Blood Moon Riding

We ran as if to meet the moon

-Robert Frost

Blood moon just past full eclipse

I woke this morning at 4:30am, even though I could have slept in a bit.  You see Wednesdays are my "late start days" for work since I work doubles on Tuesdays.  Throughout the spring and summer I tend to literally leap out of bed on these days, like a child on Christmas morning, because it means I get to do a pre-dawn ride--my favorite time of day to be on the bike.  As the fall wears on, and the darkness and cold settle in, it becomes more and more difficult to pry myself out from under the heavy covers, and shove the cat off my legs, especially when it means I have to don multiple layers to head out on a ride.

This morning was an exception.  I stumbled into the kitchen, cranked the hot water for my press pot, wiped at least enough sleep from my eyes so I could see, and stepped outside to witness the blood moon.  The sky was so unbelievably clear I didn't know what to look at, the normally white blob turning red or the constellations twinkling everywhere.  I was in awe, to say the least, and I couldn't wait to inhale my breakfast and get out on a ride heading West so as to keep my eyes on the changing sky.

Now a winking eye

As I climbed my first hill, the moon put me in somewhat of a trance.  It just kept getting redder and larger and I found myself picking up the pace hoping to catch it before it slipped into the horizon.  As I crested my largest climb, there was that rare moment when I wished I could stop the clocks.  To my West was the remnants of the eclipse--now a shade of pink and looking very much like a winking eye--and to the East was a giant peach casting a shade of orange on everything it touched.  I am quite certain I was oooing and aweing outloud--my eyes big as saucers.

I wanted to stay on that hill all morning, but since work was calling, a bit too loudly for my taste, I let my wheels carry me back down into the valley.  The temperature dropped a good ten degrees, and as I looked at the grass on either side of the road, I noticed it shining a magnificent silver, recently kissed by frost.  Where the grass had grown long, it lay flat as if a deer had bed down in it recently causing the silver to swirl in the now golden light.

Sun coming up over the frost left from the night before

Regardless of my feet and hands feeling a bit like blocks, I smiled my entire way into work, amazed by the magic this earth still holds.