Time Gone By

By mid-morning this morning the sky was unbelieavably and unexpectedly blue, and I was struggling to maintain focus in my office.  I am not sure if others who live here feel the same way, but when the sky turns blue in this mostly grey town, I find it next to impossible to focus on anything but my need to be outside. 

It was mid-morning on a Friday before a long weekend.  It was payday (only the second pay check I have received since December 31).  I had already worked 8 hours of overtime this week attending mind-numbing meetings, and I wanted to be outside.  No..........not just outside.  I wanted to be away from town.  Away from cars.  Away from meetings and noise and people and all the sights and sounds that make up this city.  I wanted to be alone and just.........out.

That wasn't in the cards today of course, since I still had a good deal of work to do before I could call it the end of the week.  So the best I could do was to sneak in a quick walk down by the water before the sun potentially disappeared again.  To be seen again.....who knows when??

Some random thoughts on this Friday evening:

1.  I will bike out to my rental house tomorrow.  Partly because I so much need to be out of town and out "in the country" right now I can hardly stand it.  Partly because I want to see my house again.  And partly to time the ride out.  I am trying to find a cheap vehicle (until I get my truck when I go back to Tennessee) to get me back and forth between work and my house when I move out there at the end of February.  But if I cannot find a cheap vehicle I will be riding this bike.  The distance does not concern me (I have ridden a bike that distance to work in TN, in much hillier terrain).  But the days are still short (until the time change in mid-March), and the season is still technically winter (regardless of the mild winter we have seen in Juneau so far).  Anyway - a reason to bike, and be out of town, and to take many wonderful pictures I hope.....

2.  I walk everywhere I go right now (which is easy to do when you work downtown and live in a downtown hotel), so I pass many people in my foot travels.  Nearly everyone who crosses my path smiles at me, and many tell me "hello" or "good morning".  I like that.....

3.  As I was walking to work this morning a "white splat" hit the ground just as I passed underneath a street light.  I looked up and saw a raven sitting on the cross beam of the street light and realized that the white splat had come from him.  I imagined for a split second that it was the same crow who had stared me down the other day - standing on the rock double dog daring me to come closer, as I was taking his picture.  Thank goodness I had not been walking just a foot or so to the left on the sidewalk.........

4.  3 people were shot dead and 3 more were wounded at the University of Alabama in Huntsville today.  My oldest son went to UAH for the first two years of his college experience.  For just a split second that realization makes your heart skip a beat......

5.  I miss my Mountain Boy.  We were apart for my birthday.  We will be apart for Valentine's Day.  We spent an entire lifetime searching for and eventually finding each other, and the time that we have spent being apart seems like such a loss.  Time gone by that can never be recaptured.