Don Snoreleone

 

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart

 when I'm awake, you know?” 

~Ernest Hemingway 

 

He fell asleep. He fell asleep at his own trial. 

Maggie Haberman, of the New York Times, noticed.

 

Trump glared at Maggie Haberman.

That's it. That's the post.

But that was yesterday.

The Horror Master, Stephen King, Understands Me

"The three types of terror: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something a green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... "

~Stephen King

What is terror? Terror is being awakened from a deep sleep, by the sound of your home security system, alerting you that an intruder has attempted entry! That happened to me yesterday, at 7:23 AM. My phone was lit up red. My alarm system was lit up red. Both were screaming, loudly, both saying someone had tried to come in through the back door, off the living room. I couldn't function. I am not sure if it was because the sound of the alarms terrified me, or if it was because I was barely dressed. Or if it was because I had no idea what the intruder wanted. Was it an attempted robbery? An attempted rape? Someone itching to commit murder? What did they want?

I will never know the answer to that question. By the time I could function, about 3 or 4 minutes, they were gone. I never got a chance to see who they were. A man? A woman? A wacky child? A ghost? A vampire? I have no idea, which makes the whole thing a lot worse, because I will play the "whatif's" the rest of my life. Or, more realistically, at least for the rest of the time I spend in this house! What if we had never installed an alarm system? What if the back door hadn't been locked? What if I had seen them? What if the fur babies had been hurt? What if? What if? What if?

It's terrifying not knowing if they spent time watching the house, waiting for Alan to leave. It's a terrifying thought that I will have to spend Thursday and Friday of this week, alone in the house. Do I sleep? Can I sleep? How do I face this fear? I guess I have no real choice. I will face Thursday and Friday, and every other day, going forward, alone. Alan can't do the work on the fear for me. That's mine. I suppose I will be okay. Alan is going to run a couple errands in the middle of the day tomorrow, which will give me a chance to be in the house alone. That will be a healthy thing for me, I think. I hope. If only I could shake the feeling from this morning...

"... It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... ".

 What if the "nothing there" terror comes back?

Autumn Leaf Of The Day

#10 Leaf Of The Day

October 2nd 2019

Stockton, California

Nikon

~Mood: Scared

~Me

 

Priceless Gifts

"Existence is a priceless gift and

 the beauties of nature are the priceless gifts of the existence."

~Mehmet Murat ildan

I didn't get out of the house like I thought I would yesterday. I stayed home. I was tired. Really Tired. Depression tired I suppose. You know... so deeply tired that you sleep for 14 hours, and get up, and after 30 minutes, or an hour, you are tired again, to the point you sleep another 18 hours. 

Tomorrow I will get up, and try it all again. I might get further, you never know, but at least when I do get out of the house, to roam the world, like last Monday, I find some beauty here and there. Even in some weeds, growing along the road.  

If that's all the photography I get done, I will take it! I can appreciate the simplest beauty, just as much as anything else in the natural world. The weeds in the photo above are obviously dry and fragile, so I didn't touch them, I just let them be, and appreciated their natural earthy beauty.

Photographing them made me happy, and that's the real point!

Right?

Mood: Hopeful

~Me

 

Insomnia

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon."

~Charles M. Schulz

Charlie Brown's Little Book of Wisdom

Is there anything better than a late afternoon nap, on a hot summer afternoon? I like to turn up the air conditioning really high, then climb under a bunch of blankets. And I always have my little babies, Hendrix, Dylan and Joey, right next to me. It's wonderful. And I can always find sleep in the afternoon, but somehow, at bedtime, sleep is nowhere to be seen. I know, I know... don't nap in the afternoon, and I will probably be able to sleep when it's time for bed. But I have tried that, and it doesn't work. I guess I just love the night life or something.

Shrug.

Naps are good... naps have their place.

Mood: Sleepy

~Me :)

The End Of The Week...

"I am so tired I can hardly type this worfs."

~Lemony Snicket, The Carnivorous Carnival

Okay, I am just going to say it's been a busy week... A VERY BUSY WEEK!

Here is a brief recap of events...

Monday, was fairly uneventful, but we did have some prep to do in order to take Joey to Dr. Barrett's office on Tuesday for his neutering and other procedures.

 

Tuesday...
 
* I didn't sleep well the night before, so when I got up to take Joey to Dr. B's I felt more like a zombie, than a fully functioning human. We went out to breakfast after the appointment, of which I took maybe 2 bites. I was missing my boy too much to eat. We can home afterward, and turned on CNN to see the latest about the missing plane.
 

It was still missing. Still is as I type this.


After the report on the missing airplane, came the testimony before congress of Mary Barra the new CEO of General Motors. It was not pleasant to sit through, considering we still own a 2007 Saturn ION DEATHTRAP. The one good thing about watching her testimony, and learning new details we hadn't heard before, was the fact that Alan finally heard information he needed to conclude that holding onto the Saturn was no longer an option for us.

The decision was made. Time to visit some car dealerships in the area.

One problem... it was April Fool's Day... and it was a DARK AND STORMY DAY! LOL.


Who buys a car on April Fool's Day? Especially during a storm? But all was well. We learned about some cars we liked, and came home and did some emailing to some dealers, and then called it a day! We resolved to begin anew on Wednesday. No worries.

Wednesday...

We heard back from a Chevy dealership in the East Bay. They had the car we were interested in, at the price we needed it to be, so went and took a look at it. It was a perfect fit, and a few hours later we drove our new Chevy Spark off the lot! 

Her name is Blair.

Everything was good! Yay! All except for the the scrape on the I found on the dashboard, that I hadn't seen before driving it off the lot!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Why can't stuff go smooth?

Thursday...

I took a photo of the scrape, called the salesman who sold me the car, and he asked me to bring it into the dealership for it to be looked at. 

Sigh.

I was NOT super happy with the fact that they tried everything the could to come to some sort of compromise, rather than just making it right. A compromise offer here... a compromise offer there. Some of which were downright insulting. NOT FUN! Finally they I told them, that while I appreciated their "offers" I wanted the dashboard fixed... PERIOD!

So, in about ten days, after the part comes in, they will make it right. We will see how it goes.

That brings us to today, Friday. I am exhausted from missing Joey. GM's willful misconduct that could have gotten my husband killed! Having to deal with the new car situation. My Fibromyalgia is cutting me no breaks. It's cold. And I am kinda in a bad mood from all the emotion, but I am sure after a good night's sleep, I will be back to my old self. I just need to sleep.

A good night's sleep. 

Mood: Quiet

~Me :)
PS No. I did not purchase a lemon yellow car. I will show her off in a few days. She's kinda cute. I love her!

Karen's Weekend Assignment # 199: When Do You Sleep?

"Night has brought to those who sleep, only dreams they can not keep."

-Enya

Weekend Assignment #199: What is your usual sleep schedule on weeknights? Are you an "early to bed, early to rise" sort of person, or do you stay awake far into the night (voluntarily or otherwise), and get up as late as your work schedule permits? Do you give priority to getting adequate sleep? If so, how is that working out for you?

Extra Credit: If you had no work or family scheduling obligations, would your sleeping pattern change substantially?

-Karen Funk Blocher

Sleep. Yawn. Yawn, yawn, yawn... stretch. Excuse me, I was just enjoying a bit of a snooze. LOL. I am sleeping really well these days, especially since last summer, when I set about changing my sleeping schedule 360 degrees. I have been a lifelong sufferer of insomnia. My first bout began when I was about 12 or 13. I went through long periods of not being able to go to bed and sleep like my friends did. In retrospect, I think I know what probably kick-started the situation. My father worked the graveyard shift when I was a wee folk of about 2 and continued to do so until I was about 6 years old. My mother would allow me to stay up until my father came home, and then he and I would play or talk or listen to music. So, I am pretty sure that my sleeping habits were conditioned at that young age.

As an adult, it wasn't and isn't reasonable to keep those hours, although when I began blogging I did. Alan is a loud snorer, and there was no sleeping with that, so I sat up at night and blogged and when I was finished, I did whatever housework that was needing to be done, and then climb in bed next to him just before his alarm went off, so we could spend some time together. It worked out ok, it made since to sleep while he was at work, that way everything got done, and we wouldn't have to miss spending any time together because of chores. But life kind of played us a few cards I wasn't counting on.

First I got Fibromyalgia and that zapped all my energy, then I got diabetes, and that brought with it challenges of it's own. The Fibro was bad enough, now throw on top of everything, having to adjust my whole lifestyle to suit the diabetes, and what you get is a girl who better learn to go with the flow and life like most of the real world, whether she likes it or not. But actually... I really kinda do like it. :)

I began by taking some classes in sleep hygiene and with the new meal adjustments such as eating lighter dinners, and getting some exercise several times a day, I feel much more relaxed and ready to sleep by the time we go to bed. In fact, I look forward to it. It wasn't any more difficult to change my sleeping habits, then it was to change my sleeping habits. The additional exercise has aided my relaxation and so put it all together and you see a happier, healthier lady then I was a year ago.

It's undeniable. Keeping yourself on a proper schedule with nutrition, sleep, play, and exercise is good for the body and the mind. I still blog, I still get my housework done, I still go out and take photos, I still read, I still watch David Letterman, only now I watch him on the DVR. :) I have David Letterman with my Special K Red Berries in the morning. YUM. DELICIOUS even. So what about the only other part of my staying up late... talking on the phone and texting with my pal H.P.? Well, our friendship is going on 5 years now. He makes time for me, even if it has to be in the middle of the day. :)

So, to directly answer Karen's question... I usually go to bed at 10:00 pm and rise at about 7:30 am, unless Elvis decides otherwise. On the weekends I might stay up a little later, if there is a good movie on, or something special on TV. I have a few friends, that keep later hours, and sometimes I stay up to talk to them, because, I would miss them very much otherwise. Sometimes Alan and I will play a board game, and we will usually play it out, rather then go to bed and try to resume it the next day, but mostly it's 10-7:30 for me :) Boring... but true.

Extra Credit: Nope, I am doing something right with my diabetes and my general overall health, so I would have to say NO, nothing would change dramatically.

-OndineMonet
"Sundown In Moss Beach"
Moss Beach, California
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Early Evening