Back to work-a-day schedule, so walking far too early for dawn. Lake Ella, as always, is a dark and quiet and empty space at 5am. Due to the recent cold snap there weren’t even any homeless people sleeping anywhere.
Not that they could, easily. The jetty gazebo was outfitted with bright LED lights last year, which are nearly surgical in their ambiance. You would have to be deeply drunk to sleep there (some are, sometimes). There are few hedges thick enough to hide a person, and most other places are easily seen from the road — it is not a big park, after all.
Keely was slow going, or I should say, stop-and-going, as she caught up with all the sniffing she missed during her weekend jaunts in other directions. There was a lot of spanish moss to inspect and pee on, so I got time to stand around looking at the lamps that illuminate the sidewalks.
A few more have been replaced with those bright white LED bulbs. As I’ve noted before, there does not seem to be rhyme or reason to the replacement. I know of one lamp that was LED for a while but reverted to incandescent. Is it just chance? Is there a plan? Impossible to tell just by watching over time. I don’t doubt they will all be replaced eventually, and while I like happy bright light in general, I will mourn the loss of atmosphere here. The shadows will be shorter and crisper, and the feeling of walking through a hidden realm at night will be supplanted with pragmatism.