Give Thanks...For Sleeping In

 Remember when you were young and busy doing all the things young people do and you get tired and you know that the next morning you have nothing to do and you can sleep in, and...

You actually sleep in?

Those were the days.

Sadly, as I get older and older, the days of sleeping in when you want to are fading forever in the distance. Sleep is no longer a given, something you know your body will be able to do. You can add "sleep" to a long list of things your body is no longer able to do, a list that gets longer and longer with each passing year.

This morning, however, it seemed those old days returned. We slept in until after 8:30am. And because if was Conference weekend, I did not have to hurry, get dressed and go to church that begins at 9am. No, it was a wonderful convergence of available weekend and actually sleeping in.

It doesn't happen often, but I'm thankful for those rare times when it does. It's a small thing, when comparing big things like poverty and the national debt, but when I woke up and saw the time on the clock...man, it felt great.

That Brilliant, Unfamiliar Feeling Of...Sleeping In

 I almost couldn't believe it...I glanced over at the AM/FM Alarm Clock Radio W/Cassette communications system on my nightstand and the time read 8:22am. I was blown away.

At first, I didn't believe it. Sometimes I think I'm genetically unable to sleep beyond 7am. When I work, I get up before that time, of course, but on my days off, oh how I wish I could sleep in, even just a little. Last weekend, I woke up every day I didn't work at the same time I would have needed to wake up had I worked.

I think the Daylight Savings Time changed helped, and not just because it was darker outside. Usually, outside light doesn't affect my sleep very much. Then again, maybe Daylight Savings Time didn't play into it. I mean, it's been almost a week of adjustments since the time change.

This morning, though...no interruptions from the cat to wake me, no alarm clock buzzing, nothing just uninterrupted sleep...

Until 8:22am, at least.

The One With Where The Cast Of Friends Got Brain Transplants

People love the weekends for many reasons--a big reason is that many of us get to sleep in. Lately when I've had the opportunity to sleep in, I keep waking up early, sometimes earlier than I do for work. This wouldn't be a problem if I would go to sleep at a decent hour, but I don't on weekends because, well...hey--I can sleep in.

This morning, though, for whatever reason, I was able to slumber beyond my normal time of waking up. It was great. The system worked. This particular morning, however, I woke up with a dream fresh on the brain.

And it had to do with brains.

Thanks to the modern miracle that is "binge watching," we've had the show Freinds on a lot lately. Last night's/this morning's dream had to do with all six stars of Friends. For some reason, the friends were all together and they needed to get brain transplants. In the dream, this made sense. The transplants were only supposed to be temporary, so that's good. The actors assembled and the transplants began.

But, they were not fitted with good brains, not even "Abby Normal" brains were used. No, show's characters were given chicken brains.

Why chicken brains?

I have no idea.

So, they get their new brains and began walking around. The next thing you know, none of the characters could do their jobs because they had forgotten how to do their jobs, or do anything else. This also made sense because they had chicken brains.

I woke up at this point and told my wife I dreamt about the characters in Friends getting brain transplants with chicken brains. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not able to sleep in more often...

Sleepin' In...

On any given week, I wake up early four days out of seven. That's not bad. I used to get up around 5:30am for those four days, but thanks to technology (and continued positive work evaluations...) I now work in my basement. That gives me four extra hours of sleep each week. That's not bad, either.

This schedule has worked out well for years and years. It's worked out in another way, too. Many in my family are night owls. You can get away with that if you homeschool. So on the nights when I don't need to get up early, I'll stay up until the wee hours of the morning. I didn't think about sleeping in too much--it was just something I was able to do on the days I didn't work.

That all changed at the end of June of this year.

That's when we got a puppy.

I'm not the kind of person who dispense advice, at least I don't think I do (maybe I've come across "preachy" in this blog, and if so, I apologize...). But there's one piece of advice I give freely--not to everyone, but to certain individuals. I will tell parents expecting the birth of their child/children that they should get as much sleep as possible, because once the child/children arrive, sleep becomes an unobtainable goal. I tell expecting parents this because each time we brought home another baby, I forgot just how much sleep I didn't get. I remembered the feedings/diaper changes/other new baby stuff, but I ALWAYS forgot that a good night's sleep would become something that was never a given.

It's been years since we've lost sleep because of a newborn in the home. When my son found a puppy that needed to be adopted, lack of sleep was not something I thought I'd have to even think about. And truth be told, if I kept a schedule Benjamin Franklin would approve of, I'd be getting enough sleep all along.

I should say, at this point, things have gotten much better for me as far as sleep goes. When we first got the puppy, it was during the longest days of the year and the dog knew when the sun would come up. Plus, we hadn't trained him so we were worried he needed to go out around 6am, or 6:15am. The dog is learning, as are we. On the days when I'm not working, the whole house is no longer being woken up by a barking dog. Thanks to my son (who is the dog's owner...), he's been so good at taking care and training his dog--a real rock star.

The other day I turned over after an uninterrupted sleep-filled night and snapped a picture of my old digital alarm clock. It was almost 8am, and it felt good to sleep in.

Yard Work...For A Vampire

I think I figured it out, or at least, it made sense this morning. If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know of my distain for yard work. There's many reasons for this. First, I suffer from seasonal allergies, and the usually kick in in the spring, just after the snow melts and those crazy thoughts that doing some yard work may be fun tries to enter your mind.

But it's not just the allergies. Again, if you follow this blog, you also know that I'm not a fan of the summer sun and the summer heat. If I spend too much time in the outside in the summer when the sun's out, doing things like mowing the lawn or pulling weeds I get a headache and need to cool off.

So, when the time comes that my allergies aren't bad and it's not hot outside, I can find myself doing some yard work. Of course, there's one other thing that keeps me from going outside on my days off and pulling weeds--I like to sleep in on the days I don't work. I suppose you could say I like to stay up late the night before.

This morning I slept in a little bit, but I dragged my butt out of bed and did some yard work. Yes--I know it's hard to believe. Allergies didn't get me, but as the sun crept over the mountain, I packed up my tools and headed inside.

It was like I was a vampire, afraid the sun would burn me.

I was the Yard Work Vampire.