State of Perpetual Exhaustion
Age: 29
Weight: 183 lbs.
Hours of sleep: 4
Digestion: Good
Nervous Tics: Intermittent
Attitude: Irritable, itchy
God hates me. Or, someone does. Why, why can I not get a good night’s sleep?!
Last night we were on the receiving end of two lines of violent thunder storms. The first one hit sometime around midnight. We’d been asleep for nearly an hour and a half when my wife and I were awakened by a cacophony. It was hard to figure out what it was at first. The thunder and driving rain were pretty easy to identify. Then, there was the terrified, crying baby. And, then . . .
“What the hell is that? Is that the cat?” I asked.
My wife rolled out of bed and went to the back room.
We keep our cat in the laundry/storage room at night. He has food, water, and a liter box, so it keeps him quiet and out of our bed at night. Since it’s been so hot the last few days, my wife opened the window for him. It was still open when we went to bed last night. It’s a small window too. There is maybe a square foot worth of screen when it’s open. The storm was so fierce that the rain was coming in sideways, and the entire 8’ x 10’ room was soaked as was the cat. Between the cat’s yowling, the thunder, and the roaring wind my son woke up scared. Somehow, my wife managed to pacify everyone in short order and came back to bed. Then the power went out. Tired, we went back to sleep.
I woke to a pitch black, hushed house. It was kind of creepy. In the far distance, the thunder grumbled. The rain had stopped, but the clouds were too thick to tell what time of night it was. I crawled out of bed, put on my shoes, and went out to the car to see what time it was.
3:00 AM. I still had two more hours to sleep. I went back to bed.
Sometime around 4:30 AM the power came back on. The sound of the fans, answering machine, refrigerator, and everything else kicking-in woke me up.
At around 5:00 AM I got up and did my normal morning routine and got in my car to go to work. I was barely half a mile down the road when I happened to look at the car’s clock. It read 4:55 AM.
What the hell?
I’d forgotten that our battery-backup alarm clock has some issues. For instance, when the power goes off, the display dies but the internal clock keeps track of the time. However, for reasons only known to the crafty Chinese bastards who built it for Walmart, the internal clock speeds up when the power is out. For every minute the power is off, the clock speeds up about 30+ seconds.
I turned back around and went home. About five to ten minutes after I dozed off in an armchair, second line of storms moved in. I didn’t get much sleep. I can only imagine that it was roughly the equivalent of trying to sleep through an artillery barrage.
As usual, I’m trying to function in thoroughly sleep deprived state. I read somewhere that someone my age functioning on this little sleep has the mental agility and alertness of a 75 year old. It’s no wonder I act like a crotchety old man, I am an old man.
So, what the hell does all this matter? Or, what does it have to do with the Devil Queen? As lay awake in the dark, I’m thinking, “I hope Kenny starts installing all the vents for the crawl space this week,” and “We need to lay the vapor barrier as soon as the plumbing is 100% finished,” and “We need to install the gutters.”
My wife and I had talked about working on the Devil Queen tonight after work. Screw that. I’m going home, eating dinner, playing with the baby, and going to bed. Maybe I’ll even get to sleep.
Weight: 183 lbs.
Hours of sleep: 4
Digestion: Good
Nervous Tics: Intermittent
Attitude: Irritable, itchy
God hates me. Or, someone does. Why, why can I not get a good night’s sleep?!
Last night we were on the receiving end of two lines of violent thunder storms. The first one hit sometime around midnight. We’d been asleep for nearly an hour and a half when my wife and I were awakened by a cacophony. It was hard to figure out what it was at first. The thunder and driving rain were pretty easy to identify. Then, there was the terrified, crying baby. And, then . . . “What the hell is that? Is that the cat?” I asked.
My wife rolled out of bed and went to the back room.
We keep our cat in the laundry/storage room at night. He has food, water, and a liter box, so it keeps him quiet and out of our bed at night. Since it’s been so hot the last few days, my wife opened the window for him. It was still open when we went to bed last night. It’s a small window too. There is maybe a square foot worth of screen when it’s open. The storm was so fierce that the rain was coming in sideways, and the entire 8’ x 10’ room was soaked as was the cat. Between the cat’s yowling, the thunder, and the roaring wind my son woke up scared. Somehow, my wife managed to pacify everyone in short order and came back to bed. Then the power went out. Tired, we went back to sleep.
I woke to a pitch black, hushed house. It was kind of creepy. In the far distance, the thunder grumbled. The rain had stopped, but the clouds were too thick to tell what time of night it was. I crawled out of bed, put on my shoes, and went out to the car to see what time it was.
3:00 AM. I still had two more hours to sleep. I went back to bed.
Sometime around 4:30 AM the power came back on. The sound of the fans, answering machine, refrigerator, and everything else kicking-in woke me up.
At around 5:00 AM I got up and did my normal morning routine and got in my car to go to work. I was barely half a mile down the road when I happened to look at the car’s clock. It read 4:55 AM.
What the hell?
I’d forgotten that our battery-backup alarm clock has some issues. For instance, when the power goes off, the display dies but the internal clock keeps track of the time. However, for reasons only known to the crafty Chinese bastards who built it for Walmart, the internal clock speeds up when the power is out. For every minute the power is off, the clock speeds up about 30+ seconds.
I turned back around and went home. About five to ten minutes after I dozed off in an armchair, second line of storms moved in. I didn’t get much sleep. I can only imagine that it was roughly the equivalent of trying to sleep through an artillery barrage.
As usual, I’m trying to function in thoroughly sleep deprived state. I read somewhere that someone my age functioning on this little sleep has the mental agility and alertness of a 75 year old. It’s no wonder I act like a crotchety old man, I am an old man.
So, what the hell does all this matter? Or, what does it have to do with the Devil Queen? As lay awake in the dark, I’m thinking, “I hope Kenny starts installing all the vents for the crawl space this week,” and “We need to lay the vapor barrier as soon as the plumbing is 100% finished,” and “We need to install the gutters.”
My wife and I had talked about working on the Devil Queen tonight after work. Screw that. I’m going home, eating dinner, playing with the baby, and going to bed. Maybe I’ll even get to sleep.
posted by John | 5:11 AM
1 Comments:
We had a bunch of storms here all yesterday. My poor cat hates storms. He was so relieved when I got home from the beach mid-day (after almost getting struck by lightning in the car) and let him crawl between my back and the couch to hide. Poor little baby.
Post a Comment
<< Home