I am "The Night"

Most people work 9 to 5 and have never worked the evening shift, or what is so affectionately called the graveyard shift. (hope i didn't scare ya off with the graveyard thing) While the overwhelming majority of Workville U. S.A. lie all snuggly in their posturepedic, unthought of to them are the People of the Night. Yep the world turns even in the dark. I have worked all three shifts in my 40 years of factory work. Day shift makes you feel NORMAL, whatever normal means in a world of ???? Evening shift I suppose would make you feel next on the normal scale. The graveyard shift is well, differento to say the least! (it's okay, sometimes i make up or change words a smidgen) If your inside the factory the job is no different, except for your inner clock a-saying what's wrong with you boy! The job I do requires me to work the dreaded graveyard shift at this time in an old man's life. Believe me when I say, IT, takes a lot to get used to, yep it ain't easy! You gotta do, what you gotta do, there ain-na nobody beating down the door of my humble adobe asking this old fella to come to work for them. Nope, once you pass a certain threshold in life you seem, expendable. It doesn't matter how much experience or knowledge you possess, them there employers only see white hair! Anyhow my job and shift suits me at this time in life. This graveyard shift has made me a creature of the night like the coyotes and other animals that live where others are not accustomed too! I wish to give my insight to you that have no idea of that experience. I AM THE NIGHT!

Once upon a time,(i love starting a paragraph off with those words, like i'm going to tell ya a fairy tale) about 20 years ago, I was going through life altering events as in staying too long visiting Uncle Darkside. Everyone will go thru bouts of darkness but mine had carried on waaay too long, (kinda sounds like a goat don't it, say waaaay, and let them a's roll off yer tongue)[AS YOU CAN PROBABLY TELL I HAVE TROUBLE STAYING FOCUSED, AFTER MUCHO THERAPY I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH MANIC DEPRESSION. WELL LA-DE-DA, I'M CURED HALLELUJAH, WHOOPSEY, I PLUM GOT CARRIED AWAY AGAIN] days become weeks, weeks become months, months become years, you see the picture I'm creating for you! I was fighting every day for existence and meaning, survival! I had dropped out of life and couldn't get going again. I was at absolute minimal life support.

I happened upon a job no one wanted to do. A early A.M. delivery of a product when the night sleeps. I was able to jump start my short circuited soul, body and mind. The fascination of another world became me. The simplicity of less traffic, people, everything appealed to me somehow! I began to think on my own. I stopped every night out in the total darkness of the nighttime and watched the comet Hale Bopp, it touched me, in ways I didn't understand! I fought back, but didn't want to be a rat in the rat race once more. I vowed to keep my new found me. Obstacles abound behind every nook and cranny. (i like that) Seems at times, which was most of the time I would take one step forward, then two steps backward. But hey, keep on plugging away! I go to work full-time in this small factory working the graveyard shift. I'm still working the late shift, it seems to have allowed me to become a new person. Oh, shit the same old mind problems jump up now and again and new problems have surfaced from a lifetime of physical work, back problems, knee problems, numerous others. But it's the living, when I'm really living that makes everything worth it. What you're reading right now is a way of relaxing that has happened in the last year, kinda funny sometimes how life altering events can be good or bad. This new hobby has pushed my mind in ways you would not believe! Example learning to type ain't easy, it takes time and patience. But the rewards of accomplishment at a time when people are just bidding their time until death, is not for me. Everyone is given the power of learning and believing. If they would use their own minds and reason for themselves, the world would be a better place. That's too hard, so they're brainwashed into living a life of what they're told! Sad as hell ain't it!!!

Just got back from taking a ride into the country as I keep the same schedule on my days off, have too! Me, and my faithful companion or should I say my shotgun riding compadre (who doesn't mind shooting off her mouth) in my/our trusty steed pickup have been out looking for other ceatures of the night. They're there, they're always there, you can't see them because you don't go out on a beautiful hot July early A. M. night driving slow into the countryside a-looking. We see raccoons, deer, possums, skunks, coyotes, rabbits, spotted Big Foot once, just kiddin. ME AND AUSSIE BLUE, WHO IS SLOWLY DYING OF CANCER ENJOY THESE RIDES IMMENSELY. WE ROLL THE WINDOWS DOWN, TURN OFF THE AIR-CONDITIONING, STICK OUR HEADS OUT THE WINDOWS AND VISIT OUR ANCESTORS ONCE AGAIN. WE'RE TOO OLD TO WALK THE MIDNIGHT PATHS, BUT CAN ROAM FREELY AND FLY ONE LAST TIME TOGETHER, AS KINDRED SPIRITS OF WHICH I HAVE NO DOUBT WE ONCE WERE IN ANOTHER LIFETIME. WE ARE THE NIGHT!!!   Thank you one and all for visiting my humble sight, where I promise you I will write my thoughts, my views, MY WAY! THANKS TO MY NEW FRIEND WHO LEFT ME SUCH A WONDERFUL NOTE, ON MY POST BITS & PIECES, YOUR KIND WORDS MADE MY DAY!