When the sky is clear at night and pitch black, we can see millions of stars. We can make out constellations (though sadly, we only know about 4 of them by heart) and we can practically reach out and touch the moon when it’s clear. It’s so CLOSE. It’s so bright! The moon isn’t full tonight, but the air is clear as all get out, which it was today as well, after the heavy fog cover burned off just past noon. The sky was a translucent robin’s egg blue, all over, with no flaws and no clouds. The flags around work were snapping in the breeze, their flagpoles thrumming as the wind pushed at them. Seagulls were screaming high on the wing. They always startle me; I always look up. Even after 15 years, I never expect to hear seagulls even though we are only about half an hour from the ocean.
When I park the car in the driveway at night, and get out, I’m often arrested by the stars. They stop short of throwing me up against the driver’s side door and cuffing me, but just barely. Orion is lounging over the ditch, tilted jauntily. If I walk between the house and the garage, to the half-circle of stone that juts into the backyard, I’m far enough away from the streetlights to be able to really see the stars. And right straight ahead and not that far up are two particularly bright ones. None of us remember them being there before, so we thought they must be satellites. Or a new immaculate conception come to fruition. They didn’t seem to move, they just seemed to suddenly be there when it gets dark; but thanks to my readers, I now know that they are Venus & Jupiter! Apparently, they were having celestial PDA recently (kiss the sky takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?). One’s eyes are drawn to them regardless, especially the top one, which is far and away brighter than anything else around it.
They make me long for summer. They make me yearn for lying on the trampoline, watching for shooting stars. They make me want to live forever.
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I’m in a re-reading phase. In the midst of perusing my bookshelves with a mind for purging, in preparation for the AWC media sale next week, I realized that I have tons of books that I haven’t read in a really, really long time, and some of them I have only ever read once. I kept them, so one would assume that they were really good, but many of them were kept before I started my current “if I don’t think I will re-read it, out it goes” policy. So, even though I have a tall stack of unread new books, I decided last week that I am going to spend at least a month to re-read old ones. So far, I have burned through 3 and 2 of them have already been tossed into the donation bag. Rawr!
Bright Light Birthday Wishes to Amy