Just before 7 am this morning our neighbor had a truckload of gravel delivered. To be honest, I don't usually plan on waking before 7 am on Sundays. If the weather had been decent I could at least have seen the sun come up (or does that happen earlier?) but it was gloomy and cloudy -- a perfect morning for not being awakened by a roaring, rumbling truck filled with gravel.

What the gravel's for, I can't say. Most of it seems to have got into my eyes.

I spent plenty of years rising before dawn to get to the office on time. Before that I had to race out the door in the wee hours to catch the school bus. Since I've been working at home I've reverted to my college schedule, going to bed sometime after midnight and getting up sometime before noon.

Mary claims to be a natural night owl. Me, I suspect I'm fairly adaptable, but I do like the night, when enough places still close so the great, noisy, nasty engine of the world stops grinding along quite so fast.

Besides, what can you do before 9 am but drink coffee until your stomach hurts?