My brief flirtation with working a night shift of 4p-1am is finally over, and it’s been difficult adjusting to the normal world. It’s strange having to wake up to an alarm clock again. To come home from work and have the world lit by this thing called “the sun” frightens and bewilders me. In a strange way, I miss the night schedule. In a more popular way, it’s nice being able to see people again.

I remember one night last week, coming home and not seeing one car going the direction I was going for the entire duration of my 30 miles commute at 1:30am. Odd, I thought, being as this is a somewhat well populated area. Made me think about all the dystopian sci-fi movies that feature a single character as being the last man on earth. Most people I’ve come across have always told me about all the lavish things that they would do in that scenario. Such things like stealing cars (would it be considered stealing anymore?) and driving them at reckless speeds, living in mansions, and other general kid-in-a-candystore type activities. I guess I never really saw it that way. I always imagined that there would be no one around to keep the basic utilities like electricity and water running. No gardeners would trim back the inevitable swallowing of mother nature. Cities would become dark jungles as food rotted away in vacant stores. Roads would degrade to rubble, cars would rust and their internals would decay rendering transportation useless. Essentialy I never saw that as a fantasy, but more of a camping adventure that lasted forever. Except, with this camping trip, there wasn’t a comfortable home that you could come to and take a warm shower while listening to the TV in the background.

Needless to say, most people stopped asking me what I’d do if I were the last man on earth.