It's a beautiful warm day outside. There's a small breeze that keeps things cooler than they could be, but it's certainly not hot by any stretch of the word.

I can't stress enough how much I really love this weather. Sun light, blue skies, and 75 degree weather never fail to bring a smile to my face.

y'all must be getting sick of me writing these "isn't the weather great" posts. ;-)

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I have a test tomorrow in Astronomy. I don't think it's going to be incredibly difficult, but it's still a test nonetheless. :-|

I had a weird dream last night that I was running towards the downtown of a city. In my dream it was Downtown Houston, but my dream city didn't look all that much like Downtown Houston. It was too massive and bright to have been Houston. Houston's downtown is smaller in size and doesn't have the building built upon building structure that a city like Tokyo, Hong Kong, or New York has. But in my dream, it was Houston for nothing else than I wanted it to be Houston.

It was a weird dream though because I was running through this field at night time towards this massive urban area. And the lights of downtown were staring at my face as I ran along. But when I looked skyward, I saw the most impressive starry night that I may have ever seen. I can't recall of a time when I've ever seen stars in my dreams. I remember picking out the big dipper and the constellation Orion. But even as I saw those stars, I remember thinking it strange that I was able to see stars in my dream. It was one of those dreams where I realized I was dreaming, but was too impressed by what I saw to really care all that much.

I think the most impressive starry night I've ever seen was one summer night when my family was in Crested Butte, Colorado for a big AA Conference. I remember sitting on top of this apartment or condo, and just being completely amazed at how many stars I was able to see. The Milky Way was just right there, almost reachable it seemed.

I also remember a few years before that, my family was driving home from a previous trip to Colorado. It may have been another AA Conference at Crested Butte for all I can remember. But I remember it being late at night. And about halfway through New Mexico, my dad stopped the car at a rest stop and woke us all up. We then got out of the car and just stared at the beautiful desert sky for...it must have been thirty minutes.

I take back what I said above, that night in New Mexico was the most beautiful starscape I have ever seen in my life. It was as if there were no atmosphere around us, and we were just on some kind of rock floating through space. It was probably the first time that I ever had the sensation of motion through space. When the sky is that starry, and when you look at the sky long enough, you can really get a sense of the earth's motion because you can almost visibily see stars move across the sky. Seeing that starscape may rank as one of the most magnificent sights I've ever seen. I can't help but feel really happy to have that memory.

I am thankful that my dad pulled over the car to check out that starry night. It was the type of thing that dad was known to do. I think I get a lot of my spontaneous, carefree attitude from my dad. He was known to just go take a nap during the workday under some tree somewhere. Or he was known to just spontaneously take a day off work to take my brother and I to a Houston Astros baseball game. Or if he was on his motorcycle, he'd take the long way home so that he could have a little nature ride before coming home to deal with my shitty grades. ;-)

He loved being a dad. He LOVED being a grandparent even more, but he really loved being a dad as well. I miss him a lot. Still doesn't really feel all that real sometimes that he's not around anymore. But even though he's not really "around" anymore, I do have these really fantastic memories that are always with me. And in that sense, he'll always be around in my world.

I kind of forget what his voice sounds like sometimes. It sucks! Some people have dads and moms that they never talk to, and I can't even remember what his voice sounds like sometimes. I can usually remember it pretty well, but every so often...

Whenever I "forget" what his voice sounds like, all I really need to ever do is call my brother. Their voices are by no means identical, but my brother has a very similar speaking pattern that my dad had. They have a similar cadence sometimes.

He can also do a pretty hilarious impersonation of my dad. My dad was known to mix up which band from the sixties sang which song. So he'd hear a song by "The Animals" and think that it was "The Rolling Stones." And whenever he'd hear a song, he'd kind of jam out in the car and say, "I LOOOOVE the Rolling Stones." It was always good for a laugh. It's an easy mistake to make I suppose. Some of those bands did sound pretty similar. Especially Van Morrison and Mick Jagger. Or he'd confuse who was in "The Beatles." Luke and I still get a laugh every time we say, John, Paul, Ringo, and Peter. It's not as if he didn't know, he just didn't obsess over "The Beatles" in the same way that I did. And it's an easy mistake to make I suppose, especially because I remember him being a big fan of Peter, Paul, and Mary.

I'd give up every single god damned thing I own just to spend one more day with my dad. I'm sure that we'd spend it at Herrman Park in Houston. We'd ride the train and visit the zoo. We'd eat some snow cones and then head over to Goode Company BBQ for lunch. After lunch, we'd go to a Houston Astros game where they'd probably lose. On his motorcyle, we'd ride down to Galveston and ride up and down the seawall about 20 times. We'd visit "The Strand" and get some saltwater taffy and caramel apples. After that, we'd eat at Landry's on the seawall. He'd order Oysters on the Half-shell, and I'd order some kind of fried catfish. After that, we'd drive around Galveston enjoying the warm Galveston weather and the salty smell of ocean spray. When it started to get too late, we'd head on home. Although the Harley Davidson radio speakers could hardly match the sound of the bike itself, we'd listen to Oldies radio. When an Elvis song came on that he liked, he'd put his feet up on the footpegs, and just cruise along into the dark night. As we'd approach downtown Houston, I'd take a peak up at the few stars that I could still see from the noise pollution. We'd arrive at the house around 11ish, but it wouldn't be quite time for bed yet. If we were both still hungry, we'd make ourselves a Braunswager sandwich with onions and mustard and wash it down with a Diet Coke. We'd of course chase that with either a Fudgesicle or a scoop of Neopolitan Ice Cream. And that would cap off the perfect day. I've lived that day. I've lived that day NUMEROUS times. Thank god for those memories. Thank god for my dad.

:-)

matt out