January 8, 2024
The first coffee of the day is usually a hot latte made with our espresso machine. There’s something about the rich taste of a freshly pulled shot that puts drip coffee to shame. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good hot cup of coffee with a little half and half cream, but for me, the day starts right with something a little more rich.
I did a nice yoga practice in my office this morning. It feels good to stretch and move my body first thing in the morning. I especially like finishing workouts before the day starts. It’s a way to “pay yourself first”. With the position of the earth in relation to the sun in winter time, it gets dark before I even finish work. That makes it tough to workout after a full day’s work. Get it done early, and you’ll get it done.
This morning, I went outside to heat my wife’s SUV before she left for work. This always happens around 6:45 AM, when the sky is lighting. For a few minutes every morning, about thirty-seven to thirty minutes before sunrise, the sky seems to always be full of color. There are deep hues of oranges and pinks, and sometimes patches of blue that range from midnight to sky blue as the sun approaches the horizon. The sight is so mesmerizing that it is hard not to stare at the pine grove that stands between my house and the horizon. The trees, some bare, look like pitch, their silhouettes pokey, but still beautiful with the colored back-light.
After my wife left for work, I took a morning walk into the woods, partly to check the trail cameras and partly to forest bathe. The camera by the creek bed highlighted the mischievous ongoing of the usual suspects, a tight family of four raccoons. All the deer corn I laid down in the forest was gone, and there were swirls left in the thick bed of pine needles, where deer muzzled the forest floor in search of rogue kernels. The camera near the pine grove showed five deer, but the bucks I was looking for were nowhere to be seen.
As I climbed up on a large rock that oversees the creek, I noticed the small fishes were still there. This was odd, since the raccoons are skilled at smelling out snacks. When I checked the trail camera guarding the rock, I found out why the raccoons had avoided the area. The camera captured two videos of a large bobcat marking the area. The cat looked thick and mean.
This afternoon, I received a surprise shipment of small Field Notes notebooks. I forgot I had ordered a new model named, Expedition. These small notebooks, bright orange on one side and black on the other, had waterproof and tear-proof paper, making them perfect for jotting notes out in the field, in the rain, or out on the lake.
It was a busy workday and my wife worked a little later than expected. We opted for a quick, easy dinner that minimized effort while maximizing our eating pleasure. Tonight, we feasted on our new favorite frozen pizza brand, Crazy Mike’s Pizza. After dinner, I washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. I took a quick shower, jotted down some notes in my journal, and then headed promptly to bed. Tomorrow would start at 4 AM, so I could finish my morning rituals and make an early morning yoga class at the YMCA.