Check the time out on this one, Campers! By the time I finish composing this it will be past 4:30 AM; and I have not been to bed yet.... It's a relatively cool night for Washington in late June. The dew point is below 60, so the air is actually breathable. I don't even have the AC on here!
I'm just home from a little foray into the city and on the drive out of the District I was struck again by the beauty of the night. Shadows and light artificially constructing a world where ones depth perceptions bear no resemblance to those we take for granted in the stark light of the sun. It's like entering into the beautiful painting by the 19th century German Realist Painter, Adolph Menzel, entitled, "The Departure After the Party" (http://www.cmoa.org/collections/popup/pbig.html).
Glancing up to see the moon, I was also reminded of similar summer nights at my previous home in Kentucky. Situated on a rise just above the palisades of the Kentucky River, many was the time when I would spread a blanket upon the front lawn and lay for hours in the dead of the night star gazing, my various pets at my side. The Milky Way was usually clearly discernable, as were so many constellations within and beyond its hazy band of stars.
The night is an amazing place. A place of wonder. It nearly drives me to scorn sleep and never want to miss anything! But, that's impossible....well, at least in the mortal sense.
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