Summer Nights

Sunset with Low Clouds - Yorkville, IL

Same view as the Summer Solstice sunset shot. Today, the vibrant colors of the setting sun were meant for someone else, and we got low clouds. They’re probably a preview of the rain predicted tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We’re still in a bit of a lull, but we’re hoping to be back pounding the asphalt pretty soon. It’s been good for me to have some time to think and reflect. To slow down a little more from even our relatively consistent snail like pace. To sit.

While I was sitting on a big pile of gravel trying to bottle the sunset, I heard the distinctive pop and crack of a string of firecrackers being set off in the neighborhood just over my left shoulder.  I glanced in that direction, and was rewarded with the high pitched whine and sharp pop associated with bottle rockets.

Probably kids dipping into the Fourth of July supply a little early on a cool summer evening. It brought me back to a simpler time when me and my best friend Scott would spend summer evening outside well after sunset. We’d poke around the neighborhood playing war and peeking in windows. Wearing our camouflage so we wouldn’t get caught, and finally learning the the light inside a house creates a reflection on the inside of the windows that greatly concealed our exploits from those inside.

The air would be cool, and maybe even a little damp as the stifling humidity from earlier in the day chilled. Warm radiance from the concrete and asphalt would be the only reminder of the hot afternoon that hand preceded the coolness of the evening.

I remember thinking how much I wanted to do when I finally grew up. To drive, and to go where I wanted. To work and have money and buy the things I believed would make me happy. To be my own person and set my own rules.

I was looking forward so much, that I didn’t recognize that I had all those things at the time, except maybe the car. I also didn’t have the car insurance which nobody really explains to you when you’re twelve.

Anyway, it was a good nostalgic day where I was able to recapture some of the freedom of my youth that I didn’t fully appreciate back when I had it.