Rise and Shine!

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of Van Morrisson's "Brown Eyed Girl" blaring out of someone's car. I roll over to look at the clock and it's 5:30 a.m. WTF? Who parties at 5:30 a.m. Along with the sound of the music is hootin' and hollerin' like someone is being cheered on. Is it a drinking binge, I wonder. At 5:30 a.m.?

So, then they turn the music down and it gets quiet. Thank God. But then, just a few minutes later, they turn the volume back up, same song, same hootin and hollerin. Then they turn it down. I'm thinking, cops are going to come around and cool this off, surely. It continues like this for about 30 minutes. I notice flashes of light through my window, like a photo flash or maybe it was police flash I wasn't sure but the music and shouting continues.

Finally, I roll out of bed to look out the window. I have an 8 ft fence around my duplex but because the building itself it raised on top of crawl space, I can actually see over my fence and onto the street. I live on a very busy street.

I see people, a lot of people, walking on the street. And then I remember, today is the Houston Marathon. I just didn't realize it was going down my street. Apparently the Marathon directors allowed walkers to start early, and that is what was passing my house. Each time new people walked by, the van of enthusiasts would turn up the volume and cheer.

Finally about 30 minutes later, I heard the helicopter approach and then fade away. They were following the lead runners. After that someone thought it would be cool to play a snare drum in beat to help the runners as they went by. I think it got quiet again at about 8:30.

I am not a morning person and this is why I don't have a gun.