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I got up due to unpleasant reasons. Jon and I fell off the nutrition wagon last night after getting out of the Ballet, which was fabulous, but the plan is I’ll blog about that in more detail later in the day when I’m more wide awake. But that fast food treat that kept us from having to cook after a long day, well, we’re paying for it now. It seems like the healthier we eat the less junk food our systems can tolerate, like putting cheap gas in your engine just after you’ve upgraded it. So, at 5:30 A. M. I’m out in the yard with Pip on his leash and Sasquatch squirreling around at my feet. Why is Pip on a leash, and Sas not? Because Sas’s come is solid and Pip’s is not. Also, Pip is faster and I’ve chased him through the neighborhood a couple of times. Not my idea of fun at O-dark-thirty. And it’s finally cold here; I could feel it pressing on the bathroom wall in the guest room. I put on a long-sleeved shirt, another shirt over that, then put my leather jacket on over that, added a hat (the billed cap with a Newfoundland on it), and the only gloves I could find. Harley Davidson leather, no finger tips, meant for riding, but in a pinch warmer than bare hands. It was an interesting combination of stylish leather and the funny way my hair sticks out from underneath a billed cap. But, frankly, I only thought of all that later, when getting dressed for dog outting in the cold, it’s comfort over style. So, I’m out in the cold and the dark with a flashlight so I can see where I’m walking, and feeling grumpy. My breath fogged like some kind of ghost, a bare pale mist. Then I looked up. Stars gleamed overhead, their light clear and brilliant the way it can be on some cold, cloudless nights. Orion, the hunter, was so bright over head that it made me stare. So bright in fact that I could see the glimmering shine of the Horsehead nebula. That is not something I often see so clearly this close to any city. But this morning in the first true cold of the year, the sky in the south was black and shining. It lifted my spirits to see the stars, and to glimpse that gauzy shine of nebula. I came back inside, treated the puppies, and it was just suddenly a better morning. I’ll blog about the ballet later, but for right now tea is ready, and I am so ready for the first caffeine of the day.