Day People Tales

When you take time off from work mid-day to let the cable guy in, or when you're home with the flu, or you're home during the day for whatever reason, you notice people walking around. During the day. Those are "day people" (a phrase I heard Ira Glass say on the radio program "This American Life"). Do they have jobs? Do they work nights? What's the deal?

I am now one of those "day people."

Occasionally, the day people in my neighborhood are intoxicated. Much more often, they're retired. And that day person walking a dog every day with a baby strapped to him? That's me. Any of us is usually more than willing to stop and have a conversation; we have time.

Every once in a while, being a day person allows me to see strange sights. For instance, the other day, I observed the mating habits of UPS trucks. Did you ever wonder where all those brown trucks come from? Now I know.

A UPS truck was parked in front of my house. It wasn't doing anything, just sitting there with its back door open and its driver talking on the cellie. Then another UPS truck came swooping in, did a few wild reversing loops, and positioned itself rear-to-rear with the waiting UPS truck. At some point in the process, the driver of the second UPS truck had managed to open its doors, so there was nothing to prevent the free exchange of packages between the two trucks. In a few moments -- much shorter than the time the first UPS truck lay waiting -- it was over and they both drove off.

And that's where all the little brown trucks come from. If only I could have tracked one of them to their nesting grounds!

P.S. If I wanted my Google ranking to soar, I could just use the words "UPS sex" to describe the scene. But this is not that kind of site.