Yes...the blood moon.  I missed it.  I was sleeping soundly for the first time in a several nights.  It had been a rough few days. You see, yesterday was my birthday.  I am told that the sunrise was beautiful, but I didn't see it. I didn't leave the house until 11 am.   I went to work late, went to soccer practice and then ate a special birthday meal that I couldn't taste.  My family did their best to help me to feel good about turning another year older.  Yesterday morning, I could barely breathe, let alone go to work and do something productive.  I went to bed early and actually fell asleep. So, when it was time to get up to see the blood moon, I just couldn't get out of bed. 

Fast forward to tonight.  Magically, today was a better day.  My head is almost clear.  I can breathe.  I can almost smell. When we decided to go down into the ravine and have a campfire tonight, I noticed that the very same moon that I missed this morning was back again.  It was big, and beautiful and irresistible.  It was just peeking up over the trees and I thought:  "I need to make a picture of this because who knows when it will happen again."  I raced up the hill to grab my camera and a tripod.  When I got back, the moon was still big, but not as big as before.  It was still beautiful and now it was high enough in the sky to reflect on the water. 

When I made the picture, I had to stand and depress the shutter manually in bulb mode.  I counted to 120- roughly two minutes.  While I was counting, I watched the fireflies sparkle over the lake and listened to the nearby coyotes howl to the moon.   What an amazing place my backyard is. The moon was so bright it seemed like daylight.  After two minutes, my arm was tired from holding so still on the shutter.  But...magic!  The image was bright and clear and wonderful.   I missed the blood moon this morning, but this moon, tonight, was spectacular.