4:30 AM

Couldn't sleep, so I went running. On the road at 4:30am. The humidity hit me the second I stepped from the air-conditioned luxury of my home. Very interesting 7 miles of running. I skipped the park and decided to run downtown, so I made my way through the neighborhood to Broadway. This road is littered with a few small bars, old houses, a train overpass, and some other business that really shouldn't be solvent. But yet they exist. You don't see a wig shop very often but one survives not far from my home. Oh what a lovely street. There were a few people out and about. In the distance I could see a nice woman wearing a short skirt. Remember, it's 4:30am, the dead of night, on Broadway. She heard me coming and stopped, turned my way, and waited for me to pass. We exchanged "good mornings" and I was on my way. Next I saw a man laying in the most unusual way - up the set of stairs in front of a church, as if he sat down, then just laid down to sleep. The unusual part was he was grasping the arm rail leading into the church with his opposite arm, contorting his body, and slightly raising himself up off the concrete steps. Didn't look too comfortable. If I was homeless I would hang by the church also rather than under the bridges with everyone else. I didn't run under the bridges this morning. // I passed by the local hot dog store. Inside I recognized the hot dog man with the bad nose in the dim light of onion air. He was at the grill, at 4:45am, readying his daily labor. I was recently in France - and on my morning run there I passed a bakery where everyone walked in the morning to pick up their fresh croissants and daily bread. In America it's hot dog prep. I saw more - the world is different at that hour, everything seemed like it was set-up on a stage waiting for the actors to appear. I found a nice house for sale in West Central, ran past my kids former day care, ran past our church, nearly had to step over another guys legs that were sticking out into the sidewalk as he slept. When finished I walked directly down the middle of my street, shirtless, covered in sweat, looking at the homes. I was done running by 5:30am. The good clean world was soon to wake up.