Life is good!

"Why do you wake up so early?" asked my neighbor, when in our conversation I told him that I typically wake up sometime before six.  "Do you have to go milk the cows?"

No milking cows, but early do I get out of bed.  Old habits are hard to shake off.

"But, why that early?" is perhaps a question that is in your mind too.

Every once in a while, I, too, ask myself that very question.  Why not take it easy?  Why not sleep in?  Especially when the weather is so conducive to that activity.  It is not as if it is unbearably hot and humid, which makes any activity unbearable.

I get rewarded.  Rewards that one cannot possibly earn by sleeping.  Heck, rewards that one cannot earn even by earning gazillions of dollars.

Like the reward earlier today.

It was a pleasant 49 degree early morning as I pulled out of the garage.  The first thing I realized was that it was not raining, after all the gallons that poured out of the sky yesterday.  I opened the sunroof.

And, a sun that was fighting a good fight to break through the cloud cover.

I started humming "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone."  It was going to be a great day.

Even the traffic lights were all green every time I neared them.  Come to think of it, I should perhaps have bought myself a powerball ticket, given the start to the day.

Oh, but, no powerball winnings would have ever equaled what I did earn.

A few minutes into the drive, the sun broke through an opening in the eastern sky.  The sky immediately lit up with colors that I didn't even know were possible.

The sights were awesome in the side view mirror, and I kept looking over my shoulder to get a glimpse of the real thing.

"I wish I had listened to Joe" I thought to myself.

Why Joe?  He is meticulous about car maintenance.  Rain or shine, his cars are spotless, as if they just rolled off the showroom.  I, on the other hand, rarely ever even dust my car.  If I had paid attention to his comments, then I would have had nothing but awesome views in the side-view mirror, through the passenger side window.

I didn't care.  I continued to drive and fished for my iPhone.  I got to the camera function and clicked as I drove.

But, the human that I am, I was not content with that.  I looked up through the sunroof.  It was spectacular.

The problem with driving along a country road, and not on the interstate, is that often there is no shoulder space to pull over.  But, I needed to record my reward for waking up early.

I held the camera in one angle,with my eyes on the road, and clicked.

I picked up another evidence of the reward that I enjoyed throughout most of the drive.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring!  Perhaps a tasty pasta dinner, with a salad on the side, and a tiramisu with decaf to wrap up the day?

Hey, a man can dream, can't he, even though he woke up many hours ago, and bedtime is a couple more hours away?