Interlude from the second floor window.

Perhaps you'll know right away by what I mean by a "four am song."

But if you don't, it's okay; I fully intended to explain, but I needed a hook to get in, and there it is.....

We used to say that there are things called, "three am jokes"....those are the jokes that are realllllly funny at three am (and after), but once the sun comes up and the alcohol makes it's way through your system...well....not so much with the funny. The thing with a three am joke is that most of the time, you will remember that you almost laughed yourself into a coma, but you won't actually remember WHAT caused you to laugh so hard. So, the three am joke is perpetual in it's own way.....

A four am song is one that, for some reason, you only hear at four am, usually after a stressful evening; it's almost like these songs are on a shelf at the radio stations with a time lock on them, or something.

The radio began playing a haunting familiar song at four am today....a lovely scots tune that I first heard played by the Tannahill Weavers back in '96.

I must away, love
I can no longer tarry;
The morning tempest I have to cross...

And just like that, I'm a younger man.
The gates of heaven and hell are thrown open wide, and everything single scar earned that incredibly wonderful, painful, eye-opening, heart-closing summer comes back to me in a single, brutal, lovely moment....

And again, I'm standing in the cold rain, wishing, just wishing I could kiss her goodbye just one more time.

And life would never be the same.

To my everlasting joy.

I have a love hate relationship with four am songs.