I observed an object with a peculiar flight path and unusual lighting characteristics.I went outside to investigate whether some rumblings I was hearing was a storm approaching or just a military exercise off in the distance. It was just a military exercise as the sky was quite clear. As I was looking around in the sky for signs of any approaching storm I noticed a bright light that moved at a fairly quick pace (I would estimate the speed of the object to be a little faster than a fighter jet). At first I thought that this was an airplane approaching me directly as the intensity of the light would have been about right. But I quickly ruled this out as the object moved along a perfectly vertical path. I would estimate the object to have been somewhere in the range (+/- a couple miles) of 5 miles from my position. The object rose rapidly in altitude and then came to an abrupt stop. The distance it traversed was about just over a foot (estimating 15 inches) in about 1 second. The light then disappeared for about 1/2 second. When the light came back on the object was about 4 inches above where I last spotted it. The object then remained stationary for 1 to 2 seconds. At this point the intensity of the light was about the same as when I first noticed it. The light then began to change. It started dimming until it again disappeared. As the light dimmed it seemed that the object became smaller but this could have been due to the reduction in the intensity of the light. The light then reappeared (the object still had not moved) with the same intensity as it had at the begining and the dimming sequence was repeated except at a much quicker pace. I called my wife outside and continued to look for the object to reappear. After observing for about 5 minutes and seeing nothing unusual we went back inside.