Morning Moon

There's a fine balance in the summer months in the house. You have to watch the temps carefully, close the windows and drapes to create the cool cave effect in the afternoons, and know when you're whipped and get the AC on early enough on those days when nothing else is going to keep you from sweating and sticking to the furniture.

Yesterday I was off balance. The house had stayed deceptively cool enough in the early afternoon that I thought we would be okay, but by 5:00 I was cranky and hot. By then, it's no use starting up the AC unless you want to use all of your Xcel "summer tier 1" points in one go. (Xcel's "average" is ridiculously low and you will quickly find yourself paying double for your energy each month.) The little air conditioning unit here is nothing like the house-sized Trane I left behind in Texas and it can't cool down nearly as well as it can just keep the temp the same.

But every morning is made new. The coolness of the mornings is incomparable. I headed off the gym this morning but noticed I was rushing through my circuit just so I could get back home and get the dogs out on the trails. We did about two miles (hills included) today in the glorious morning sunshine, with the moon sticking around to enjoy it too.


I normally would have stepped around the water marker to get it out of my shot, but this robin appeared and decided she wanted her picture taken, too.


The birds must feed on things down in the tall grasses, because all sorts of pretty colored little birds were swooping and diving up and down, in and out, of the fields this morning.


And always, my patient pups wait for me.






It's mornings like these I get the urge to just keep walking forever.