Was thinking this morning while I lay in bed not quite ready to face the “real world” after another whirlwind Vegas weekend: the work week around here starts out with all the precision of a military drill team, as things seem to just happen at their appointed times, and there you are, just lying in bed like some lazy bum letting it all go down around you.

* 6:00 AM – The week starts with the revving of truck equipment outside the front as the trash collection guy makes his appointed rounds. Out here in Gilbert, AZ there are no trash ‘crews’ – just a truck that pulls up beside your black barrel (not the blue one – that’s for recycleables and are picked up on Thursdays), hoists it up, dumps the contents, and places it back down where it was. Our whole street of fourteen houses takes him all of five minutes to do.

* 6:20 AM – A click, the sound of water rushing, and then a whole lot of ‘scrubbing bubbles’-like sounds as the swimming pool filter chatters to life. I don’t know why it comes on at this time of day, just as I don’t know why its shuts off at 1 PM – much too early all around, in my view. But that’s territory only Tracey has domain over, so let’s leave it at that.

* 6:23 AM – Oops, the house must have gotten a little chilly as the central air clicks on, sending a rush of heat throughout the house.

* 6:30 AM: Some soothing piece of classical music ends like clockwork, replaced by the calm and measured tones of Sterling Beeaff reading the Arizona headlines on 98.5 KBAQ, the classical station here in Phoenix.

* 6:47 AM: That ticking sound in the water pipes indicates the front lawn watering system has just clicked on. In five minutes it will shut off with a quiet clunk, and the back lawn will be given the same morning shower treatment for the same period of time.

And that’s my queue to get up, give the rabbits some treats, and head to the bathroom for my morning constitutional. And all this without anyone having to lift a finger. What a marvelous, technologically advanced age we live in and take for granted!