Scenery

Just a little drive two and a half hours south of here yesterday for work was amazingly uplifting. The closer I got to my destination, the scenic landscape showed gradually disappearing snow all along the sides of the highway. After driving for about an hour and a half, the ground was finally visible and I thought all the brown, yellow, reddish and gray colors of the earth that were illuminated by the brilliant sun that shone everywhere that would have seemed dull at this time of year were .. I don't know how else to say it ... absolutely beautiful. The sky was at its darkest, deepest blue and I listened to old and new songs that made me happy: 1) Sweethearts by Camper Van Beethoven (old), a cynical song about Ronald Reagan, and 2) Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (new), a song that makes me feel that crazy, abandon-all-else, glorious, sunny, all-consuming giddy feeling of being in love for the first time. While I was down south, I heard by telephone that my friend's baby was being born in the afternoon. I got to see photos of the mom and baby.