Rise and Shine!

I have established a habit of getting up early, I mean really early in the morning. Part of it is a by-product of having a herd of dogs, which waked up regardless around 4:30-5:00 AM everyday. My Anne and I have great intentions of getting out and exercising, i.e. walking on the canal, everyday as a great way to start the day and be together. Someone might say walking on the canal in the dark isn’t ‘sexy’ but rather a scary thing.

We do have interesting experiences all of the time. There have been a group of coyotes that walk from South Mountain everyday looking for food. Yes, we have actually seen them walking up Central Avenue close to our house. Anne, walking by herself in morning, was actually cornered by a group of coyotes that saw our little dogs, especially Carly who struggles with eating too much, as a great morning snack. Typically we don’t see many if any humans out pre-dawn on the canal, which actually is good seeing our dogs seem to go in the attack mode for some reason.

This morning as we are driving back we see this Nissan Xterra wrapped around an Intersection Light Pole. As we are driving past we realize there isn’t another vehicle, animal or human that could have caused this accident. As I am driving back to my Starbucks the lights in the intersection are out and I realize that this guy must have been either texting or reaching down for something and accidently swerved and collided with the pole. I am afraid that the front end of his Xterra is going to need a total face-lift.

A year or so ago we were coming to the canal and noticed that there were a couple of school buses that were stopped and not moving. Anne, who is the cheery helper, especially in the morning, jumps out of the truck to ask what’s wrong. The bus driver quickly tells her there is a little puppy running underneath the bus and she is afraid that the bus might hit it. Anne finds this little white puppy that has black spots and quickly rescues it from the sure fate of being flattened by two school buses. I volunteer to sit in the back of the truck with this adorable little pup. Little do we know that this little pit-bull mix would become our beloved, crazy family dog – Freckles or aka KONG. She is no longer a little 5 pound pouch but a 50 pound bundle or energy and is totally all muscle.

I know that staying up past 10 every night makes it tough to rise early but we have made this a pattern over the last 5 years since moving to South Phoenix. After our walk in the dark we go to Starbucks for Anne’s cup of coffee for work. I usually help set up the outside furniture for the younger, obviously not too strong, female baristas. This has become such a habitat that if we are late or I am doing something else I feel bad for the gals. Yeah, I do get a free cup of coffee on occasion for helping. It has enabled me make some great friendships and get large quantities of free coffee for some of our major events.

I have also come to realize that one of the best times to write and think, yeah I do ponder and wonder about the great mysteries of the universe on occasion, is in the morning before much is happening and my Starbucks is usually still empty. I know that in theory there are great examples in Scripture of Jesus and many others who got up before dawn to connect with the Heavenly Father and go over their calendars or at least think about what was ahead.

I have to admit that adding a couple of hours in the early morning helps make my day happen so much better. I do enjoy blogging and thinking out loud. Yeah, sometimes I write non-sense and once in a while I will get feedback even from my PhD brother who writes all of the time. So I am surprised when I am meeting with someone who automatically starts up the conversation with my last blog and ask if I am talking about so and so. Yes, that was about so and so. Wow – someone actually is reading my blogs off of my Facebook posts.

The one who has inspired me to write more and more has been my daughter, Heather and my Anne. It has been my Heather that has become the writer in the family. She has written a lot of amazing poetry and short stories that are incredible. My day really isn’t complete unless I’m writing about one of our kids, teens, grandmas or something that just happened like our neighbor that had a heart attack when he looks up while texting and wraps his vehicle around a pole. I am glad that my day hasn’t started off that way!