Perseid Meteor Shower

My alarm went off at 4:30 am.  I pulled on my jeans and a denim jacket and sandals and went out in the dark to watch the meteor shower.  It took some time for my eyes to adjust so that I could see things other than the stars and there were some interruptions - like the cat walking by the motion sensor light on the carport a couple of times and lots of noisy animals - a rooster, frogs plopping into the water, even cars passing by on  highway 248, dogs barking, birds chirping, but mostly quiet.  Sitting in a plastic yard chair with my neck bent backwards didn't work very well so I shifted after a bit to the hammock.  I was shocked to learn, the first time I glanced at my phone clock, I had been watching for an hour!  It seemed like no more than 15 minutes.   During that time I saw over two dozen flashes of light!   How can one be so absorbed in something that time simply disappears from the mind?  I can understand this happening when I'm DOING something - but doing nothing?  Also surprising to me was the seeming regularity of the appearance of the "falling stars".  Just as I got a bit lazy about seeking, along came the next flash to grab my attention again.  Some were like quick pencil lines in the sky and others like paint brush strokes.  And all this time, only about a tenth of the sky was visible to me from my vantage point under a tree in the hammock.   I didn't think about grabbing a ground cloth before the show began, but I will in the morning so I can lie on the ground out in the open.  NASA says the show will be good again in the morning.  I understand this event doesn't happen but every 133 years and I guess I won't be around the next time.  But, who knows?  I may have an even better vantage point!