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The night sky is always something around here even when the moon is not full. This one greeted me as I left the high school in Floyd after a volleyball game Wednesday evening.

For a while, it looked like Floyd County High School might upset the heavily-favored Carrroll County Cavaliers Friday night. The Buffaloes led twice but fell behind early in the third quarter and never caught up. Carroll County won 31-22. Still, the team looked better against Carroll than they did in a pre-season scrimmage against Hidden Valley last week.

The hour was late but musicians continued to play outside the Floyd County Store as the Friday Night Jamboree wound down inside. Fiddler Michael Kovick (center) joined guitarist Bernie Coveney (left) and the Friday night regulars in the alley that runs alongside the store.
Street musicians are as much a part of the Friday night tradition in Floyd as the Jamboree itself (weather permitting). They play in alleys, along the sidewalks and in parking lots. Some play to warm up before their appearance inside the Jamboree. Others play just for fun and to jam with the regulars.
Just a little night music in a town called Floyd.

“Don’t mess up a good photograph with words,” an editor once told me. “Nature has its own eloquence.”

Sights like these on the way home from a long day at the studio allows one a chance to forget the problems that too often intervene into our lives.
On some days I pull over to the side of the road and let the beauty of nature drain the weariness of the day from my body. Whether by accident or some grand plan, nature’s theraputic qualities far exceed the effects of any drug.
Unfortunately, I sometimes let a fascination with my surroundings overcome the limitations of age. I’ll explore, climbing hills that exceed the capabilities of worn-out joints and damaged cartilege, paying the price the next day with pain and limited mobility.
A day will come when physical limitations end my ability to enjoy the natural surroundings that make living here so enjoyable. Hopefully, that day lies far in the future but when it arrives, I will look back without regret at a life that was lived to the fullest. Not always well. The mistakes are too many to mention but one should not approach twilight by dwelling on missteps of the past.
The road to hell may be paved with good intentions and the path to old age littered with missed opportunties but there’s a signpost up ahead that marks a side route to renewal.
Sounds like a detour worth taking.