Stargazing, Dog Edition

I'm looking up at a diamond-studded night sky. Somehow it's especially stunning to me when the air is very crisp and cold. To my satisfaction, I notice the Little Dipper, like I did the night before, and the night before that. I am always sobered and dwarfed and inspired all at once when I stare up there at all that endless beauty.

Never mind that, at the other end of the leash I'm holding, my dog is concentrated on taking a dump. Actually, it's thanks to her that I'm seeing the stars tonight in the first place - otherwise I would have been inside like a normal human being after dark in the winter.

Once she finishes her work, I congratulate her and take one last look at the sky and the black silhouettes of the bare oak trees trying to stretch up and reach it. Then we jog inside.