Yes, Monday is starting early this week.
Yesterday I spent the day power-washing the driveway, washing Agnes's car, weeding the yard, carrying out trash, and generally working quite hard in the warm sun...and that was before fixing a nice dinner of marinated, planked salmon and rice pilaf. By bedtime I was exhausted, and so I was extra careful about following my normal routine: I carefully checked and re-checked to make absolutely sure that my alarm was set for the Monday time (4:10 AM) rather than the Saturday time (6:30 AM). Satisfied that it was correct, I collapsed into bed.
Of course, the alarm clock always works better if, in addition to properly setting the time, you actually turn the alarm on.
AARRGGHH!!
I woke up at about 4:40, gawked at the clock in horror, cursed in several languages, and sprang out of bed. Not only was I half an hour behind schedule, but I also had to factor in time to take Nessa (our daughter's dog, for whom we are, if you remember, dog-sitting) for a walk in addition to everything else.
So...
Here I sit, with my body clock and carefully-crafted daily routine out of whack. I am not a person who deals well with changes in my normal routine outside of the office, so things will be rocky for a while. Even my blog suffers, as I don't have the time and mental capacity to write my usual well-crafted and spectacularly popular (well, with my usual 36-45 readers per day) post.
Sigh...
But I must pull myself together enough to remark on the fact that this is a most remarkable day: it is the day on which, in 1969, man first landed on the moon. I didn't actually know it had happened for several days, as I was far out in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of southwestern Colorado with the rest of Monitor Patrol, all of us attending the Colorado Outward Bound school. We first learned that the landing had been a success when we came down out of the wilderness to a public campground to meet our resupply vehicle, and got the news from some campers roughing it in their camper van (complete with TV and radio).
Now, forty years later, we are still stuck in earth orbit. Don't get me wrong, the International Space Station is a marvelous achievement, but it's just not the same as actually walking on another planet. Okay, moon. Where's the dream and the drive to go beyond orbit and back to the Moon, on to Mars, and then ... well, wherever? How can we be ready for First Contact with the Vulcans and the Borg, not to mention Klaatu and Gort? How can we (sorry, Army) be all we can be?
Of course, we could solve a few problems here on earth, like religious intolerance, affordable health care, and an economic system that benefits everyone, but you can't do those with flashy special effects and the thrill of high adventure.
Food for thought on an already-hectic Monday.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
4 comments:
I need to turn back my clock...its much too early to be up...think my boss would understand?
Were you able to drag Nessa out of bed that early? We usually don't take her potty until 8 a.m.; she usually doesn't have much interest in leaving her bed before then.
Hectic? 515 words and 4 links on this post. That's more words than a weeks worth of posts for me. What's your typing wpm? 382?
If my alarm fails me for some reason perhaps because I did not hit the "on" button, I can always count on our trusted collie to wake me. You need a dog! Of your own.
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