Currently 52 degrees with a SSW wind of 14 mph bringing that down to feeling like 48. Dew Point 44, Humidity 73%, Barometer 30.14 & falling, Visibility 10 mi, Sunrise 7:58 am, Sunset 6:55 pm. Sunny with a few afternoon clouds. High 65. SW winds 15 – 25 mph.

Partly cloudy tonight with a low of 46. SW winds 5 – 10 mph.

One the street where I live there is traffic. A lot. It’s sort of a shortcut from the busy town of Rockford to the even busier city of Grand Rapids, an alternative route cutting miles off from getting to the expressway and in. The sound is a bit muted as it’s way up at the end of a long, winding driveway, but it’s there. It’s especially interesting on a rainy night.

I’ve always loved the sound of traffic and in the middle of the night, when I can’t sleep, it provides endless entertainment for me. If I don’t have rain to listen to, or a snow storm slapping against the window, there is the traffic. Where are all of those people going in the night? To work? Home from work? Home from the closing of a bar? On the way to an airport – what, to pick someone up? To leave on an exotic vacation? Where? On a cruise? Or to fly off to the bedside of a dying relative? Are they on the way to an all-night fast food place for a snack? Or for a craving of a very pregnant wife? Heading in to a medical procedure scheduled at some cruel early morning hour? Is it a doctor or a nurse on the way in to that hospital? That truck…is it carrying groceries to my favorite stores?

Well, as you can see, I never, ever run out of possibilities – could probably run on forever. But when I don’t want to turn on the light and read, or get up and make Sleep Tea, or reach over to grab the Smartphone to play a game or check e-mails or Facebook or Twitter, I can lay there and conjure up stories galore just from the sound of the traffic.

That endless entertainment of the traffic.