I saw 3 lights in the night sky. They never moved, but changed in light intensity. They were originally extremely bright when I first saw them, and they slowly went dim. I noticed them because it looked like 3 bright full moons at first. They never moved in over a half an hour. Were way too big to be stars (were about the size of the moon), made no sound that I could hear. One went dark before the other 2, but they too eventually faded from view.

I have no clue what they were.

Sure, it happens at work occasionally. There's just too much in the world for me to know, let alone explain, everything that happens ;)

For me I think the answer is maybe a teeny yes but mostly an overwhelming No. Because ..... though a very curious person, I accept there are lots of things that to me are unknown and even unknowable in the world around us. Unknowable to me sometimes even because of circumstances, including when it isn't feasible to find out or if there's no one to ask.

Never, ever do I puzzle over something I see in the sky. There are far too many possibilities of what can create real or apparent objects one thinks are seen - which sometimes are there and sometimes aren't. I have no curiosity about such things at all because I'm comfortable with the assumption that I know what they're likely not and what they are - a planet, a star, a satellite, a plane, a reflection or whatever - is not of interest to me.

Now, what I have curiosity about is this - when driving by agriculture fields, whether row crops or orchards, I always wonder what's growing. A few things are obvious, most aren't. I wish they'd put out small signs describing what's there, I think people would find it interesting to know.

I haven't seen anything that odd, but Elmer, seeing artichokes in the field for the first time was a surprise. I don't know what I had expected.

Crop I.D. signs that I have seen were in fields of corn in test or demonstration plots. Each group of rows had signs identifying the brand name of the corn so that passerby's could compare the varieties. Sometimes in fields where a commercial seed corn company is producing hybrid corn seed, will have signs usually to mark rows that are to be detassled.

Signs on crop fields are fairly common here, especially in Eastern WA where they grow lots of grain crops. But I wish there were even more than there are because, I, too, find it interesting to see how different things grow. I especially love seeing (and smelling) the hops in fields that they grow for making beer.

hops farming

Sealavender, when I said "A few things are obvious", I specifically had artichokes in mind. Similarly, lemon and orange trees are hard to get wrong. Same for corn but what kind of corn doesn't interest me.

What I was thinking of were situations I encounter in my area - when driving at freeway speed through the Salinas Valley or other places passing fields of row crops that appear to be leafy greens, what's lettuce and what's spinach or kale or something else? If lettuce, what kind is it? When driving through the Central Valley and passing orchards- if nuts, are they almonds or pistachios or something else? If stone fruit, what kind (especially when at the blossom stage because no identifying fruit is visible. Even when there is, what's a plum, what's a pluot?). Covered fields with what's apparently berry bushes - what kind?

Fields of grain aren't particularly common in my area and even if they were, they don't interest me.

Elmer, I think what I had wrong on artichokes was the scale of the plant. I am originally from the NE, and while I remember seeing thistles as weeds, the connection to artichokes wasn't all that obvious to me at highway speed. I remember my father bringing one home from the grocery store; neither of my parents had any idea what to do with it, so they had to call Italian-American friends for advice. Agreed on the almonds/pistachio orchards visible along the 46 or 5. I understand that pistachios bear heavier crops on alternate years, but I'm not sure how that works with drought cycles.

I think all ag products grown in California are irrigated so while water supplies from runoff and the need for aquifer recharging for ground water levels are affected by a particular year's snow and rainfall, product production shouldn't be as long as there's available water deliveries to the growing sites. Irrigated orchards may very well have alternating good and bad years if that's the normal cycle of the tree type, I wouldn't know. Orchards being long term investments, I suspect they get priority for water so that the trees don't die. Most row crops are annuals and don't need to be planted in any particular year if water supplies for the grower or field are limited.

If you've had the otherwise monotonous experience of driving along Hwy 5, you've probably seen the signs visible at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, near Grapevine - Food Grows Where Water Flows.

On your comment, you might be amused to learn that using "the" in front of a highway number is much more common in SoCal than in NorCal, where the number can be used without a "the". I'm a SoCal native but moved north before the "the" came into vogue. I know LA freeways by name, not by numbers. It's easier for me, especially with instances of freeways with segments with different numbers. Or, the reverse, sections of the same Hwy number that are used for freeways of different names. Is "The 5" the San Diego Fwy, the Santa Ana Fwy, or the Golden State Fwy in SoCal? Of course you know the answer - it's all three! But not all of the San Diego Fwy is The 5, because part of it is The 405.