Pictures From My Morning Walk in the Park

After my overnight shift last night and before my weekend shift during the days, there is one hour of relative freedom which I am granted each weekend. Over the years, I tried to do various things with that one hour. Since the commute between my two present jobs has never been very long, I mostly had the full hour. At first, I would bring the car to a corner of the parking lot and try to get some sleep. But a few times doing this, and there was one thing that was almost impossible not to notice: it would often make me feel more tired than ever.

So before long, I scrapped that. Then for a while, I went and got gas and would go to either a nearby 7-11, or Quik Check, or Wawa. Those were pretty much the only things which were open at such an early hour on the weekends (my overnight job goes until 6 AM, and the day job begins at 7 AM. 

Sometimes, I would come in early and more or less hangout with the guy whom I would be officially relieving once my shift started. But this, too, began to feel like a waste of time.

Lately, however, I discovered something else. Something far more creative and, frankly, healthy. It was to go to the park, which I only really learned about late last summer, and walk a little bit. Take in the fresh air and get some exercise.

This is what I did earlier this morning, and to marvelous effect. We have gotten some rain, so the stream was fuller than I had seen it to this point. The leaves still have that bright green of the spring, rather than the fuller, deeper appearance it will get in the fuller heat of summer. And this early in the morning, it was cool and very refreshing.

Spending time outside - even if it's merely twenty or so minutes - does far more to restore me and wake me up than those ridiculous and uncomfortable naps in my car usually ever did. It also gets my mind going. That I like very much.

Today, it felt more beautiful than it usually does. So I snapped a few pictures. Some of them really came out great, in my opinion. They seemed worth sharing here.

Enjoy. 

I liked this picture quite a bit, because the sun reflected brightly in the water below almost lends the illusion that there are two suns here.