I have a birthday coming up, and I just bought my own present.

If the night is clear enough, Don and I venture out for an hour or so to sit in some old lawn chairs and look up at the stars. One night not too long ago I complained about the angle hurting my neck, and we tried spreading a blanket out on the lawn. That night's sky was particularly beautiful. We'd been treated to water color clouds just after sunset, and when the moon came out, the clouds wandered across it's path and created whimsical scenes. The view from the blanket was great, but the ground was hard and bumpy, and a few bugs joined the party.

What we needed was a hammock!

I found one at costco.com that suited my aesthetic tastes and met Don's functional requirements as well, but the price tag was way out of our budget. I shopped around online whenever the opportunity arose for several days, and then voila! I found it on ebay for an unbelievably low price.

Last Thursday night, I came home late from a choral festival to find that the hammock had arrived, and not only had Don put it together, but he was in it, wrapped in a hooded jacket, staring at the stars. A cold front had come through the day before, and it was currently about 48 degrees. Grabbing my jacket, two sleeping bags, and a blanket, I piled onto the hammock beside him and gazed up into the heavens. Glorious! Since then, we've hit 3 out of five nights. There was supposed to be some meteor activity but we haven't seen any yet.

Tonight was damp and rainy and Don's at the firestation, so I must wait until the next opportunity to steal an hour or so under the stars. Until then, Happy Birthday to me!