on Skytrain one morning a couple of weeks ago, gazing at the local hills as I often do, when I spotted a tall white spire just East of the seasonally brown ski slope. The angle of the sun at that time of the morning was reflecting off the white paint bringing more attention to the tower than would normally be the case. That’s probably the reason I noticed it in the first place. It looked like the tip of a tent pole poking through the roof of a tent. I looked at for a few minutes, and as Brentwood station approached, I decided to get off there and see how close my digital telephoto lens would get.


That camera never ceases to amaze me. Not only did I get a much clearer view of the still unidentified spike, I also saw a construction crane beside it. I hadn’t seen the crane from the train platform. The image is a bit hazy, mostly from the atmosphere I would think, but the strength of the digital zoom is definitely space age.

As to what it actually was, I guessed it was either a communications tower or an extension of the chair lift. Not being a skier I really had no idea if a ski run existed in that location of the mountain or not.

The next day I was listening to my new favourite radio station, The Peak, when the host mentioned that the latest “green” technological wonder to hit Vancouver could be seen atop Grouse Mountain; a wind turbine. It’s supposed to provide up to 20% of Grouse’s electricity when it’s finished.

Plus (!), it’ll be crowned with an observation platform.

And no, for all of you fitness fanatic Grouse Grinders, you won’t have to climb a million stairs to reach the top. There will be an elevator to the observation deck.

How cool is that?

Sunrise

It’s that time of year again where the sun is blinding when I leave the house in the morning. It happened to me twice today (Sept. 11).

Since I’ve had this job (about 3 years now) and have been riding to the Skytrain station most mornings, I’ve been much more aware of how the sun arcs through the morning sky during its yearly cycle. Also, because I’m into photography a lot more in recent years (the convenience of digital), I’m more keenly aware of light in general.

I took a photo on January 30 from the back steps at the office in Burnaby that captured the intensity of the sunrise reflecting off the glass envelopes of the twin office towers at Metrotown. I’ve noticed since that the same reflection can’t be obtained at other times of the year.

This morning was the first time this year that the sun was exactly at the crest of the small hill on my street so that I couldn’t see the hill at all as I approached the stop sign. I had to use my hand to shield the entire top portion of the hill from view in order to see the hill at all. And forget about seeing oncoming traffic; it was impossible. I stopped and moved the palm of my hand in a circular pattern to see as much as I could before proceeding. That intersection in particular is notorious for glide-pasts. People seem to think that despite not having clear views in either direction due to parked cars that there’s barely a need to slow down, much less stop. Anyway, that’s fuel for a rant; I’m getting off topic.

The same situation presented itself again (the blinding sun, not people ignoring a stop sign) a few minutes later at the bottom of Keith Drive where it intersects E. 7th Avenue. I turn there to go to the Clarke Drive Skytrain station most mornings. It’s a longer hill at that point so it wasn’t quite as problematic to see oncoming traffic.

What’s interesting to me is the fact that by Monday (three days from now) the sun’s arc will have shifted a few degrees South, just enough to eliminate that glaring condition, and corresponding photo op, at those hills at that particular time in the morning.

(I’m posting this blog post late because it took me 10 more days to get the right photo of the scene that I describe in the post. And the scene I did capture was 5 blocks South of the street I live on. That illustrates how far the sun has marched South in only 10 days.)

That’s the beauty of living at this latitude. Not only do we get all forms of precipitation and cloud cover, we also get a wide array of sunlight scenarios. My wife works with a guy from Cuba, and he tells me that the sun doesn’t have nearly so much of an arc in that region of the world. The temperature stays relatively constant all year, and the hours of daylight don’t change much. I’d never really thought about that before, but of course, it makes sense. The closer you get to the equator, the smaller the sun’s arc will be.

Despite the allure of wearing shorts and sandals year round at Cuba’s latitude, I wouldn’t trade it for the wide variety photo ops in Vancouver.

Orbits

I was walking Shelby this evening and watching the early evening sky, thinking, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if I happened to see the International Space Station fly overhead again?”

Then, as if I'd willed it to happen, it gently glided past overhead. I’ve seen it three times now completely by accident. Now I can say there is definitely a pattern in terms of the time of day it passes overhead; early evening.

The first time I saw it was at the Summer Sessions concert at Ambleside, and the second time was while I was standing in my backyard waiting for my dog. Tonight I noticed another pattern; its navigation through the stars. At Ambleside I was a bit disoriented in terms of where exactly North was located, partly because I don’t live on the North Shore, and partly because we were in the park and I had no roads with which to locate myself. At the time I judged the ISS to be moving from NW to SE.

A few days later when viewing the ISS from my backyard, it was definitely more West to East. It passed just South of the handle of the Big Dipper, then seemed to run parallel to E. 33rd Avenue until it faded quite quickly from view as the Sun set on the much higher Space Station orbit. After seeing the West to East arc I seconded-guessed myself for a moment and thought I’d been wrong about the trajectory of the Ambleside fly-past.

But way back when, I do remember that I thought I was wrong once, but alas, I was mistaken. :-)

Upon seeing the ISS fly over yet again this evening, I can now say with surety that its arc was different from the 33rd Avenue parallel of a couple of nights ago. I first noticed it at 8:20 p.m. PDT; a small bright orb devoid of blinking aircraft lights traveling at a very uniform pace. (That thing must get phenomenal gas mileage, doing steady 'double nickels' down the interstellar interstate. The ultimate cruise control.) It approached the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle, but by then it was already heading off that bearing. It seemed to crest right over our back deck and it finally vanished from my view between two massive Cedar trees two properties to my South.

Theory proven; it’s orbit isn’t static. It’s changing.

One more thing I noticed tonight was that another smaller, dimmer satellite was leading the ISS across the sky, as if it was a tugboat pulling a freighter, tethered by an unseen thread.

The weather is supposed to be clear for the next 7 days according to the most recent forecast so I’m going to try to remember to watch for the Space Station each evening at around 8:15 or so. I want to see how the orbit evolves.

Fading ISS orbit

“Normally, the best times to see the ISS are within an hour or two before sunrise or after sunset. During those times your sky will be dark (barring urban light pollution) but the high-flying ISS can still be sunlit. In the evening the station will look brightest just before entering the Earth's shadow and suddenly "disappearing" partway across the sky. Early in the morning the ISS can abruptly "appear" as it emerges from Earth's shadow.”

Courtesy of http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01dec_1.htm

I decided to actually look up why the Space Station fades from view as it passes overhead. I’m relieved to find out that my theory was right.

An Eventually Identifiable Object (EIO)

Last night I took Shelby outside for her next-to-last visit to the backyard for the evening. I was leaning against the side of our garage looking at the slice of night sky that is visible between the two houses across the back lane. I noticed two really bright stars and I thought to myself, “That’s odd to see two bright stars so close together.”

Normally there are a handful of bright stars on display that really stand out, highlighted against a multitude of stars that are at least semi-veiled from view due to the lights of the city. At various times of the year local solar system planets park themselves in an orbit that makes them visible to the naked eye. In other words, they show up looking like bright stars in Earth’s evening blackness.

I thought these two bright objects must be a planet and a star, or two planets in complementary orbits. I watched them for a few seconds; then I turned to see what Shelby was up to, then back again to the stars. I could swear that one of the bright objects had moved in relation to the electrical power line that crossed my field of vision. I looked at it more critically this time, with specific focus on its suspected travel.

It was indeed moving. Next I had to determine what it was. I had a pretty good idea in mind already. As it approached I detected no blinking lights, which would have been the tell-tale signs of an aircraft.

The reason I was somewhat confidant that I was watching the International Space Station (ISS) is that I saw it on Saturday early evening at Ambleside Park when I was at the Summer Sessions concert. The only difference was that on Saturday night it was traveling from South West to North East, and tonight its trajectory took it from West to East.

The thing that intrigued me the most the other night, and again this night, was that I wasn’t able to watch its whole arc across the sky. I thought I’d be able to follow along until the ISS was obscured from view by the roofs of houses, but it faded from view long before that. I was craning my neck almost straight up when the ISS started to become dimmer and dimmer. In a matter of seconds it was entirely cloaked in inky blackness.

I kind of felt like a scientist at that point, putting an experiment through its paces in hopes of finalizing a thesis, or verifying an assumption. The first time I had witnessed the ISS fade from view before it could cross the horizon line was Saturday night, and now I had my confirmation; for reasons yet unknown the ISS traverses a portion of the visible night sky, visible to all that look up, and then fades when it reaches a certain altitude, or orbit, or intersection of the sun’s rays in the upper atmosphere.

I know I could look it up on the Internet if I felt like it, but I’m really more what you’d call an 'armchair astronomer'. I like looking at the night sky, the darker the better, but I’m not interested enough to crack an astronomy text book and actually study it. Somehow for me, knowing the answers to some of nature’s celestial charades (i.e. orbits) would take away from the wonder of the moment.