My name is Wray and I admit it I am a morning person. Not one of those "cheerful to the point of psychosis" morning people just someone who always wakes before everyone in the house does.

In High School We used to live near a good sized hill in the center of town. Most mornings I would sneak out of the house quietly and climb up there to watch the sunrise. Froze my ass off most of the time but it was a moment of zen before the open freak show that was high school.

For some odd reason I like to go shopping before stores open. One day in the mid '80s (I have no memory of dates I think I lost them in a Reno drinking binge) my cousin and I and two other friends ran away to Laguna beach. We ended spending the night, that morning I got bored with watching them sleep so I decided to pick up breakfast at the nearest convenience store.

It was just a three block walk but it took me over an hour to walk it. Looking in store windows, staring at the ocean and in general soaking up the stillness. It was one of the few times in my life that I was truly at peace.

Another moment of morning peace was a time a couple of years ago when I was visiting a friend when she lived in Hollwood. Same situation as before , up early going to get breakfast (this time pastry at a killer bakery, yum). I took advantage of the early hour and saw Grauman's Chinese Theater and some of the other sites before the tourists took over.

Which brings us to this morning, an unusual one. We live on a major street so traffic is always in the background but for some reason not now. All is still no birds flying, no kids walking by on their way to school even our cat is quiet. But underneath it all quiet is the faint beat of machinery, a crew fixing our water main.