A Very Quiet Night

The door to the deck is open. I’m on the sofa wearing short sleeve pajamas. It’s cool and crisp outside and now inside too. It’s the perfect night.

At this moment the house is silent. It’s just luck. The refrigerator is quiet. So is the pump for the well.

Planes sometimes fly overhead–jets already at cruising altitude and heading toward Europe. They’re hardly audible when they’re around, but not even that tonight.

It is cool enough to keep the insects and animals we sometimes hear silent as well.

Across from me on her own personal sofa Doppler is quietly curled up. She is breathing rhythmically. I know that from watching, not hearing.

I grew up on the fifth floor of an apartment building in an obscure part of Queens. It was never quiet there!

This semi-rural setting is the antithesis of my experience growing up. So different.

Stillness is a luxury. I’ve grown to appreciate it greatly. It only happens late at night when everyone else is asleep. When you’re nocturnal it’s part of the charm.

This Time Of Night

Twenty after three. Sorry you’re not up right now. It’s a great time of day.

Things have really changed since you went to sleep. I know. Doppler just took me out for the third time!

It’s cooler and drier now. The clouds have begun to part. Large patches of starlit sky are visible.

It is quiet–remarkably quiet. No traffic. No insects. No airplanes. No people.

Usually Doppler and I don’t go out until 4:00 or later. By then the sky is beginning to lighten. Birds are chirping. Tonight, nothing.

Toward the end of our last trip I heard the distant howl of a dog. It was barely above the my ear’s threshold.

This is the perfect time of year.

After Midnight Is My Prime Time

Nowadays bedtime is somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 AM. Much of my adult life has been spent working nights. Others complain. It’s my comfort zone.

It is just after midnight. The crickets are chirping. The night is still. The world around me is quiet. This is my time of day.

I wish I could tell you why. I’ve always been nocturnal. Nowadays bedtime is somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 AM. Much of my adult life has been spent working nights. Others complain. It’s my comfort zone.

Maybe my folks know why? I remember being like this as a teenager. I’m not sure how I did it in the extremely close quarters of our Queens apartment.

It’s not hard to figure out this time of day is not prime. There’s nothing on TV that’s live. There’s lots that’s throwaway–time filler stuff. If you only knew some of the infomercials that air this time-of-day!

My friends on the West Coast get to hear from me. Is that a good or bad thing?

Most nights I’m still awake after they go to sleep!

Life was good when my friend Farrell was in Singapore. Separated by half-a-world (12 time zones) I was around for his afternoon. We chatted online nearly every day.

When people hear about my hours they’re not as surprised by my bedtime as by my wake-up, usually just after noon.