The Right Night Owl for a Bird’s-Eye View

Staff writer Leonard Reed has of late been spending a lot of time behind the wheel of his car. It’s been Ventura Life centerpieces by night and columns by day, all of which have taken Reed and his Volkswagen from one end of the county to the other.

For this week’s cover story, he needed a lot of caffeine as well as petrol to get the job done. His task was to find enough to do in the hours between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. in a day-tripping county filled with hikers, bikers, workers, schoolers and sunlight soakers.

Well, you don’t send a blue jay out to do an owl’s job, and neither did we.

“The night has always been a comfortable place for me,” Reed said. “I get a lot of reading done when everyone else is asleep and, for that matter, I don’t even like to dine before 9 p.m. But most of all, things look peaceful after midnight--often, what is commonplace and banal in the crowded afternoon becomes dramatic and engaging after dark.”

You’ll have to check Reed’s story, “Up All Night,” to see precisely what he means. Suffice to say here that the only time the night proved disagreeable for him was years ago atop a snowy mountain back East, when his hiking group lost its way, became trapped and needed rescue. Happily, in “getting lost” for this week’s cover story, our night owl returned with a smile and a detailed nocturnal map of Ventura County.

Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll see Reed’s column, “On the Road,” on the subject of one man’s attempt to sculpt animals into his front yard. The sight, on Seaward Avenue in Ventura, is both delightful and haunting. For his column, Reed wrote about the daytime version--the one most people see. But with a nod to his main story, Reed wryly noted: “It’s worth seeing at night. The animals just seem to float there, in the moonlight.” Consider this an addendum to the all-night map.

But let’s say you are one of those people inclined to wake up in a single-digit hour attached to an a.m., only to find yourself stuck in daylight savings with a surfeit of sun-drenched time to kill.

During such moments, thoughts may turn to outdoor sports--tennis, in particular. If so, then you might want to read this week’s Fashion column, where Kathleen Williams tells us what both traditionalists and the rebels will be wearing on the courts, assuming that local arbiters of taste will let them.

But what if your ideas about leisure-time behavior come from lizards, not kangaroos? Then take a look at the Shop Talk column, where Julie Sawyer offers helpful tips on purchasing patio furniture. And she charts a course toward the best buys on outdoor dining sets and lounge chairs, which, by the way, can make an excellent, comfy crash site after one of those all-nighters.