Seen While Staining

I snapped this photo today from my front yard. Had the camera lens been angled just a bit more toward the ground, this is the sight you would have seen:

An open garage and driveway strewn with upwards of fifty pieces of milled lumber in various stages of the staining process.

Drop cloths, 

sawhorses, 

odd bits of random 2x4s. 

cans of stain, 

paint stirrers, 

paint brushes, 

and half a dozen rags littered this work zone.

A large red dog, who was sure that his walk would be forgotten, was barking at full volume from inside the house.

This, as I'm sure you have gathered, was not a pleasant or relaxing scene. And that's exactly why my camera did not capture the shot. 

Instead, I chose to look up, where the late afternoon October sun cast a golden glow across a row of feathery Douglas firs, and streams of white rumpled clouds flowed across the sky in fine geometric style. 

Despite the chaos of my immediate surroundings, that amazing sky knocked all the wonky edges off my workaday mood and filled me with 

a natural high

a simple joy

a outdoorsy peace. 

Just might have been the nicest afternoon I've ever spent wearing blue latex gloves.