Saturday evening

It was a Saturday night. Lucky and I were the only ones home, and he had sat at home for most of the day. I decided to hook him up to his leash and head out the door for his walk. The evening was uncharacteristically mild, and the air was more fresh than crisp. I had worked, that day, and lifted weights at the gym, right afterward. I was still sore from the workout, but Lucky still had to be walked. One of the really healthy benefits of owning a dog is the fact that they need to be exercised every day. The kids and I got Lucky from the Sacramento SPCA. He was seven years old, at the time, and quite large. He had been at the shelter for the better part of four months, so the kids and I decided to take him home with us. Lucky knew that he had caught a break. He is an even tempered dog, very athletic (even though he’s now ten years old), and likes our cats.
There was a full moon, that night. The intense light from the full moon and the presence of a few ribbons of clouds in the evening sky lent a depth to the colors of the evening sky which I hadn’t seen for years. There was relatively little traffic on the neighborhood streets, so I felt my attention drawn to the evening’s skies.
The combination of a relatively brisk walk in deserted, moonlit, suburban streets subtly immersed me in an almost surreal pool of sensory stimuli. I found myself, at once, fascinated by the differing hues of midnight blue, grays, and silver from the mix of the clouds, the evening sky, and the almost beacon-like light of the moon. I could see several constellations of stars in between the pewter-lined clouds. The freshness of the air, and the relative mild temperature that night all flowed upon every sense of my being as some sort of gentle waterfall.
I was given to ponder my past, and my present. I wondered how things were going to work out. I actually had several options for my future start to gel at that time. One option would have me working seriously long hours every week, but I would still live in Sacramento County, and still be able to teach. The other option would have me move to the San Francisco Bay Area; beginning a new life, with a new career. Both options were certainly what I had wanted for myself, now that my two children were either grown or nearing graduation from high school. I was spending a lot of energy on the San Francisco option; studying, changing up my workout, and working through several scenarios with regard to our home (i.e., Sell? Rent?).
Lucky was starting to breath harder, by the second mile, but his tail was still curled upward, and he still led the way home. I marveled at how deserted the streets were, that evening. This feast for the senses was just for Lucky and me to experience. We strode up to our driveway; I stretched out, and then led us into the house. I stood in the backyard, on the patio, for a few moments, while Lucky ate his dinner. I was still taken by the beauty of that night; a beauty enhanced by the advent of the possibility of some fairly significant, positive changes in my life. I sipped a glass of water, smiled at the beauty of that evening, and went inside.