January 29, 2021 – Awakening at Dawn

          I don’t need an alarm clock, my body tells me when dawn has arrived. Even before my body wakes me up, my cat will move around on the foot of the bed and give me a testing, “MEOW” wake up call, more like a chirping cat yawn rousing from her sleep. 

          Sometimes I hear it, sometimes I imagine I’ve heard it, and a few times I don’t hear it and my cat, Jasmine will jump off the bed with a thud and wander into the hallway and say, “MEOW” louder, it is more effective from that vantage point, it sort of echoes.  

          Often, that is how I picture my cat, Jasmine, a long-haired calico, sauntering out from the stage curtain with the spotlight on her as she sashays to the front of the rounded stage and sits.  Her tail wraps so prettily around her front paws and then she pauses and lets out a magnificent “MEOW”. . . . you know, like a vacant theater and a person in a spot light whispering . . .

          Enough about my cat, she knows she has star quality.

          This morning I heard the driver’s car door shut of the house owner two houses down and across the way.  He starts his engine and probably has a sip of coffee from his travel cup waiting for his engine to warm. He has an hour and a half commute. I can hear the tires crunch on his gravel drive as he backs out and I open my eyes to see his headlights on the road first through one lace curtain, then through the second lace curtain and still watch as I raise up and fluff my pillow and watch as his red tail lights disappear as he leaves the development. 

          Good for him, he still has a job after this dreadful Covid19 lock-down.  What a long drive, but he is young, he is happy to be still employed. Nice couple, they always wave when I am out in the gardens.

          If I hadn’t been awaken by my cat, that car door slam would have roused me.  And, if I was deep in sleep, later the neighbor on the other side of me would come home from night shift and his pickup truck headlights would flash into my bedroom filing it with light and completely wake me up.

          It is still too dark to see the time on the alarm clock; I will linger awhile.  I can see the silhouette of my cat waiting patiently in the doorway.

         I see high beam headlights coming into the subdivision.  The lights pause at the corner of the road and the light fills my bedroom. This time I watch is swing over the walls slowly and watch it circle around as my neighbor slowly backs his red pickup truck up into his driveway. The lights now out of my bedroom I follow them along my front lawn, then along the neighbor’s lawn and probably right through their bedroom window on the end of their house. I may casually ask one day when they are out and about in the yard.

          The young man is coming home from night shift and I used to be able to set my watch by his coming and going, but due to the Covid19 he has had erratic hours.  He is home early from his 11 to 7 shift plus a 40 minute commute. Short hours, that doesn’t help his cash flow. I need to send up a prayer for him and his employment.

          I have always been curious. Why does he and his entire family back in their vehicles no matter when they come or go?  I chuckle to myself – always preparing for a fast get away? Get away from whom?

          I linger another half hour, the dawn is breaking, I hear the distant honking of the migrating Canadian geese coming from the lake up over the hill and they become louder as they drop in elevation.  Their glide path to the pond is directly over my rooftop.  What a lovely sound of Spring coming.

          Our heating system comes alive. Yes, isn’t there a cliché, “always coldest at dawn – or is it after dawn?” 

          Something to put on my to-do list today, research that!