Camping in

With the last couple of weeks I have had I am really looking forward to a three-day weekend. For one reason or another I have not been able to sleep. Whether it has been dogs, kids, sickness, insomnia, stress, or a mulish mindset, sleep has been escaping me. I took a ride from Atlanta to Savannah the day before yesterday to help a friend pick up a motorcycle he found on Craig’s list. We left at about ten a.m. After driving there, tinkering around with the bike, going to eat seafood and driving back I got home around midnight. Then I read and answered email and went to bed… about three a.m.

I do not see how truck drivers can handle that lifestyle, driving all day will wear me down quicker than hard labor. But at least I was able to get a good meal and breathe some marsh air… The sleep deprivation began to catch up with me yesterday, with a vengeance… Today I just feel as if someone is riding on my shoulders. I managed to squeeze out about four hours last night. Lack of sleep causes many things to happen, from mood and temper swings to hallucinations. The best part was the drive from the shop to my home after the Savannah run… My car is wet in the cargo area from groceries being loaded in the rain, or just my wife partying somewhere with the back up while it was raining, she hasn’t told me which yet… So the car has been locked up and hasn’t been allowed to dry out, When we got back all of the windows were fogged up. I let it run with the defrost on for a while and headed out, but it was hot and humid and the fogging effect kept coming back, so I began the dark groping search for something to wipe the windshield with, I found a rag in the center console and started to clean a spot right in front of me.. great, the damn thing was loaded with left over armor all… So I had a big blurry spot directly in front of me, try as I might there was no getting rid of it. So the bulk of the trip was driven with me leaning over and looking through the center of the windshield. That’s soooo much fun while playing pole position with rampaging deer on deserted back roads in Georgia late at night… not to mention armadillos four wheeling back and forth across the road in front of you… With a blurry windshield they look amazingly like waves in the blacktop… I told you, hallucinations…

I haven’t been this tired since my wife and I drove from Newnan to Hutto Texas to deliver a weather siren one year for extra money at Christmas… I spent an hour trying to figure out how music was coming from the furnace after we got back from that trip. We drove straight through in a 1994 ford ranger, leaving at 4:00 p.m. on Friday and getting back Saturday night/Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. stopping only for gas and once to eat in Dallas. Brutal.

I think that I shall take a page from my Dad’s book and fall asleep in the recliner, with my shoes dangling from my toes, only stirring when someone tries to turn the channel on the t.v. If there are westerns on TCM I will tune in and definitely do that. Although with a rambunctious four year old, more likely leaving myself in such a vulnerable position, I will suffer a major crotch shot and wake up in agonizing pain again. Yep, he’s done it several times, he is the king of the dive on dad while he’s sleeping maneuver.

There is a long list of things that I need to get done this weekend, but sleep will be the first task. Woodcarving the second. I hope it all goes well, being followed around by a platoon of armadillos is getting old, plus they’re starting to talk to me now… I need to sleep…