All through the Night
A minute-by-minute look at what¡¯s going on while most of us are sound asleep
7:55 p.m. Sunset
7:57 p.m.
Streetlights go on, triggered by photoelectric ¡°eyes¡± that sense the gathering gloom. Dawn¡¯s early light will cue each eye to turn off the lights.
8:00 p.m.
Justice Court in the Town of Bethlehem, Albany County, wraps up after a hectic two and a half hours of hearing cases involving vehicle infractions and traffic violations. On a busy night, the two presiding judges hear from 100 to 150 cases.
9:00 p.m.
Night servers begin their 10-hour shift at Lexus Diner Restaurant in Newburgh.
9:15 p.m.
Fireworks brighten the sky at Westchester¡¯s Rye Playland Amusement Park on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
9:30 p.m.
A crew armed with machine floor scrubbers starts cleaning the floors of the state Capitol. (It will take one person two hours to scrub the steps of the Million Dollar Staircase.)
10:00 p.m.
Soldiers Memorial Fountain in Poughkeepsie¡¯s Eastman Park shuts off. Not far away, the last band of the night takes the stage at The Chance Theater.
A cashier at a 24-hour Price Chopper punches in for a nine-hour shift.
10:15 p.m.
It¡¯s show time for the late movie at the Hyde Park Drive-In.
11:00 p.m.
One of the 10 to 20 freight trains that run on the River Line during night hours clacks through the Valley. They can be up to 8,000 feet long, with
each car weighing more than 50,000 pounds.
The third shift begins at IBM¡¯s Poughkeepsie plant. Two hundred fifty employees ¡ª production operators, computer operators, and technicians ¡ª log in their hours between 4 p.m. and 7 a.m.
11:35 p.m.
About 26 firefighters, in the midst of a 24-hour shift, get some shut-eye in Troy¡¯s six firehouses. Throughout the night, one person at each house will nap ¡°on watch¡± in the office area, ready to awaken the others as they slumber in dormitories.
11:58 p.m.
United Flight 868, from Chicago¡¯s O¡¯Hare Airport, lands at Albany International Airport.
12:00 a.m.
Middletown¡¯s Times Herald-Record goes to print.
The first of 65,000 vehicles to cross the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in a day passes through the toll plaza.
Shift change at the White Plains District Post Office. Although most of the mail (coming from Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties) is sorted and prepped for shipping by machines, employees are there to run them until 8 a.m.
12:00-2:00 a.m.
Drivers arrive at Boiceville¡¯s Bread Alone bakery to pick up orders and deliver them to distributors from Manhattan to Albany. Baking for the following day¡¯s orders begins at 4:00 a.m.
1:00 a.m.
The Capitol floors are squeaky clean.
1:00-2:00 a.m.
Tom Hubmaster, head groundskeeper at Dutchess Stadium, finishes his cleanup chores after a Renegades game. Sometimes he even sleeps at the stadium rather than driving back to his New Jersey home, so he can tackle maintenance work first thing in the morning.
1:45 a.m.
Although Homo sapiens, by and large, are asleep, plenty of other mammals are busy earning their livelihood ¡ª or at least foraging for food. They include opossums, skunks, raccoons, beaver, red foxes, and bobcats.
2:00 a.m.
Terrapin¡¯s Red Bar Bistro in Rhinebeck quits serving from its late-night menu.
Community Custom Services, based in Poughkeepsie, begins sweeping clients¡¯ parking lots. The work will be finished no later than 8 a.m., before the morning crowds arrive.
2:00-3:00 a.m.
¡°Ad hoc¡± charters, which primarily transport horses and cows, leave Stewart International Airport in New Windsor for destinations around the world.
3:00 a.m.
Ben Conte, owner of Conte¡¯s Fish Market, a restaurant and retail store in Mt. Kisco, Westchester County, arrives at NYC¡¯s Fulton Fish Market. He¡¯ll head home with a fresh haul by 6:00 a.m.
The lone toll-taker at the NYS Thruway¡¯s Kingston interchange, at work from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., sees fewer than 100 cars pass through the booth between 3 and 4 on an average morning. In the following hour, the number jumps to 150 cars.
3:07 a.m.
A baby is born at Vassar Brothers Medical Center¡¯s Maternity Center in Poughkeepsie. Of the 3,000 babies delivered there each year, approximately one-third come into the world at night.
3:15 a.m.
Printing of the Times Herald-Record is completed.
3:27 a.m.
The last Metro-North train from Grand Central Terminal arrives in Poughkeepsie.
3:30 a.m.
Birdcalls begin to shatter the night¡¯s quiet. The full chorus of chirps and tweets begins about an hour later.
3:45 a.m.
Last call at Nyack¡¯s Velvet Lounge. Although closing time varies, depending on the crowd, as many as 30 people are occasionally on hand this late to soak up the last of the suds. (All bars in the state must close by 4 a.m.)
4:00 a.m.
Albany¡¯s waste collection and recycling crews hit the curbs, working until noon.
Staff begins baking hole-y creations for the morning rush at New Paltz Hot Bagels.
4:15 a.m.
A barge delivers oil to the Kingston Oil Supply Corporation. Such shipments arrive at all times of the day.
4:30 a.m.
Two people start milking the 80 to 86 cows at Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale, Columbia County. Twelve hours later, after the cows have fully ¡°rejuvenated,¡± they¡¯ll be milked again.
Stewart Airport¡¯s Transportation Security Administration reports for work to search passengers and their belongings before they board the first flight at 5:30 a.m.
4:40 a.m.
The first Metro-North train leaves Poughkeepsie headed to NYC. (On weekends, it departs at 4:30 a.m.)
4:47 a.m.
Franz Kaizik, co-host of WDST-FM¡¯s morning show, rolls out of bed to get ready for his 6 a.m. on-air start ¡ª as he has done for the past decade or so. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of sleep deprivation,¡± he notes. ¡°But it¡¯s less painful these days. I used to be comatose on some mornings.¡±
5:00 a.m.
Six people, known around Mohonk Mountain House as the ¡°Pastry Shop,¡± begin baking the assorted muffins, croissants, Danish, and other baked goods that complement the resort¡¯s Contintental breakfast.
5:25 a.m.
Monastics at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, Ulster County, must be seated in the zendo for the start of the day¡¯s first zazen, a form of meditation. It continues until 6:30 a.m.
5:30 a.m.
The Poughkeepsie Journal is guaranteed to be on your doorstep by now. One hundred eighty carriers begin their routes after the papers are delivered to their homes around 1 a.m.
Back at Mohonk, about 15 cooks ¡ª in addition to the Pastry Shop ¡ª start preparing the rest of the Continental breakfast.
5:53 a.m.
The morning¡¯s first NY Waterway ferry leaves Haverstraw bound for Ossining, where it will arrive at 6:09.
6:00 a.m.
A bugler plays Reveille while a cannon is fired and the flag is raised at the U.S. Military Academy¡¯s Trophy Point.
A state Department of Transportation crew is finished for the ¡°day¡± with its repaving of New Paltz¡¯s Main Street. Weather permitting, they started at 8 p.m.
6:04 a.m. Sunrise ¡ö
