The night feels calm. No wind or noise to spoil the serenity of my milieu. The air is static, a calm before the storm (perhaps even the eye of the storm?). And there is a sense of foreboding, subjugating any thoughts of optimism (as if there were any to be had). Shadows move in the peripherals of my vision, unimportant and therefore ignored. A human mind can conjure up the strangest images, and mine are among the more avid of them, to say the least. So, smiling in the face of my darkest designs, I wrap up tight against the cold, and continue my little walk under the streetlights¦