This afternoon

Leaving early was an afterthought, but once it took hold, boy did I run with it.

Having just finished the very last candy cane, I picked myself up, picked up the stack of newspapers I had purchased earlier, and sped on home.

I mention the newspapers because it’s rare that I feel like reading 3 newspapers in one day. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I read three newspapers in one day. Or one newspaper in one day. Or one newspaper. But I digress.

I had emailed Doug moments before signing off of my work computer to let him know that I was coming home now, and he should hop in the shower and be ready to jump in the car once I arrived. All this so that we could find an unusual spot to take photographs. Or an interesting one, at least.

It was 3:49PM. Since it’s winter in Canada, and we live in a place that’s about the midpoint between the equator and the north pole, the sun sets early. By my calculations, once I collected him, I would have about one hour of good sunlight.

Excitement bubbled in my veins, even though I didn’t know what I wanted to shoot. I had already taken a handful of photographs today, so I wasn’t worried (if worried is the right word) about my commitment to 2009’s Daily Pictures. Still, I pulled over near our favourite summertime walking path and took a few shots, the following of which is my favourite:

I like its slushiness, and the fact that the tree appears to provide shelter. I say “appears” because the tree is lying. It lies by virtue of being right there. It is a faker. The very fact that it is pretending to provide any type of shelter at all is laughable. This tree provides nothing. In fact, the closer I got, the windier and icier and colder it became. The tree actually encourages the slap of icy wind. If that tree were a person, it would be the cool girl who tells you she wants to be friends then pulls a Carrie on you at the last minute, throwing pig’s blood all over you. So yes, that’s a lying, bitchy tree.

It took me a while to realize what it was that had me so hyper. I decided that it could not possibly be one candycane and must be the fact that I was outside during daylight hours. This, coupled with the fact that for the first time since October’s vacation, I had time on a Saturday afternoon to do something, anything… well, it’s a recipe for happiness.

I didn’t even mind the sun’s glare as I drove on, telling Doug to ask me to pull over when he saw potential for a photograph he wanted to take. Without complaint, I ducked under my cap and stared straight ahead as I drove. We came to a promising spot, where Doug took a nice photo of a sign, and I tried my best to take an acceptable photograph of a railroad track. I finally shot this.

Once we were done taking photographs, which is to say, once I got too cold to hop out of the car every five minutes and the sun dropped too low, we went out for a nice dinner, which I inhaled. Doug laughed to himself a little, and remarked that I would crash, considering the energy high I appeared to be floating on.

I’m here to tell you that hours later, I have yet to crash. In other words, Doug was wrong. In fact, he’s never been wronger. Ha-hah! Ha!

I’m still full of energy and possibilities and creative juices. And you can bet that I am milking it for all it’s worth.