AN EPIPHANY!!

Why do we not change our work hours to early morning? It's 5:45am here in the frying pan of the southwest. I got up this morning to take my daughter, her husband, and my granddaughter to the airport. It was cool enough to roll down the windows and open the sun roof.

I got up and took the dogs for our traditional morning walk at about 4:30. Sure it was dark but the sun was starting to paint the sky and besides, we had street lights, frankly, the less light for what the girls have to do, the better. It was beautiful. The bats were out and ducks were flying. That's right, you heard me-bats. Those cool dudes make no noise when they fly, none. And ducks, flying in formation anywhere, are just flat out bitchin' because they talk to each other while they fly.

"Quack?"

"Quack, quack, quack."

"Quack."

I was thinking while driving home from the airport that if we switched to, oh, I don't know, 2:00am to 8:00am we would actually improve our disposition. I was happy this morning. George Strait came on with "River of Dreams" and I turned it up, a happy, jaunty tune. I actually wanted to live here. I came home and turned off the A/C and flipped over to evap for at least a little while.

We just have to be open-minded about it. We'd have to go buy some aluminum foil to cover our windows so we could sleep during the day and get use to watching Oprah instead of Two and a Half Men on TV. That, alone, might be a deal breaker.

Anyways, it was just a thought. When I was a kid, I remember the summer rains would cause me to build my aircraft carriers out of a 2x4's, some smaller pieces for the island, and nails for the RADAR. I would go out front and float it down the street in the gutter tracking behind it in my bare feet. Yep, that was a lot of rain and frankly, there was probably lightening involved that I wasn't fully cognisant of the full ramifications of standing in water during a lightening storm. But who cared. It was great. I can remember those happy times.

So, as I finish, the sun is coming up. The shadows are still filling the back yard and the doves are sitting on the phone lines behind the house. The ducks are, hopefully, at the lake in Steele Park or in the canal to our north and the bats are where ever bats go. It's Sunday morning and the music on the radio is gentle and soothing. The coffee is some of the best I've ever made. Yep, we need to really think about this. Sure, we make fun of old people who get up early, eat dinner at 4:30 and bed by 8. We scoff at them. Problem is, there is a real draw to that at my age of 51. And you have to ask yourself, part of living longer and having a lighter step in our strides might actually have something to do with beautiful dawns.