Friday, March 18, 2022

0345

 I woke up at 0345 the night before last.  This has been a trend lately for a couple of reasons.  

The first - the reasonable one - is the fact that Daylight Savings Time has cursed me once again with its gift of disrupted schedule.  Every year we do this, it is a little harder to adjust.  The discussions that I remember my elders having about all the issues of aging springs again to my mind.

The second - the one that is something I have noticed as a trend - is that I had alcohol with dinner.  I simply do not sleep well anymore and always wake up early after having alcohol - again, something that seems to become more prevalent as the years go by.  I have been phasing alcohol out anyway, but this is just moving that process all the quicker.

I can lay in bed, or I can get up.  As The Ravishing Mrs. TB still seems to be asleep, I roll out of bed, grab my glasses, and head for the door.  Poppy The Brave, who often now goes to bed with us and sleeps in the chair in our room (as opposed to the chair in living room which is theoretically for anyone but really seems to be hers) gets up to go out with me.

As we come out, A the Cat greets us - as usual, I have to shoo him away from the door lest he scoot in and hop up on the bed.  Instead, I coax him along as I shut the door.  Poppy heads off to her chair; A and I get ready for our early morning routine.

I will lay on the couch, at which point A will hop up and walk over to my chest, where he will promptly head butt me while purring, then settle himself on top of me.  Sometimes - like this morning - he then proceeds to give himself a vigorous cleaning as if somehow having a human platform makes cleaning a more pleasurable act.  Finally he settles into ball, purring away until it stops and he goes to sleep.

I do not tell A this of course, but I find these times some of the most enjoyable.  For me, there is some visceral about having a happy cat sleeping on you that makes all right with the world.

Laying as I am, on the couch and below the level of the family room window, I cannot really see out.  The light from our neighbor's backyard hanging lights floods in as it does every night since they moved in.  I cannot remember precisely when this started, only that it started.  Beyond just the annoyance of having light throughout the night, I have no idea why anyone would do this - beyond just seemingly being rude, who wants to pay for that electricity?

Whether because of the lights or just because, a bird is singing away in the dark.  I am reminded later by The Ravishing Mrs. TB  that this happens every year about this time.  I again have no idea why a bird would sing away in the dark, as if trying to call forth the attention of the owls I know frequent the neighborhood.

Off in the distance, I hear a train horn for the local switching yard about four miles away.  It strikes me that I almost never hear it in the during the day; is it just the ambient noise of the day, the fact they do not sound, or the fact that I simply do not pay attention?  It reminds me of growing up when, due to the train tracks being less than a mile away, I would also hear them in the dark.

Closer, I hear a truck driving through our neighborhood.  Usually if I am laying a bit in bed (or on the couch), this is how I judge the time:  by how many cars and trucks I hear leaving for work.  In this case it is only one; it is likely still earlier than my normal rising time.

I do not really "sleep" as I lie there, although I think that in some cases I might have done so. I feel A dreaming on my chest, his paws racing after something.  He starts to slide a bit and resettles, giving a head butt or two to make sure I am still there.  The bird continues to sing, the light continues to pour in over the couch edge.  I have flashes of dreams that seem like hallucinations, yet at no time do I feel that I have slipped over the edge into sleep.

Finally at some point, A starts to wake up.  It is not necessarily a clock, but it is his clock.  I check the time - 0615, a little later than I like to get up but more or less on target.  I creak off the couch and pass through the kitchen, clicking on the coffee pot as I prepare for my morning routine.

I know in the back of my mind that I will be exhausted today, and that the likelihood that I will nod off in a meeting I am not leading is real (especially with the reality of working from home and being in meetings on mute, it has almost happened more than once).  Yet I cannot find it my heart to be particularly grumpy about it.

Those moments in time - stretched out with a rumbling cat on my chest, listening to the night noises - have a certain peace about them that I cannot replicate.  There is something about being on the couch with the edges above one that create a barrier in my mind to the larger world around me.  For a time, I can simply push everything away and be in the moment.

Outside the cars start the sounds of their daily parade.  The world is starting.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:29 AM

    It is funny how housecats treat their 'owners' (slaves). Our cats ignore us sometimes (except when hungry) but when we wake up and show up in living room, they seem to congregate. As if they agree to share the room with us, as long as we provide a place to sit close by or like you, be a sleeping platform. Our older housecat loves to cuddle on our leg as she dozes, gently snoring. The younger cats will sometimes be close by or on the back of the couch just over a shoulder, all companionable. The humans are part of the tribe, at least for a while.

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    1. Cats are indeed very opinionated animals. A The Cat will be, as I indicated, very snuggly in the predawn. He will then insist on tearing around and scratching things he should not in the early AM until feeding time. And of course, sometimes you can see in his eyes as he plans something he knows he should not do.

      But yes, occasionally we also seem accepted into his cat tribe view of the world.

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  2. The last couple of mornings the birds have made themselves heard, cardinals especially before sunrise, and saw the first robin of the year. Good luck not nodding off because of the wake-up time, it's happened to me two mornings now but there's naptime in the PM, one perc of being retired.

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    1. Nylon12 - I do not know why it is the one (apparently species) of bird; what surprises me is that they are up so much earlier than the sunrise.

      I have tried to get in naps during lunch, one perk (I suppose) of working from home. I am never very successful.

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  3. My neighbors have flood lights illuminating their back yard all night long. Fortunately our lot is several acres so there is a buffer but I still resist the urge to buy a 22 rifle with a scope to eliminate the problem.

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    1. Ed, I literally have no idea why they keep them on all night. It is not like they are having guests in the backyard or something.

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  4. Those dreaded three digit time numbers. 2:45 was almost constant for a week. Then 4:17.... Why would I pop up at 0417? for a couple days in a row?

    A mentor, LBK, told me when I was a young man, if you wake like that, continue to lay there and rest. It makes sense I guess, I get restless when that happens. Sometimes, I go back to sleep, others, not so much... Like you, I drift in and out of strange story lines...

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    1. STxAR, I seem to go through phases. Sometimes I sleep very well. Then I will get on a tear like this, where I literally am waking up every morning at the same time.

      I do try and make it a habit to stay "resting" until my normal time as I do not want to get the habit of waking up early on a regular basis, even if I am just laying there. Generally if I will lay there two hours I will go back to sleep.

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  5. That's one of the things I love about living in the country... dark nights. No flood lights, street lights, or security lights. Just the moon (which can drive me crazy when it's full!).

    The sound of a train blowing its horn in the night is a comfort sound for me, stemming from childhood, as well. I rarely hear that where I am now.

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    1. Kelly, it is so different at The Ranch - as you say, the moon can be so bright that it is the thing that can wake up. And while there are lots of night noises, they are not the noises of the city.

      I do not hear the train very often here - but I am rather surprised I did hear it.

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  6. A good nights sleep? What's that like? Mine varies from just lousy all the way up to so-so. I attribute most of that to age; we older folks just don't do deep sleep well.
    But as for waking up in the middle of the night, well, pre-industrial age it was the norm to have "first sleep", get up for an hour or three, and "second sleep". I read about that some years ago and can't find the article I remember, but here's a couple references. A search can bring up many such:
    https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again
    https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/biphasic-sleep
    Whether it's bladder pressure, or the chill of needing to get up a stoke the woodstove, I find just getting up anywhere from ten minutes to an hour will allow me to go back to "second sleep" just fine. I don't try to read or turn on any lights, but either just watching the fire or observing the night outside the windows is a peaceful interlude that works for me.

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    1. Greg, my sleep patterns certainly have fallen off as I have gotten older. It happened with my parents - so much so, I am rather paranoid about anything that looks like me waking up at 0300 and staying up.

      Another reader had forwarded the same sorts of articles on biphasic sleep. It was definitely an interesting read, although I really wonder how rested I would feel given the current world and the fact I have to get up around 0600. But like you, if I am "up" I find that I am likely up for an hour or two until I can go back to sleep.

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  7. An enjoyable post, TB. I finally figured out that if I'm having trouble sleeping, just get up and do something. It's true that I may be tired the next day, but it beats tossing and turning in bed (a boring pastime).

    Our new neighbor across the street leaves her porch light on all night long. Dan used to enjoy sitting out on the porch in the evening to observe the moon, stars, and air traffic, but that's ruined for him with the light on. We reckon she does it because she lives along, but I wish she felt safe without it!

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    1. Leigh, I have thought of doing that as well, although my fear is that I will establish a habit of waking up early instead. I will say that if it is closer to my normal rising time, I will likely get up and start my day.

      We have many neighbors that leave their front lights on at night, I think largely because we live in an urban neighborhood. I agree it does cut down on the ability to enjoy the evening.

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  8. Grandpa would had a couple bed frames out under a tree behind the house. He'd sleep out there in the summer. He "went to bed with the chickens" as dad would say. He was always up early. He was an old cowboy. Organized the first rodeo in SW Oklahoma and was one of the pioneers of that part of OK.

    I remember sleeping out there with him on the other bed one night during a visit. I woke up to the sun just cutting over the horizon and thought I'd slept all day!!!

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    1. STxAR, there was a stretch around late middle school/early high school that I would sleep outside on a cot for the entire summer. I think I first got my joy of being out under the stars from that. Like most things, I am pretty sure - given that we live in an urban environment - I would be uncomfortable doing that now.

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