A Light

Last night my Dad watched Relia for us so we could have a night to our own. I decided to take the FP Gal for a walk all over NW Austin. It was something of a nostalgia trip for me and if your house was somewhere in the NW, we either drove past or walked past and it was pointed out and celebrated appropriately.
I'm always struck by how quiet it is down there. I love how dark the houses are, with only the soft blue of a TV set showing on the living room curtains. The thick trees block out the street lights so you end up moving from lit bubble to lit bubble.
As we were walking I was keeping half an eye on the stars, much more visible there than up here. Suddenly I noticed a bright star where I hadn't noticed one before. And...was it moving? I stopped and pointed it out to the FP Gal and asked her if it could be a plane. She thought maybe a satellite but it seemed too bright. After a good twenty seconds (at least) it faded to nothing and was gone.
Just last week I'd been reading about a current meteor shower, the Scorpiids. The angle of this shower is such that it leads to long, slow meteors that often turn into sparking fireballs. I couldn't help but wonder if that's what we saw.
Only one problem, these meteors should have been close to the horizon and this was too high up. Talked with the FP Gal's father tonight and he had a different thought. The space shuttle landed early this morning. Maybe we saw it on a low orbit. How cool would that be?