The night for celebrating the end of the work week.
Cuttin' loose a bit.
So we did.
Oh, yeah. Party animals we be.
I was occasionally watching "Lord of the Rings" on TV while in the Chair goofing off with this laptop.
The Wife and her laptop were at the Dining/Living/Family room table working on some Worship Center stuff for the church, listening to music.
TechnoBoy was belted into his seat in front of the monitor, playing something called PlanetSide.
He was talking and laughing into the mic/headphones, occasionally breaking for more coffee.
At those times I found out he was talking to his teammates:
2 Scots,
an Irishman,
an Israeli,
and some of the knuckleheads from school.
And they were up against a bunch of Russians, a few Czechs, and a German.
I used to hang out and play with the neighborhood kids, too.
But I think the neighborhood is a lot bigger now.
Then my iPhone rang.
It's the DAGU,(Daughter All Grown Up).
She's calling to let us know she slam-dunked her annual review at work.
Our little girl is kickin' it in the Big City, which of course, is relative to your idea of what constitutes a "Big City".
So, there it was, our uptown Friday night.
We had 3 ceiling lights,
2 lamp lights,
3 monitors,
1 TV,
1 coffeemaker,
1 microwave,
3 iPhones,
and 2 fans going.
Lotsa lights, movement, and activity.
It's now six hours later.
The house is dark.
My lungs want to occasionally breathe so they talk me into the Chair at this very wee hour.
The first noticeable light is from the streetlight faintly painting a small bit of the floor and wall as I get wearily settled in the Chair.
I pull a thin sheet over me as the small fan in the open window methodically swings its head past me, looking corner to corner, each pass causing the sheet to tremble slightly as a faint breeze tossles my face.
From the Chair I can see only 8 other small lights.
TechnoBoy left a Blender program running on his computer.
A yellow light glows from the sleeping monitor's on-button.
The mouse below it is slowly pulsating with a blue light.
The computer glows red inside, the color escaping out of a side window in the case.
A memory stick juts out its front, pulsating with an orange glow that occasionally matches time with the mouse's blue one.
On top of the corner TV is the sound bar. Its small red light, looking like an electronic pimple, lets me know that it's plugged in and ready for action.
Under a dark TV are the VHS and DVD players, each with its own glowing red pimple, ready to rumble with the sound bar.
My slowly-closing eyes swing over to the window where,
next to the fan,
the air-conditioner protrudes onto the window sill.
There is a small solitary light, softly blinking a yellow-green color.
Like a firefly resting on the plastic panel.
Huh.
It's a light warning me to clean the filter.
Never noticed it before.
The activity of life had eclipsed it, the bustle drawing my attention away to other things.
I didn't see it until the Quiet happened.
Huh.
A small, blinking light for the A/C filter.
And a still, small Voice for my soul's filter.
The Quiet helps to notice both.
A thought rolls over in my sleepy brain and nestles in.
Be still and know ...
Yeah.
Sometimes we look for the Quiet.
And sometimes it accidentally finds us on a sleepless night.
Those nights, I think, are when we probably need it most.
So excuse my yawning.
And "Good Night".
I'm gonna enjoy the Quiet.