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I'm here for the night. Wish me better weather in Illinois tomorrow. It doesn't look good: snow, heavy wind, rain.

I drove 377 north from Del Rio to Forth Worth through river country early this morning just as the sun broke. It was cold, silvery. A low fog hovered just over the water with the light in it, the river crossings all bearing their signs: "watch for water on the road." And the water rushed by. Low trees and long hills. Three sounds on the radio. Spanish, Country, Gospel. I listened to The Picture of Dorian Gray when I hit the open highway and left the hills behind for the flat lands and gas stations and strip malls of small places I couldn't find on my map.

Two goats grazed head down beneath a full blown cottonwood glittering in the sun: barbed wire between them and me on the road: a silhouette at dawn: the photo I didn't stop to take.

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Happy new year, ya'll. To which we are all resolved.

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