Just like that, wiped out! I know I had two items. I can't remember either, at the moment.
Oh, having said that, one came back. I was sitting at the table working on finances, when Mary came bursting in: "Come see the moon and Venus!" Well, I had forgotten that too. I had made a note in my diary to check out the sky after sunset, and I had forgotten. But Fortunately, Mary was outside and she looks up too. I went immediately. The sky was gorgeous. The center of the beauty was Venus close to the newish moon. There was only a sliver of the moon lighted by the sun, but the entire disk was illuminated by earthshine. According to my monthly sky chart, Mercury was below Venus, but not visible to us. We had to climb Mary's tree house platform to see Venus and the moon, but it was worth the effort.
Above Venus, and slightly to the south, I could just make out Mars. From our house the problem with seeing the sky in the west from our yard is the tree line. The trees mostly block our vision of the western horizon. While I was looking up, I remembered that when I first met Mary, she too liked the stars and was genuinely interested. In my early experience, a girl who liked the stars was a rare find.
Mary said the WLEX weather man, Bill Meck, said the comet was visible near the Pleiades which was directly overhead. We couldn't find the comet, but then my neck doesn't bend that way anymore either. I also discovered that at night, on uneven ground, under a clear sky, I can hardly stand without falling. Fortunately Mary kept holding me up.
In the east, lovely Orion was fully visible and Sirius was just rising. Jupiter was't above the horizon yet. I think in a few nights both Jupiter and Venus will be above the horizon together, Jupiter rising and Venus setting, but both visible and certainly worth seeing for a bit. As I said, the sky is gorgeous now; go out and look up: look to the east and look to the west. The planets are fascinating, always.