Silence is Golden

Unless I'm in some hyper-aware, suspended time state right now, I must report that there is a strange silence on the street below my window. Just to be sure, I turned off the TV and can only hear the dull whirring of the fan in my laptop. Only 3 cars have gone by in the last 15 minutes. No one is standing on the corner. There's no street level conversation of which I can make out every word up here on the 6th floor.

The fire trucks have not rumbled out of Fire Station No. 1 behind me with their wake-the-dead sirens blaring. It's downright quiet over here. This is indeed not the norm. I almost feel like I'm in one of those dusty little Central Valley towns where you only hear the occasional train rolling by in the distance or the sound of an 18-wheeler pulling into a Flying J truck stop some 10 miles away. What's going on? Did all of the usual characters decide to get some rest tonight? Do they have job interviews tomorrow at 8am? Is somebody plotting something nefarious off in the basement of one of these big downtown buildings?

It's a nice night which makes this phenomenon even more exceptional. Unfortunately, in a town that is rife with criminal activity and violence, warm whether tends to hasten rather than curb their capers. I can't call it. Maybe law enforcement has actually decided to enforce the law tonight. I'm skeptical, although I did see an unmarked patrol car (well, as unmarked as a black Crown Victoria with a spotlight can be) rolling through the parking lot across the street the other night and peering into all of the parked cars to see if any tricks were being turned. I'm even a little worried, as odd as that may seem. The science is kind of eerie, especially when I consider something that my uncle once told me about his job as a guard at some of California's penitentiaries. He said that the job was dangerous, but they never really got nervous about anything until it was really quiet. That usually meant that the inmates were up to something. Maybe something is about to go down, but I can't really see myself losing any sleep over it. Maybe its some kind of street hustler's holiday or a prolonged moment of silence in honor of some particularly established East Bay wise guy. Perhaps I'll never know.

Oh, wait a minute. I guess I spoke too soon. Somebody is now engaged in a shouting match...and what's that? Oh, its the loud music from somebody's car. Downtown Oakland is coming back to life.