These times when we meet for dinner up north, I don't mind driving from work if asked of me, but I would much rather be the passenger in her car, especially on these clear winter nights. I fear she thinks I'm being rude or ignoring her on our ride back, but I do listen and respond as I lean to my side and look up at the stars in the wide dark upstate sky, checking on Orion and Venus and the thin slice of sharp white moon. I feel more alive then than at most other times in my life.