Insomnia: I'm in an Awful Way

Three weeks? It's been three weeks since my last post? You've gotta be kidding; I've slept away September!

That's only half true, actually. I've been plagued with insomnia for a few weeks now. I fall asleep easily enough, but around three or four in the morning, after I wake up to go to the bathroom (and who, in their seventies, doesn't have to use the bathroom at least once during the night?), I can't get back to sleep. I lie there in the dark, eyes closed, still very tired, and my brain picks that time to spill its guts, to read its to-do lists, to rehash the details of something that happened the day before yesterday or thirty years ago. For God's sake, let it go! It can wait until morning.

By the time all the other living beings in the household awaken and begin making morning noises, I feel wrung out and limp. In a semi-conscious state, I stay in bed until Kim leaves for work, then give up and get up, thinking I'll take a nap later in the day.

The nap may happen, or it may not. Usually, just as I drift off, one of several neighbor-dogs begins a yap that, though I could easily sleep through it, requires a burst of loud response-barking from one or more of the dogs resting three feet away from me. Or the phone rings. I answered one political poll call last month; now I'm getting three or four such calls a day, even though I continue to hang up on them. I don't know, maybe my opinion has identified me as a valuable commodity: a rare Democrat in this bright-red state.

At any rate, insomnia is not conducive to blogging. If a coherent thought manages to fight its way through the haze in my brain and be recognized, the odds of it making its way to my fingertips and through them to the keyboard are slim indeed. Yet, for once, here I am.

I have a long list of things to do, and this would be a good day to do them. Both of my daughters are out of town for the weekend, so there's nobody to talk to. My iPad and Kindle both gave me "low battery" messages this morning; they'll remain on their chargers for another few hours. The day ahead is wide open.

But my eyes are not. All four dogs are napping. I think I'm gonna go give sleep another shot.

The song is "Another Saturday Night" by Cat Stevens.
Click here to read the lyrics.
Thanks to geofront88 for posting the video on YouTube.