why I like the morning...

Warm enough for a pre-dawn walk this morning - comfortably chilly, and the ice has (for the moment) melted off the sidewalks. The sky shaded from white-blue at the skyline to the clear blue-black overhead, lit by the moon and more stars that most people think they can see in the city...

(still nothing like a rural sky, but reassuring nonetheless)

The city's quiet at this hour - the sounds of busses and the occasional cars going by, of course - that's the heartbeat of the city. But the hum it has after 7am, the surrounding murmur of voices and the thicker air of daylight is replaced by the thin, still air of night, where a single sound is amplified and carried for miles... You can hear your own heartbeat, before the sun rises.

Full day ahead. Where's the coffee?