Hirsute Sea Bass

5 o'clock on a Sunday

It's 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, and for some reason I'm awake. I woke up about half an hour ago after having restless dreams for who-knows-how-long. I know what class of dreams they were, even though I can't remember what they were about. They're dreams that leave some emotional residue behind, as the feeling brought on by the dreams remains well after I awoke.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen this hour of the week in a long time. I haven't had a reason to be awake at 5 a.m. on a Sunday in a long time, so if I were awake it would have been due to accidents like this morning's dreams. It's like there's a whole world that I miss because I work on another clock. A tow truck is at the Amoco across the street, filling up. I guess 5 a.m. is when he (or she) starts his (or her) day. It's also striking that the change from night to morning happens fairly quickly: at about 4:45, when I woke up, I unequivocally thought it was the middle of the night, but just 30 minutes later it's pretty obviously morning. The light ramps up fairly quickly. And probably the first Metra of the day just went by on the South Shore tracks. Traffic on 51st and Lake Park now sounds regular, like daytime traffic, instead of intermittent, like nighttime traffic. There's a bit of a rumble in the background, presumably from Lake Shore Drive. A rumble even though it's a Sunday. And now, at 5:30, I hear the first birds making noise. 45 minutes or so since it started, morning has officially arrived.

And now I've got whatever it was out of my system (i.e., the dream-residue) and I am getting very, very sleepy once again.

posted by John @ 3:12 AM