Before Sunrise
Beginning a morning walk a half an hour before sunrise is a perfect start for the day. I get to experience the silence before people begin their noisy routines, and I can enjoy the darkness and the lights that make everything look very different than it does after sunrise.
Cloudless mornings are especially nice since the stars make guideposts to mark directions and the seasons and I can practice remembering their names and re-trace the constellations. The moon is beginning to wax in the morning sky. The term "waxing moon" is not used much now, but it has such a nice, old-fashioned sound to it. We should use it more often.
It is almost magic that light from the sun travels 93 million miles and a very tiny part of it hits the moon, and an tiny piece of that is reflected towards earth 240,000 miles away, and reaches us to brighten the landscape. Even without the park's lights, I can easily to see to walk.
Crickets and frogs were singing and a light dew was forming on the leaves. Everything was aromatic and slightly moist and it smelled like dawn.
The park lights were enough to make walking easy and to cast shadows from the walking bridge's rails. A tree near the park was turned bright yellow by the color of the sodium light on a building hear the park. The low pressure sodium lights produce far less "sky glow" (a nice term for light pollution). It was like walking through a decorated world that would disappear in just a few minutes.
From the side of the park, the sun was six minutes from official sunrise time. Right on schedule (very fortunate for us!).
As I completed the circle around the park, the ground trembled as a freight train charged across the landscape in all its sound and fury, pulsating sound and rhythmic rumbling of heavy steel wheels on the steel tracks. I could feel the sound against my chest as the four diesel engines passed by!
Three dogs were hiding behind my legs. I think the vibrations in the ground tickle their feet.
Trains are one of the best inventions humans have made. They are safe and carry more freight more cheaply than any other form of transportation! The American Indians called them "Iron Horses."
I have always loved trains and I still stop and watch and feel the energy from the thousands of tons of machinery and freight as it rushes past at high speed.
In 90 seconds, the train had passed and was still gaining speed, headed towards the sunrise as the moon's mirror illuminated the fading night.
Bravo! What a performance!
Images by @willymac
About Me:
My Writing:
- Coco - Being Afraid
- BONELAND
- Losing Shirley
- Jules, Freddie and the Monkey Man
- The Foot
- Beans
- Timeline
- The Time Tree
- The Little Lake Without a Name I
- The Little Lake Without a Name II
- Dog Friends – Inza
- Dog Friends – Sara
- Dog Friends – Millie
- Philonous, Where Are You?
Beautiful photos, @willymac! Thank you for sharing.
I give free park tours if you can be ready to leave at six AM!
howdy sir willymac! hey that routine you have is a most beautiful and peaceful one, I feel great just looking at the photos! And the winters there aren't bad enough to slow you down at that park are they?
Thanks for taking a look, Jonboy! Yep, the routine gets my day off to a good start. The dogs will not let me skip it anyway. When I come in from feeding the critters, the start running in circles with excitement about their walk, so I'm gonna walk, like it or not.
Very few days get too cold to walk in winter but I wait until the day warms up a tad to avoid below-freezing temps.
I appreciate your comments, Tex. Comments in general have just about disappeared lately.
sir willymac! yes sir about the comments, I guess it's going to take the price moving back up to get people more involved again. and I hope that happens soon.
But yes, dogs are so good about keeping us on schedule aren't they? lol.
so it DOES get below freezing there? i didn't know that.
Yep, we don't get a freeze often. Had one last winter that got down to 19 three straight mornings! I had split copper pipes in three places on outdoor faucets and had to do repair work in the below-freezing weather so we could have running water. I really, really do not like working with water when it's that cold!
What's a cold night around your neighborhood in February?
oh man that's torturous to work in that kind of cold and with water! yikes. yeah it gets down to about that, last winter it got down to 13 degrees but thankfully that's unusual, it usually doesn't get below freezing.
Our temps are normally pretty decent, with only occasional dips below 32. Anything below 40 is COLD to me and I gointo mental hibernation until it warms up. I would be happy if it stayed between 60 and 70 year 'round.
oh that 60-70 degree range would be wonderful, so if it gets cold this winter we can expect you to disappear for awhile? lol.
Well, that just goes to show who has the grit to keep on Steemin' and who is here for the money, I suppose.
Personally, I enjoy these conversations and making friends. I have been talking all my life and have never been paid for it before, and if I don't get paid now, I don't take it personally. I know times are hard for the platform, but that should not kill creativity. It certainly has not affected yours.
yes sir willymac meeting so many people from all over the world has it's own rewards and many would stay in touch even if steemit went away, at least that's what I believe.
yeah it's a little hard to keep slugging away as far as posting but the talking to people is great fun so I could do that without pay for sure!
Might as well talk about the mundane things in life since no one is around to be embarrassed by my lack of content.
I just took a break for pulling weeds and "rescuing" some centipede grass I need to transplant as part of my scheme to beautify my world. It's a near-term plan to make the yard easier to care for with my riding mower so I can whack it all down and not have to do too much manual pulling.
And then I tried to figure out why my solar panel charge controller is not working: blown fuse, fixed, but still in failure mode. More checking: it got zapped before the fuse went and puts out 3.4 volts instead of 12. Rat!
More business for Amazon!
I agree about keeping in touch. Got kind of interested in what's happening in North Texas, in Oregon with Glen, and Pete down in SA. At least y'all talk to me!
Howdy back sir willymac! hey real world work comes before steemit that's for sure, maybe when it's cold in the winter you will be caught up on here and do more posting.
Yes those are some great guys to talk to, you don't have trouble finding people to talk to do you?
your solar power system, what does that power, what appliances?
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Lovely thoughts and photos! I love trains, too.
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