I rise early even on weekends, continuing the habit of a lifetime, look out and see the civil twilight and the promise of the sun. Over the flat water, dark blue now, like a sheet of glass, wisps of dark clouds with a hint of pink on the horizon in a sky of light blue. The day is already alive with morning sounds, distant traffic. Gulls cry from afar, geese honk as they fly over, a tern drifts by, Bay ducks leave their traces on the water surface like a flotilla, and a common loon emerges from...