Well, at least people around here are. With the increasing darkness, it is now time to start looking for the Aurora Australis, commonly known as the Southern Lights. I know I blogged about them last year, as well as posted some photos, but the Southern Lights are the counterpart to the well known Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).
From Wikipedia – … It’s southern counterpart, the aurora australis (or the southern lights), has almost identical features to the aurora borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zone[7] and is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America, New Zealand, and Australia. Aurorae occur on other planets. Similar to the Earth’s aurora, they are visible close to the planet’s magnetic poles. Modern style guides recommend that the names of meteorological phenomena, such as aurora borealis, be uncapitalized.
There haven’t been any reports of the amazing phenomenon (yet) but they’re coming. I can feel it. The question is, how well will I be able to see them…
A few days ago, I was pulling an impromptu barista shift. Late into the evening, two of my co-workers and I decided to play in the snow. While Wes was doing a backwards flip into a snow angel, I decided to put my glasses into one of the pockets of our lieutenants “Big Red” and tried diving over a snow bank. I’m short. I didn’t make it. After a hearty laugh and floundering in the snow, I went to retrieve my glasses and lo and behold, they were no longer in the pocket. So there we were, in the dark, looking for my glasses. I caught a glimpse of them against the snow and picked them up. That’s when we discovered that my right lens was missing. The three of us, plus a good friend of ours, Suzy, searched through the snow for the next 30 minutes or so. No luck.
The next day at work, Raymond (our Lt), Mason, and FlareBear (two of my other firefighters) went in search of the lens. Marsha also informed me that she went looking for it at another point that day, and I went looking for it when I got off of work at 1500. So around 4 hours have been spent searching for my missing lens.
It’s still missing.
I get off work at 0700 and plan on going and searching for it this afternoon, before dinner. Hopefully the snow will continue to hold off. The weather has been lovely as of late. And I can still see the stars. I’m very thankful for that.
On a positive note, once I return to my bespectacled state and peruse the photos that I plan on taking throughout the season, it will be like I’ve been down here twice in once season since I don’t have the best vision. But for now, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that I’m able to locate my lens and it won’t be in too terrible a shape.
I’m also very glad that I can enlarge the font on my personal computer, as well as my work computer so I don’t make too many typos when blogging.
I hear the weather is warming up back at home so stay safe and stay cool.
Tori
Victoria In Victorialand 
A quick update, two hours after posting this, I started seeing oodles of auroras!