My new home is off-grid. I put up a few solar panels and installed some lead-acid batteries a few months back, but for now I have to be pretty careful with electricity use. There are few lamps in the house (actually, I can only think of two) and even the number of blinkenlights are limited. I turn down my keyboard backlight and the weather station display at night to save power. Last night was just past the new moon, I believe, and the early cresent set just after sunset. This is one of the world’s better seeing spots, with some major observatories only a few miles away.
At night, it’s dark.
It isn’t always quiet.
There is an invasive coquí frog that has a loud and distinctive call that can often fill the night air. They have become the dominant element of the night soundscape.
For some reason, around 03:30 this morning, the coquís went (almost) completely silent for about two hours. Having recently relocated from Deepest Suburbia, where the sky is never very dark and the sounds of roaring automobiles are never far away, it was a moving experience. So very dark. So very quiet. So astonishingly peaceful.
—2p