It was 70° at 1:30 a.m. The wind howled, finding breezeways and crevices to make metal groan and heavy dumpster lids slam over. My weather app claimed that the wind speed was 20 mph, but I’m certain that a few of the gusts were easily twice that speed. 

Even though it’s December 28th, the insects accompanied me on my walk. Surreal doesn’t cover it. I can’t be convinced that Christmas was a couple of days ago or that 2026 is just around the corner.

If you did like me and watched clouds race overhead, you would get vertigo. They raced overhead fast enough to create the illusion that I could see the planet spinning.

There were a lot more people out than should have been. I’m sure it was the weather that brought them out or kept them out, even though they would not know that some primal or instinctive drive contributed to their decision to be out.

When I exited the inconvenience store after getting a soda, I laughed as a car of young guys drove up. Each of them had on a shower cap. Not your grandma’s shower caps. These had designs on them. I burst out laughing. 

The driver popped out, still smiling. 

“Are you laughing at me?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Yeah. Surely you realize how unusual you guys look. I think it’s cool, but you can’t blame me for being caught off guard.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Styling though, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” I agreed. 

As I headed back toward my apartment, I couldn’t believe it was still four and a half hours until sunrise, or at that time tomorrow it would be 40 plus degrees cooler. 

It was a beautiful walk on a December morning that should have been bitterly cold. I think I’m going to remember this one. 

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I sped it up. It took 1 minute and 45 seconds for the moon to touch the trees on the horizon before it disappeared entirely.

There are a couple of streets that sometimes inspire me to get spooked, despite not being superstitious. One of them is Oakland. Not the Oakland y’all know when the sun is up. It’s a different place at 2:00 in the morning. It has some beautiful houses on it, even the older ones interspersed among the modern narrow profile ones that are becoming common.

This morning I zigzagged to wander the dark streets for long stretches in the dark, I could hear booming music. As I drew closer, I watched the completely dark house. Although it was my imagination, I could almost feel the old boards vibrate from the inside. 

I walked a long way south and decided to walk back. I wasn’t even thinking about cutting East and ending up on Oakland again. This time, I was hearing a thunderous muffled voice emanating from the house with the loud music. The house was still dark. 

The video doesn’t do it justice because my camera brought light that wasn’t visible to my eyes. 

Also on Oakland, there was a vehicle running with its lights on when I first passed it. Way over an hour later when I looped back, it was still there, its headlights beaming into the growing fog and mist. Sometimes I check on the vehicle to make sure someone hasn’t passed out in there, or worse. Other times, I will shut off the lights or turn off the ignition. If I had not been on Oakland, I might have done that today.

The mist was thick this morning, coating everything, including me. The lights of course were more beautiful because of the diffusion.

It was astonishingly quiet. In places, my footsteps sounded like cans of biscuits being opened and dropped. I kept forgetting how hard the mist was, but each time I pulled my glasses on my face, I was greeted with droplets of accumulated water.

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