I’m talking about the shooting down of the 200-foot tall white Chinese spy balloon (taller than the Statue of Liberty! Four times the size of the Snoopy balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!) over the coast of South Carolina and the 50-car cargo train derailment in Ohio.

No doubt you have heard about the Chinese spy balloon, as well as the three unidentified aerial objects subsequently shot out of the sky by F-22 Raptor stealth tactical fighters, one over the Arctic Sea near Deadhorse, Alaska, one over the Yukon in Canada and the third over Lake Huron in Michigan. Not much is known about these last three, apparently, as their remains have not yet been recovered and analyzed. Don’t worry, though, because they are probably not the work of aliens from outer space, according to official U.S. government sources.

“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these crafts, period,” stated John Kirby, White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications during a White House briefing with reporters Feb. 13. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no, again no, indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.”

On the other hand, when asked whether he had ruled out extraterrestrials as the source of the mysterious airborne objects, NORAD Commander General Glen VanHerck said he hasn’t ruled out anything.

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” he replied.

The three unidentified objects were much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon, unmanned, unpropelled, not sending signals or being maneuvered, seemingly drifting with the prevailing winds, Kirby said. The one shot down over Lake Huron was octagonal, “with strings hanging down,” while the one over the Yukon was cylindrical. Both have been described as being “about the size of a small car.”

The Chinese spy balloon, in contrast, had a “signals intelligence array,” an antenna capable of locating communications devices and listening in on them. Officials haven’t said whether the focus was on military or civilian eavesdropping.

NORAD is now finding more unidentified aerial phenomena than before the white balloon was seen because it is more actively looking for them, and not because there are more of them all of a sudden, according to Kirby.

In contrast with the spy balloon, which traveled at about 60,000 feet, the three unidentified aerial objects destroyed over the weekend flew at lower altitudes, from 20,000 feet to 40,000 feet, and thus posed a danger to transcontinental air traffic, which operates at about 30,000 feet.

In a news conference on Monday, Feb 13, in Whitehorse, Yukon’s capital, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke about the four unidentified aerial objects, including the one taken down over Yukon territory on Feb. 11.

“Obviously there is some sort of pattern in there — the fact we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest. … The presence of those aerial objects in North American airspace was a very serious situation,” Trudeau said.

Asked why the object over Yukon was not destroyed by Canadians, Trudeau answered, “NORAD is a joint command, which means we do things together over North America, and there were Canadian and American fighter jets scrambled to intercept the object and to take it down.

“Our focus was not on which side gets credit for what,” Trudeau said.

And on to the other extraordinary unrelated event: the tragic train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

The crash occurred when a 50-car cargo train derailed, spilling toxic chemicals including highly combustible vinyl chloride as well as butyl acrylate. A huge fire was the result, producing a dense black plume of smoke. Local residents within a mile of the crash were told to evacuate. Those returning to their homes now complain that the air has a powerful chemical odor and that fish and other wildlife near the site are dying.

In an eerie coincidence, the novel “White Noise” by Don DeLillo, published in 1985, is based on almost exactly the same scenario. The movie “White Noise” based on the novel, now available on Netflix, was filmed in East Palestine, the same town where the real-life accident recently occurred.

I hope the month improves.

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen lives in Keene Valley. She has been writing for the News for more than 20 years.)