Stars on a Country Night…

Yesterday evening found my tent set up in the backyard. I crawled into it around 8 PM and read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by candle lantern for what seemed like hours. I finally went to sleep to a cool night and awoke hours later soaking wet from sweat. My sleeping bag was just too hot for the mild weather we are having. I trudged inside and started a pot of coffee and am sitting here in the wee hours of the morning writing waiting on sunrise and a hearty breakfast.

It was a beautiful night though tonight. Our recent usual after midnight fog had yet to roll in off of the Chattahoochee River and a thousand myriad stars greeted me upon the night sky as I stuck my head out of my tent. It is times like that I most want to light up a cigarette. I actually fumbled for my pack in my shirt pocket out of habit. Ursa Major (The big dipper) greeted me as one of the more recognizable constellations. I breathed in deeply the cool night air with what are now free breathing lungs as my eyes gathered in the pale light from a starlit country night sky. The muted orange glow of the lights of the city shone on the horizon.

I ate supper over at my parent’s house yesterday. Dad had cooked a wonderful pot of vegetable beef soup. I sat at the kitchen table as mom asked me a thousand questions about my various doctor’s appointments as dad lay on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. Their two cats were stretched out in front of their gas heater in some hypnotic like trance that the heater seems to induce upon them.

“That heater is like kitty crack,” I told my father of their two cats.

He laughed heartily.

“Can you believe it has been two weeks since I last had a cigarette?” I then asked my father.

“That’s amazing,” He replied. “I bet your food tastes better and your sense of smell is returning.”

I nodded in agreement as I ate another spoonful of delicious vegetable soup followed by a hearty bite of cornbread dipped in the broth of that soup.

I did hike six miles yesterday. I walked the tracks looking for photo opportunities. I am like a child again in anticipation of getting my digital camera. I want to do a photo essay of my daily hike downtown upon the tracks a few days after Christmas. I think that will be my first project. I also want to do a video of me and Maggie in the backyard interacting.

Well, let me go get some breakfast started. I don’t think I can wait until sunrise. I am starving and my stomach is grumbling.