Thursday, October 31, 2013

under the milky way tonight.

It's Samhain. Cool, humid, windy. The streets are alive with trick-or-treaters, but for once in my life, I am avoiding it. I didn't get a pumpkin or sweep the walk, earlier this week, and suddenly, I've been busy and so Halloween is happening without me, as I eat my takeout Cuban medianoche sandwich and dig my toes into Cricket's warm fur.

Yesterday, Burdock called me at work, to tell me that a dear old (from 1980) friend of ours had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I am stunned. His brother and sisters had been my dear friends for years - they were all my soul siblings in my college and twenties years. Time and distance had spread us, but we were still close. I cannot imagine the world without him, and my heart breaks for his family, his partner, his coworkers...

This year has been one for the books. Gary, an old D&D friend from that same era, Ella, and now Steven. sigh. The veil is thin, and many are passing through...

It has been the perfect fall day, the sad news notwithstanding. Cloudy and a little hazy, warm, windy. Trees finally turning, and leaves blowing in the breezes. Work was enjoyable, though I felt, in many ways, that I was fighting against the rising tide of child/sugar alchemy...glad to send the munchkins off to their costumes and parties for the evening. I am certain they will all be useless tomorrow.

This weekend, I am taking a stargazing class at Arabia Mountain - a granite outcropping in Lithonia, known for its good night skies. Usually it is closed to public access at dusk, but this class gets me in, and a hike to the top of its granite hump, to look at the late autumn stars. I will dedicate the trip to my friend Steven, who was a scientist, and lover of all things wild and natural.

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