PARTING SHOT: Everything good happens after midnight

I don’t farm, so there’s no reason to be up with the sun, and I don’t believe in the early bird getting anything.

I believe if you’re in the throes of a great sleep, sleep on.

The world, of course, has a much different view and, for much of my life, I’ve acquiesced. Yes, I’ll adhere to your 9-to-5 agenda, if you just let me take a nap at 6 so I can “howl all night” (my dad’s words).

The truth is, I like late-night TV better than morning TV. I get a second wind somewhere around 10 p.m. and I’ve never enjoyed bedtimes that didn’t result from complete exhaustion.

As a child, my first poem addressed the bedtime issue and included a pitch for beginning the day when we felt like it. No one bought in, so for 12 years I dutifully got up for school, tried to adjust to the schedule and let it all go to hell in the summer. Sleep became such an important part of June, July and August I’d often get up just to eat.

College and work, however, took their toll, forcing me to become a day person. I still harbored my desire to “sleep in” (again, dad speaking), but saved that for the weekend.

No one in my family had the same sleep schedule. They always complained about the bright light coming off the television and my habit of “padding around the house at all hours of the night.”

The only other rebel I knew was an aunt, who had no problem calling me at 2 a.m. to go shopping. We had a great time wandering around 24-hour stores with no one in sight except the custodial staff. We hit 24-hour restaurants, too, and got a lot done because apparently only two night owls and a bunch of truckers cared to be out after talk show hosts called it a day.

She was great at cleaning the house, baking bread and writing letters during others’ sleep hours. Her family didn’t complain because, really, are you going to grouse if someone has fresh bread for you in the morning?

I had nothing like that to offer.

“Maybe if you didn’t sleep so much your hair wouldn’t be so long,” dad would offer. And, yes, it probably wouldn’t have been if a barber had been available at midnight, but I’m digressing.

Now, I accept the fact I’ll be tired until I drink my first Coke and I’ll need to nap after work just to be able to have the energy to make dinner.

I once tried getting up even earlier than I needed to and realized I just piddled away the extra hour wondering if it was the best thing to do. Lately, I’ve been in an exercise class that starts at 6 a.m.

That means you need to get up around 5 a.m. just to make it.

But it isn’t such a bad plan. Because you are still in a haze, you don’t realize you’re exercising. And when you get home, you just might have time for a good 20-minute nap before you need to get ready for work.

It’s a vicious cycle, but one I’m willing to embrace.

I may be sluggish until 10 a.m., but give me a call 12 hours later and I’ll be ready to roll.

“Nothing good ever happens after midnight,” mom used to say. But that’s just the words of someone who didn’t appreciate all that could happen.

Had I tossed a loaf of bread in the oven, she might have changed her tune.