Tuesday night I was restless. Exhausted, yet not tired enough to sleep. I blame adrenalin when I get like that. Not that I did anything all that exciting or not that anything all that exciting happened. I think it just kicks in when I’m exhausted.
The dogs get that way too. Click, click, click on the tile floor of the kitchen downstairs as the dense dog wanders back and forth through the house. The tone of the clicks change, now she’s wandering around on the wood floor of the living room. A wide slow circle around the house and back onto the tile. I know she has her nose to the ground, might be a speck of food somewhere, she’s a Hoover.
This gets the smart dog going. She has to do her rapid pace throughout the house, going from window to window to see if she’s missing anything. Rapid clicks from the kitchen door to the living room window, back again, a slight pause. Back to the living room window.
After a half hour of this I have dog meat recipes mulling around in the deep recesses of my brain. Whatever it takes to make this end. Going out is not the issue, it’s only been a couple of hours. They’re just restless and I swear they do this on purpose to get on my nerves.
Clock says a couple of minutes before midnight. How did that happen. Enough is enough and I’ll force myself to sleep if I need to, somehow.
But first a cheap cigar out on the back porch as the dogs go run off whatever it is that’s bugging them. The possum under the porch needs to be checked on, the stench of a squirrel is lingering on the tree. The fence line along the neighbors yard has to be thoroughly sniffed.
It’s light out and yet, it’s snowing. There are no lights in my back yard. It’s the full moon and yet, it’s snowing. The dogs are white and now they’re just a different shade of white milling around the yard. The smart dog stops, nose in the air. Sniffing I imagine, or wondering like me, how the hell can it be snowing with a full moon out?
Travis
8 Feb 2012While walking the dog at 10:30 pm last night I almost took photo of that moon… it hovered nicely in the haze. Almost doesn’t count however…
Ken G
8 Feb 2012I haven’t been taking many photos, but I always wander around with the camera. You just never know…
Quill Gordon
8 Feb 2012Nice. I had everything ready to take pictures of the moon last night but wussed out.
Ken G
8 Feb 2012Too clear here today, but still hanging big in the sky. You wuss out? You haul sand around all day then sit around taking pictures of ice. You must have just been tired.
John A Bouras
8 Feb 2012We lost our Lab to old age a few months back…. still miss the sound of her as she would walk around at night…. Great stuff, Ken
Ken G
8 Feb 2012The dogs came with the woman I married, otherwise there’s a good chance I’d never own one. A good hunting lab might change my mind. I will miss the smart dog though, maybe.
walt franklin
9 Feb 2012Ken, At least you had a full moon experience (nice photo and all); I missed it somehow, thanks to my lousy work schedule.
Ken G
9 Feb 2012I have some catch up to play on yours and a couple of others sites.
For someone that doesn’t have much of a schedule, I don’t know how mine is so screwed up.
Mike
9 Feb 2012You’ve captures nicely that odd, hazy neverland that is the sleepless wee hours. And why is it dogs and full moons that bring us to them so often? Thanks for a wonderfully moody piece.
Ken G
9 Feb 2012In younger days, I used to wander Chicago streets at night just to hear the city when it was quieter. Only you never could tell the light of the moon from all the street lights.
Creature of the night, just like my dogs. Need to see what’s out there even if it is just a hazy moon.
Bronzebackski
9 Feb 2012Ken, another great shot, is it possible to get a download of this sent to me so I can see what it looks like in a frame. We talked at the Outdoors SHow over the weekend.
Let me know if I owe you anything if if comes out OK.
Ken G
9 Feb 2012Of course you picked the hardest one to reproduce. Night shots can be a little grainy. I have a decent camera, but it has shortcomings.
I’ve never locked my images. I’ve heard people like to download them right off the screen and print them on their cheap at home color printers. That’s about all they’re good for if you download them that way.
Shoot me an email
keng@waterdogjournal.com
I’ll get you something with a higher resolution you can try.