It is a great day to be alive!

5:00 AM is a wonderful time to start your day. At 5 there is hardly any traffic to contend with and all of the stop lights are just blinking yellow or red. Every morning I start my day at this time. Today the temperature was 50 degrees following a 700 day yesterday. It couldn’t be nicer for the middle of April, here in New England. A large storm has been traveling to our North but it has missed us again. The negative to this kind of weather is that another Red Flag Day [high fire danger] is also with us. As I swing by the Cemetery, on my way to get the morning paper, I notice that the grass is much greener than yesterday. All of the trees have nice buds and almost all are showing green. The Forsythia has been in full bloom for several weeks now and it is always nice to view as it is a true harbinger.

It is still dark as I head out, for the ½ mile trip to the store, but the sun will be rising by the time I come back. I have a bit of a tendency to dawdle as I gather my coffee and paper all depending on who is in the store this morning. Kim is making fresh coffee in all of the pots as I come in and so I need to wait a few minutes as the coffee finishes brewing. Fresh coffee is always worth the wait and besides the room is full of that sweet smell of coffee as the steam pours out of 4 different carafes all dripping their best Gulliver’s coffee in the brewing process. It smells so good that I will jump start my day with real instead of decaffeinated this day. The carafes with the orange handles have been my choice ever since I got diagnosed with high blood pressure a few years ago. I think if I loose my weight I can give up the decaffeinated for good.

I pull into the cemetery and unlock the main gate so those heading to work this morning can spend some time with deceased relatives or friends before they continue on their journey. Everyone seems to appreciate the effort, as before I get turned around. three cars have followed me through the entrance gate and all wave. The sun is just now starting to poke its head above the horizon and I have to watch for a few minutes. Two more cars go by and one flashes their headlights. The birds are all chirping their fool heads off in some type of symphony that requires each to go through their entire repertoire of tunes and as a loudly as possible. It sounds as if we have a thousand more birds than we usually have. A gray squirrel is chasing a black squirrel across the graves, up and down the trees. The black squirrel is probably a food thief and now another squirrel has joined the chase but it is a black squirrel so that there are now two, a black and a gray, chasing a black one. They are hilarious to watch. The joggers are out this morning as the YMCA [jogger home base] is only three blocks away. One turns and enters the cemetery and two others go on by.

I decide to travel on into the cemetery as sometimes it is worth this early morning trip. We have a funeral scheduled this morning and I need to check out the grave site and grave this morning anyway. As I pull up and stop, a red fox comes out of his hiding or napping place in a bunch of untrimmed shrubbery surrounding a nearby gravestone. He is only 10’ away and he stops, as he comes out, and glares at me. I have interrupted something and his is upset. A good sleep, a meal of squirrel, waiting to spring a trap but I don’t know for sure what it is. He walks another 15 feet, turns again to glare and then is off looking for another stone to lie by. I hope this fox is the male of a pair and the female is delivering a litter of 9 or 10 kits. When this does happen it usually provides us with entertainment for the entire summer.
The show is over and I start my truck and head for home, across the street, where I will read my paper and fix breakfast. It is a great warm-up to breakfast. It’s a good day to be alive!