Sleep Cycle

I went to bed early last night—I think. I went to bed at 7:30 PM. At 8 PM I was still awake, so I got out of bed and watched Young Sheldon. My intent was to go to bed when the show ended, and indeed, I turned off the TV at that time. I may have watched some YouTube, but in any event I was in bed by 9 PM.

It was one of those increasingly frequent nights: sleep ninety minutes, awake ninety minutes, repeat. Around 2 AM I awoke and heard a small, single-engine airplane flying overhead. The sound faded, grew louder, faded again, grew louder again, repeatedly. I wondered if the pilot was lost. There is a general aviation airport nearby, and I thought perhaps he was looking for it. The plane sounded as if it might be circling. If he was, the pilot could certainly see the headlights on I-95 a half mile east of me. When clouds are hanging low, I am able to hear the constant rumble of tires on the interstate. Sometimes I hear a trucker applying his truck’s Jake brake. But not tonight. We have a cloudless sky. There is nothing to reflect sound back to the ground.

I often rise at 4 AM or 5 AM, but not today. I stayed in bed until 7:30 AM, by which time my full bladder was signaling that a bathroom trip was needed. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand. Before my body was erect, an intense pain in my lower back pulled me into a bowed position. I sat down on the bed. My bladder still required a bathroom trip. I stood again, but this time in a bent-over position and hobbled awkwardly to the bathroom. I was able to slowly get my body more erect, little by little, until I was standing normally. But it lasted only until I sat down again. When I tried to stand up, my back pain grabbed me and bent me over. I had to repeat the procedure of getting to a standing position little by little. It’s a nuisance, but it happens. It has happened before, and likely will happen again.

When I reached my computer, the outside temperature was 24°F. I turned on the TV and spent a few minutes watching impeachment shenanigans on the morning news, then I turned off the TV. I finished off a family-size bag of potato chips that I had bought just yesterday. I decided it was time for breakfast, so I warmed a burger patty I had cooked yesterday. I added mayo and ketchup to the bun, salted and peppered the beef patty, and put a slice of onion on it. I was going for the BK taste, but it wasn’t even close. I recalled the spatula incident that happened last night. I was cooking beef patties, and I pressed down on one with my plastic spatula (that I’ve used for years) and apparently I pressed down too hard. With a loud snap, the spatula exploded into three pieces. Two pieces sailed away, leaving me holding one short piece of handle. I grabbed my backup spatula and finished cooking the patties.

After I had consumed my so-so breakfast hamburger, I fired up my blogging software and set about pretending I was doing something useful. The time is 9 AM. The morning’s local weather is now on the TV. The weather guy says we have a 30% chance of rain today. (Until 9 AM we have a weather gal, and a traffic gal as well.)

The outside temperature has warmed to 33°F now. The habitable zone starts at 45°F, in my opinion. A weak sun shines through a thin overcast. The boiler in my cellar is running, cranking out hot water for the radiators. A small electric heater sits on the floor beside my legs, blowing warm air on me. For the moment, life is good. It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy. Simple things are important: chocolate chip cookies, a glass of cold orange soda, and a quiet place to munch and sip go a long way toward happiness in my world.