Self-Help for Late Sleepers

As early as I was up the day before, I was up that late and then some on Thursday. I wasn’t downstairs until 5:50am. By then the coffee was brewed and ready for my enjoyment. Before any of that, however, I needed to exercise and then walk Ykraps. Even under the shroud of darkness, I could see that lushness was restored to our lawn complements of yesterday’s heavy summer rains. Just in the nick of time. The street was wet, too, so I knew that it rained overnight. And there was still more rain forecasted during the day. Even more about the weather… Looking ahead, to the end of August, we may not touch 80 again. If not, that would be right on par with most of the ’09 summer. That’s OK by me. I’m ready for some 75-80 degree days with brilliant September sunshine. But the way this year’s gone, it just might snow in September! I did my usual after walk/pre-run routine. And by the time I headed out to run it was already 7:00am. I didn’t let it sway me much at all. And once again, like a broken record, it was 73 degrees. My run went really well. Even though my run was delayed a good 20 minutes, I still encountered the older couple I see out walking every morning come rain, snow, cold, or heat. We greeted one another as usual. I was home by 7:35am and moved quickly towards preparing my breakfast and lunch. I wasn’t off to the shower until 8:00am. I took Mindy her morning coffee and then got in the shower. I was ready for work by 8:20am. Downstairs Mindy joined me. Among other things, we discussed just how good of a job Rachel did cleaning our house on Wednesday. She cleaned things we rarely do, like scrubbing and polishing the kitchen cabinets, moving all the plants and furniture to vacuum, and dusting. In addition, the tile floors were sparkling clean, and the granite hasn’t looked so good since it was new. I’m impressed. I left for work at 8:35am. Mindy said she was taking the kids to grandma Sharon’s and heading into the school. I arrived at work around 8:50am. Received a message from my boss that he’d be out for the next couple of days due to the imminent death of a relative. The work day plodded along as usual. I made plans to leave for lunch – around 1pm. I went to Lowe’s simply to browse. I looked at new water heaters, aluminum extension ladders, and artificial decking. I’ll bet I was there for 35 minutes. I headed back to the office after being gone 45 minutes. I was ready. The afternoon stayed busy but under control. I left for home at 5:35pm. I talked with Mindy. We’d be having leftovers. I planned to have the rest of my steak from Monday. Mindy hadn’t walked Ykraps. Looked fresh out of the shower when I got home. The kids were in especially good moods. Not sure why. Mindy joined me walking Ykraps said they were at each other all afternoon. I joked with Mindy that the grass needed cut already. I just cut it Tuesday evening. Seriously though, it would definitely need cut by Saturday. We all had something different for dinner. While Mindy readied everything, I published the many blog entries I had written. As I said earlier, I had steak. Mindy & Bella had leftover spaghetti, and Jacob had cereal. Mindy asked the kids what they looked forward to the most about next week’s return to school. Bella said ‘riding the bus’ – her first such adventure. Jacob said ‘nothing’. But if you ask me, I think he’s looking forward to the girls. After clean-up, the kids were eager to play a board game. They wanted to play Chicken or the Egg. Meanwhile, I wanted/needed a nap. Mindy expressed a little displeasure with my resolve to nap. I grabbed a sofa pillow, tossed it on the family room floor and laid flat on my back. I conversed with them as they began playing the game. I even chimed in with an answer or two. They wouldn’t let me play remotely, however. Shortly after that I must’ve drifted off to sleep. I woke about 20 minutes later. I slowly reenergized and went mobile. I tuned the TV to NFL preseason football. There were two games on – The Bengals vs New England, and Philly vs Indy. I flopped back and forth between the two. The kids were apparently outside. Mindy eventually said she was going to go visit Chrissy. I think I got into some chiggers on the golf course Sunday as I’ve got some very itchy bites in the tell-tale places, plus some general itchiness along my belt line and behind my knees and armpits. I went upstairs to apply some rubbing alcohol and Benadryl. While upstairs, I changed into my comfy clothes. When I returned down stairs Mindy & Kenny were coming in. Mindy was fetching our pack-n-play for Chrissy to borrow, and Kenny was inquiring about any weekend golf plans. I explained that I’d like to golf but that I’d be on-call. About the best I could offer was possibly some after 4pm golf close by, but even that would be tentative, dependent on how work goes. They left, and I chilled on the sofa watching football. Mindy and the kids came back in around 9pm, and like most nights this week, Mindy rushed them up for showers. I went to tuck them in just as Mindy was heading back down. It was a quick one, no seek & finds. Back downstairs I watched more football switching back and forth between the two games. I was most impressed with the Bengal attacking/blitzing defensive scheme. Haven’t seen that from them before. I dosed off a time or two even before either game ended then eventually headed off to bed around 1030pm. Mindy headed up at the same time. I was still half asleep heading up.