It is 10 minutes of midnight, a quarter of a mile above West Texas.
Midnight usually belongs to the mail and freight haulers in the flying world.
Along with the mail and freight planes that fill the night skies are planes loaded with checks on their way to Dallas or one of the other Federal Reserve Banks where they will be processed. Every night millions of pieces of paper must be moved around the country, sorted, tabulated and credited or debited to the proper financial institution accounts. The Dallas Fed serves the Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which encompasses about 350,000 square miles. That check you sent to Chicago to pay for your Christmas purchases will be one of 2.3 million checks each day the Dallas Fed clears before it finds its way back to your bank in West Texas, thanks to an armada of general aviation airplanes flying all night. There is no armada on Dec. 31, 1999.