A Preferable Kind of Madness

I gave up any hope of living a "normal" life many years ago. Chance are, I never had a hope like that to begin with. So, when I talk about the random goings-on in my life, the preferable bias in any given situation is that most normal people wouldn't approach it the same way. Take, as an example, the dessert I prefer for my birthday. Cake is good, pie is good, but what I really want is the mashed sweet potato with streusel topping my mother usually reserves for Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you've ever had it, you'd agree with me.

On to the topic at hand. Over the last few weekends the weather has not been entirely conducive to going out on motorcycle rides. Given that I rely on these rides as a significant piece of the foundation of my mental health, one can readily imagine that I was close to snapping. Well, as luck would have it, the forecast for this weekend was looking OK. Not fantastic, mind you, but passable. And for reasons beyond my understanding, my brain decided that it absolutely had to watch a sunrise.

(It probably has to do with this video.)

So, I did exactly what my brain told me to do. I planned on riding out to the Cape to watch the sunrise. I picked a spot (that was not open), and set my alarm clock to wake up with enough time to get there (I overslept).

I wanted to see the sunrise from the Nauset Light Beach. It's right on the water. However, the area is closed from Midnight to 6am (curses!).

Still, despite leaving 40 minutes later than I wanted, I still made good time, so I was able to find a secondary location; Fort Hill, just down the road from the Nauset Light. I arrived around 4:30 or so to this view:

It gradually lightened over the next 45 minutes to give this view:

I stayed to watch the sunrise. Despite the haze (calling it "humid" would be a disservice. "Damp" works better), and the clouds, the view was gorgeous. I tried to take a picture or two, but because I lacked a decent camera at the moment (a digital SLR, or film for my 35mm SLR), they were horrible. Believe me, though, it was a sight, and well worth the hour-and-a-half nap I took when I got home. I left just after the sun came up. On the ride home, as I got off of the Cape, the clouds started to roll back in, so it was pretty grey when I pulled back up in front of my apartment. Still, I enjoyed the trip.

I just have to remember to plan better next time so that I do more than just see a sunrise then brow-beat myself back home to take a nap.

Anyway, here's a picture of Meliora in her "day trip" configuration in as picturesque a setting as I can get with an iPhone's camera:

Catch you on the flip side!