Yesterday I got up early. I was due at the Tel at 5am for my weekly visit, but found I could not sleep a moment longer and so hit the road from Raanana around 3:30am. I made good time in the quiet Israeli pre dawn, and arrived at Megiddo about 40 minutes before the team buses were due. I have the code to open the gates, so in I drove, parked and silently made my way up to the top of the Tel.
It was completely quiet, the only sounds were the faint banging of the construction crews working on Kvish HaSargel a few kilometers in the distance. I pulled up a rock and sat looking out to the east over the Area K dump, with Afula in the distance. I watched the sky slowly turn pink and saw Venus, with Jupiter above silently sink (I looked up the sky map on my phone - I think this whole technology thing may just catch on). I breathed deeply and just sat and listened to the stones sigh. A small band of foxes ran by on their way to raid the nearby kibbutz's garbage. I heard the birds start chattering in the palm trees. No words can do this justice.
Beliebe it or not. the day actually got better. The Area K folks had set aside the pithos in O9 for me to excavate. It was such a treat and I was so completely absorbed that I skipped breakfast. Then back to Ramat HaShofet for lunch and some minor fixes of the TS_formatter code. A shower, pottery reading, picture database, then dinner and a beer to welcome the second session team, finally the drive back home to hop into my bed at around10pm. An excellent day, one of the best ever, made all the more special by the total escape from everyday life for a day. Am I not the luckiest person alive?
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