Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The View From The Ground

It was a rare morning I slept in.

Instead of being up two hours before dawn, like usual, I was up just a bit before sunrise.

I hauled my own self out of the house, faithful sidekick, Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) by my side.

It was Dog Walk Time.

Rack had done his little oddball quirk with squeezing between my legs to get into his harness, I had a fist full of plastic bags in my pocket and we were on our way.

I was out walking around and noticed that the clouds were towering all over the place.  It had been rainy lately, quite rainy in fits and starts.  One day there was 6 inches of rain from a tropical storm that collapsed into a collection of unattached thunderstorms.  The next there were the usual popup storms that show up because South Florida really is a city built on river banks.  The water flows South from Orlando, into Lake Okeechobee or Lake O as we call it here, and eventually out into the Florida Bay.  It can take years to get there, moving at only a few inches an hour, but it is moving and therefore a river and not a swamp.

Didn't know that huh?

I rounded the corner off Wilton Drive and spotted some other clouds towering over the landscape.  That particular stretch of the walk is more open.

When I rounded the corner again and was able to look East toward the sunrise, I stopped.  Mind you, it isn't often that I stop and stare at the clouds.   This was different.  There was an airplane flying well over the ground off in the distance.  It was silhouetted against that towering cloud that was just off shore.  Hundreds of people aboard living their own lives, off to an adventure far away.  The airport is about 8 miles South of me.  The runways are situated East-West to take advantage of the always present breezes off the shore.  Coming in for a landing, they will slow you down.  Taking off, they will help you get there.  You fly off over the ocean in an eye blink and climb well before you get to The Bahamas.  There the paths diverge and people head on into their lives.

That silhouetted story spoke to me as I had someone snap out of my own reverie.

"Beautiful sunrise isn't it?  Those clouds are amazing!"
"Yes!  I'm not often up this late, so I'm glad I got to see it!"

Towering clouds adding their own drama to the brightening sunrise, the city became awake around me.

Rack sat at my feet as I pulled my camera out to take a picture, then we went on our way.

Just one of those hundreds of unseen little stories that go on around you each day.  Some of them even involve stopping and staring at a giant stack of cotton candy clouds.

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