Thoughts on tonight

It is finally summer.

I'm not crazy about the full sun or the high temperatures, but I love the warm evenings. Summer nights in Vegas are about the best thing ever. It makes one want to grill, jump on a trampoline, or just sit out on a porch, listening to the chirps of crickets and buzz of cicadas. Granted, where I grew up and first learned to love summer nights was a great deal quieter than where I live now and you are as likely to hear a jet rumble overhead as the last evening calls of the birds. Nonetheless, it is a wonderful, peaceful time.

I love to lay on a dusty-smelling trampoline and look up at the stars - surprisingly abundant if you can just turn off the outside house lights. Even better - and something I always wait with baited breath for, is the certainty of summer showers. There is nothing more invigorating to me than the smell of humidity in the desert and the electric feel of the air. You can sense the movement of the heavens, and it's power both overwhelms and inspires.

Las Vegas has always been my home and I hope that never changes. There are subtle beauties here that I have never seen replicated anywhere else. The sturdy presence of the mountains next to the expansive harsh terrain, and yet somehow, growth and life exist and are sheltered. It is witness, for me, of the hand of God, of His power to create. As Hobbes, from "Calvin and Hobbes" once so appropriately said "It kind of makes you wonder why man considers himself such a big screaming deal."