He gasped on his first breath as if it were his last and the suddenness had awoken him from a deep and long night's sleep. The taste of a heavy due had moistened his lips which only accentuates the coolness in the air rushing through his open mouth. His lungs filled with a harsh frost and had a real bite to it but did not prevent his first rising thought, "wow, that was a good sleep." Before his brain properly clears he thought to savor the moment as these days it was rare he got to wake feeling as it is. Sooner or later the headaches and pain will start and he knew all too well it was only impossible to feel like this but for the briefest of moments.

He notices his feet restlessly shuffling up and down between the bags. They were cold and as if running on autopilot just trying to keep themselves warm. He made a mental note to throw another layer, maybe his old jacket, over his feet.. He asks himself, "how many more of these frosts until I finally meet the one in waiting; taking my legs, arms and finally my heart?"

It's still dark and he reaches over tapping his phone screen. It says exactly 6:00 am and collapsing back over, he again feels the wow one feels after a good sleep. He savours the stretching of his arms while sliding them back down into the sleeping bag. The sleep had been completely undisturbed with not a dream to remember. Lately he'd had some pretty weird dreams and each dream's weirdness was simply defined by the people in them with no axe murderers to be found. Suddenly people from the past, people he had not even thought of had somehow found their way into his dreams.

He’d asked each of them, “What do you want, have you come to gloat or are you here in my dreams to intimidate,” and with no questions answered, “whatever” he’d every time replied.”

All of them suddenly in his dreams was a notion that only pissed him off, so much he’d preferred his dream of the scariest of dark aliens standing over his body in paralysis. His thoughts and notions on dreams most would never understand so it was a real relief to not remember any dreaming.

He'd recently read only the title to an article which said, Scientist-Enabled Brain Syncing which only added to his frustrations and drove him deeper into a place that just did not want to know. He summarized while flicking straight past its content, "my cerebral cortex is my biological property and permissions are not granted, anything else is inhumane, immoral and darn right wrong, so fuck off.."

He swings out of his two sleeping bags and places his feet on the floor. Almost stepping into the base layer waiting at his feet. He pulls up the thin but warm underwear made from merino wool, both feet and legs at once. Reaches over to the chair for his warm hoody and slides one arm after the other, zipping up to the neck and pulling the hood over his head which already has the beany he'd slept in covering. The extra layer around the head had become like a living standard and way to be. A comfort and protection layer that seemed to dually help with screening out the madness of the world and keeping his ears warm.

Standing up he kicks his feet into the shoes waiting and heads straight to the bathroom to take a piss. Starts brushing his teeth in the bathroom and heads to the kitchen and continuing his teeth cleaning sequences. He doesn't turn a light on as he always savoured the beauty and peacefulness of the dark and mornings. He grabs the kettle and fills it with enough water for exactly two cups and after placing it back on its power source he hits the knob to illuminate the blue l e d on the switch. While it is heating he sits for a while continuing his aggressive scrubbing of teeth before heading back to the bathroom to finish off.

Silently he gazed through the window and the faintest of light was just starting to illuminate the sky long before sunrise and high above the eastern seas horizon. After half a cup with his first morning rollie he stood up and flicked the switch again, for his second. To tip out the second half was like a ritual to him now, always preferring his coffee hot early in the morning. Rinses the cup a little and dries off his tea spoon before making another. Looking out the window he notices some workers already out on the street.

He sat and rolled another smoke while thinking about the workers and how early they were preparing to start. After his morning rituals it was now 6:30 am and lately the landlord had some extensive work carried out on the front section. With a driveway added had required lots of heavy excavation vehicles; diggers and trucks etc and of course people. Late last night there were two young carpenters/shuttering chippies working late to get the roadside gutter all prepared in time for the concrete truck this morning.