A Living Magazine - Day 187 - Homecoming - Blue Sky For Christmas

I woke with a strange sound outside: nothing. I had become so used to the rain pelting the tent, that it was now deafening by its absence. But, it was the nicest "sound" I'd heard all week. Once again, there was the hint of an orange sunrise...

And a little later, patches of blue became visible...

You can't see the blue, because of the contrast of the dark trees, but I swear it was there.

Then, finally, after six days of thunderstorms, clouds, overcast and rain, sunlight touched the forest floor, sparkling off the drops that cling to everything...

The pleasure of sunlight is not just in the light itself, but in the contrasting shadows that it casts, and the refractions as it passes through water and reflects off the green of nature; all represented in a baby plant, just on its way up between the giants that surround it...

It was Christmas morning on a small wooded lot  in Athens, Georgia. Apparently those angels from the night before had sung throughout the downpours, throughout the night, and left a lingering note, sweet enough to scatter the clouds at sunrise.

I got my shoes on as quickly as I could and stepped up and out of the wet doorway of the tent, into the warm muggy air. My one and only thought was to dry whatever I could, before the rain started up again...

After doing my best to get the tarp and poncho hung up, I debated whether to pack up the tent and try to dry that somewhere. But the two sides of the argument in my head ended with the "leave it there" position winning out. There was a compromise though. I would try to dry the tent and tarp the next day, if it was clear for a while...

I learned while writing this post that this gel-like fungus is (not surprisingly),

Jelly fungus, in the class heterobasidiomycete.

And if you see it it your yard don't scrape it off.

It is a beneficial organism that digests dead wood and eats other harmful fungi.

It (and it's colored relatives) is also edible (but apparently not very tasty)

and sometimes used to thicken soups.

I took this picture to show the thread of a spider who has made a web that

I've walked through and accidentally destroyed about three times.

He is a tenacious and hard worker--an example to me; maybe to us all,

as I have come to see all spiders. I've named him Laboriosis--Latin for "hard worker".

There are also many varieties of other fungi around this woods; mushrooms of all kinds, except (unfortunately) the "magic" kind...

I took a walk before heading into town to look for any place that might be open, where I could eat. And found this steep hill on the northern edge of the land...

Then, I turned around to see if how obvious the campsite was from this distance...

 Not too bad. The blue stands out though. It is an unfortunate color for camping gear.

On my way out of the woods, I caught the glint of one of my ornament's green pieces of glitter stuck to my arm...

I decided to head back to the buffet, which I'd overheard the night before would be open. This is the cemetery that I walked by to get there...

I'd been very interested in the last few rainy days in these thousands of clumps of chives that grow all over the place here...

My lunch was quite nice. They had some special items, including Maine lobster! They steam it and then broil it with bread crumbs, lemon, butter and spices, then chop it up, heads and all. Being the local Maine emissary, I knew exactly what the best pieces were, and found quite a few tail chunks.

I also, was able to get online and see your Facebook pictures of the Christmas celebration with your families. I posted the photos of my little tree ornament, then left. I checked Google for WalMart hours, and it said they would be open. So, I decided to go there and try to exchange my now-unneeded keyboard. The sky was blue. Such a welcome sight!

On the way through the small neighborhood that flanked Timothy Avenue, I was struck by the beauty of this bush...

Not sure what kind? Ideas?

When I'd gone to WalMart a few days earlier to buy the keyboard, I'd passed this somewhat-disturbing scene. I was really confused as to why this deer was left to rot right on someone's front yard. In Southern Maine, this would hardly ever happen. There are crews who pick up roadkill. Now that I had batteries for my camera, I had to capture it... 

The beauty of death? Or, the death of beauty?

Flood waters swell a small stream along Ebbs Mill Parkway.

WalMart was NOT open--damn Google liars (kidding)! I walked past it and all the many other businesses that were closed, until I got to a Texaco, run by two Pakistani gentlemen--probably brothers. I was thirsty after the three miles and saw what I thought was close enough to the mango juice I like so much. The word "Natural" caught my eye, stupidly assuming that meant REAL mango and orange would be in it... 

Not a chance...

There sure was plenty of that "Pure Cane Sugar!" though--lord, I could feel my teeth ache with every sip. But, it did the rehydration trick well enough to keep me going.

Since I'd never made it this far down Ebbs Mill and saw an "O" on the road sign in front of me, I walked a bit closer to it. Holding up my devastatingly scratched and dirty glasses, I noticed that it was the other end of the Oconee Connector! Readers may recall that is the street with the University 16 Cinema on it.

Well, I knew that would be open, and I knew how to get back from there, having seen Star Wars there the other day. There was time to kill and I had a little extra cash from a kind donor. I thought I might see Star Wars again, or even better, some other kind of sci-fi film that I hadn't seen yet. So I walked the half mile to the cinema (which was utterly packed with cars and people trying to see Star Wars as a Christmas present).

I walked up the hill in back and stowed Saggy in the same hiding place I'd put it before, then went back and walked along the outside wall of the cinema checking out the "Now Playing" posters. Sure enough there was a movie I'd wanted to see (having seen all the previous episodes), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2. Perfect!

I went in and saw the long lines for concessions and tickets. But, they had a cool thing I'd never seen before--kiosks where I could buy a ticket with my credit card. I figured it out and saw that my film started at 3:30 pm. I checked my watch. It was 3:35. No problem, they always show previews anyway. I bought the ticket--a reasonable $8.00 matinee (this place didn't gouge on Christmas, which was nice).

Settling into Theater 7, and desperately trying to clean my glasses as well as I could, the previews began. Lots of good sci-fi and comedies coming in the next year. The movie was beyond my expectations. It was really fantastic. In some ways much better than Star Wars had been. It had a great ending too! Go see it if you haven't yet. Exciting from start to finish, with great effects and a good solid moral and social message; maybe particularly appropriate to an certain upcoming election.

The last of the pink sunset was still in the sky, but very dark clouds were rolling in from the west when I went back up the hill to grab Saggy (and, it turned out another passenger). Just when I stepped onto Atlantic Highway, the rain began to fall again. Really heavy rain too.

I walked back to the woods area as fast as I could. It was a good thing I'd left the tent set up, because trying to erect it in this weather would have truly sucked. I'd wanted to see how dry it had gotten over the day, but didn't get my chance, as it was now covered with rain.

It was still pretty early and there was nothing else to do, so I read my ebook until I felt tired enough to turn it off. The new big tarp was pretty damp still, and the sleeping bag was as well. I had to sleep on top of the bag again. It wasn't very comfortable, but with the hiking tarp on the head end of the tent and the poncho on the foot end, there were only the inside corners that leaked, and a few napkins stuffed into them kept the water from running under the new tarp (which was also bright blue, ha!).

It was a steady and mostly nice day. I very much enjoyed the blue sky and the great movie. Overall, a very Merry Christmas, indeed.

_______________________________________________________________________

PLEASE CLICK ON OUR SPONSOR ADS BELOW FOR GREAT DEALS!

_______________________________________________________________________