Midnight Christmas Eve
Since sometime in the late 1960's, it's been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. It doesn't matter which midnight, and I often make both, but at 74, midnights seem to be getting later, and winter nights are feeling colder. Living here in my old house on the edge of a small rural Iowa town, I used to be able to just step outside and enjoy the subtle, muted, beauty of the night. In recent years, however, light pollution has reared it's ugly, blinding head like it has in so many other places, and I tend to walk back through the local cemetery to escape the blinding lights along the bike path and the church parking lot to my southwest. (Hell's used car lot.) But enough of that... it's Christmas Eve.
Aside from a couple of cold snaps, we've had a mild winter so far. Very little snow, (none now,) and as I headed out the back door at 11:50, the temperature was 30 degrees F... I walked to the bottom of the hill by my house and headed south on the bike path. It had been cloudy all day, and so it was tonight. While it wasn't foggy, I'd say there was a light haze that blurred the horizon to my south... I reached the point where the bike path turned west, and continued on south. Soon, grave stones began appearing to my right as I entered the local cemetery. The trees along the southern horizon appeared as a formless dark mass through the light haze. The south breeze was a little cool, and I tightened the collar of my coat a bit. I dropped off a little teddy bear at the grave of a tiny girl who'd never known a Christmas, and headed on south. Soon I was on a single lane crushed rock cemetery road, and followed it on south, grave stones on both sides. I knew a number of these people... Gradually, as I got closer, the formless dark mass on the horizon showed as individual trees. Reaching the south side of the cemetery, I took a jut to the west, and then found a spot between two evergreens to hide from some of the light. I pressed the button on my Timex, and it was midnight. MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm an old stargazer, and I often come back here with binoculars, but there would be no stars of Christmas tonight. I gazed in vain for maybe a dim twinkle showing through the clouds, but there were none. Every night is beautiful in it's own way though, and often more varied in appearance than by the light of day. The harvested field to my south sloped down away from me, textures and detail muted by the haze. The trees along the little creek south of that showed only as a formless dark mass.
I turned to walk back home, and although I usually use a red flashlight to find my way back, somewhat blinded by the lights ahead, I didn't need it tonight... Maybe the thin haze dimmed the lights just a bit, or reflected light back down to the ground. A cow made some kind of baleful honking sound behind me, and I headed back to the warmth of home.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, and to all a good night
Marty
Since sometime in the late 1960's, it's been my personal tradition to be outside at midnight on Christmas. It doesn't matter which midnight, and I often make both, but at 74, midnights seem to be getting later, and winter nights are feeling colder. Living here in my old house on the edge of a small rural Iowa town, I used to be able to just step outside and enjoy the subtle, muted, beauty of the night. In recent years, however, light pollution has reared it's ugly, blinding head like it has in so many other places, and I tend to walk back through the local cemetery to escape the blinding lights along the bike path and the church parking lot to my southwest. (Hell's used car lot.) But enough of that... it's Christmas Eve.
Aside from a couple of cold snaps, we've had a mild winter so far. Very little snow, (none now,) and as I headed out the back door at 11:50, the temperature was 30 degrees F... I walked to the bottom of the hill by my house and headed south on the bike path. It had been cloudy all day, and so it was tonight. While it wasn't foggy, I'd say there was a light haze that blurred the horizon to my south... I reached the point where the bike path turned west, and continued on south. Soon, grave stones began appearing to my right as I entered the local cemetery. The trees along the southern horizon appeared as a formless dark mass through the light haze. The south breeze was a little cool, and I tightened the collar of my coat a bit. I dropped off a little teddy bear at the grave of a tiny girl who'd never known a Christmas, and headed on south. Soon I was on a single lane crushed rock cemetery road, and followed it on south, grave stones on both sides. I knew a number of these people... Gradually, as I got closer, the formless dark mass on the horizon showed as individual trees. Reaching the south side of the cemetery, I took a jut to the west, and then found a spot between two evergreens to hide from some of the light. I pressed the button on my Timex, and it was midnight. MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm an old stargazer, and I often come back here with binoculars, but there would be no stars of Christmas tonight. I gazed in vain for maybe a dim twinkle showing through the clouds, but there were none. Every night is beautiful in it's own way though, and often more varied in appearance than by the light of day. The harvested field to my south sloped down away from me, textures and detail muted by the haze. The trees along the little creek south of that showed only as a formless dark mass.
I turned to walk back home, and although I usually use a red flashlight to find my way back, somewhat blinded by the lights ahead, I didn't need it tonight... Maybe the thin haze dimmed the lights just a bit, or reflected light back down to the ground. A cow made some kind of baleful honking sound behind me, and I headed back to the warmth of home.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, and to all a good night
Marty
