Night Banjo

 It was hot today, not so hot that you don't feel like doing anything, but spring is clearly gone in the northwest and summer is here for the interim.  However, come evening the breeze blew the heat out and as the stars came out the air became pleasant and sweet again.

I found myself this night on the back porch with no one but myself, two dogs, an oil lamp, and my (borrowed) banjo.  It was bliss.  I was not precise but very productive - learning three new songs in less than an hour.  I will spend the next few nights working over those songs, adding pull-offs and hammer-ons, and if I'm lucky a few drop thumbs.  I will make them mine and will add them to the growing litany of songs I know that are older than my grandfather's grandfather.

While I played, everything else melted away and my life reduced down to the music and the lamp and the evening breeze.  My unemployment was unimportant.  The weeds in the vegetables for the time being forgotten.  It was wonderful and it was mine.