tires making contact with the road

After a long day, and a long month for that matter, we're finally leaving. I've mentioned our plans to several people over the last few days and have gotten a similar response; 'that's a long drive'. My response, 'looking forward to it'. The road, scenery, conversation and silence, beauty, simplicity.

light before the dawn

I was anticipating the following day so in a way, I suspected that sleep would be abbreviated at best. There I was, lying in bed, awake. The clock read 5:12. I remember thinking why I liked that time of day. There is a mysterious hue through the half open window, I suppose it seems this way because I rarely see those hours since leaving college. It is also the time that, if its going to be calm it will be then. The best wind on land is light wind. Calm, no wind, stimuli to the ear. Birds awaken and start calling for company, squirrels begin figuring out how they can get the lid off of the seed can, and leaves on the ground make minute twitches for some weird reason. The light increases at such a slow, measured crawl that changes are hardly noticed. If you were so inclined you could take a very careful observation of the color outside and then close your eyes and wait several minutes - maybe ponder the nights dreams, even fall back asleep. After opening them back up again you may see a light that is a shade or two brighter. Very discrete shadows might have also formed but that would be about it. Still, no wind. Almost no sound. The light within the house is practically nonexistent, more of a lesser degree of darkness than light. Nevertheless, eyes inevitably adjust and outlines become crisp shades of blue and gray. A red shirt hangs on the door and even this is a blue-gray red. My special lady and I are leaving to canoe in about 3 hours so I wake up and read under a lamp for awhile about the chosen river, identifying a few landmarks, making sure I know where were getting out, etc. Nowadays if I'm up at this hour I tend to think about how exhausted I'll be at the end of the day. So I decide to make one last ditch attempt at sleep. Lying in bed I notice that it looks different outside (the light has changed).