Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A long winter's nap...

Last night I fell asleep right around six. I've been getting concerned about how much propane I'm burning during this extended cold snap, so I turned the heater off. Best way to get through a cold night is to sleep through it, but of course if I go to sleep early I'm gonna wake up early. Sometime during the night Ghost wanted under the covers, and I was happy to let him in. Yesterday afternoon was pretty mild, but the clouds are gone and it got very cold during the night.

There's only one way to share the bed with Ghost and that's if I'm on my side, smooshed against the wall. Click took her appointed place behind my knees, and they were comfortable as could be but I couldn't get back to sleep. My hip started hurting where my weight pushed through the pallet, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I groped for my cellphone: 11:50, and I'm wide awake. Great.

Shooed the animals off the bed, hopped to the bathroom. Lit the heater on my way back to bed. Ghost wanted back under the covers, so I smooshed around and made room. Click cuddled up with LB on the other couch. LB knew what time it was: He never stirred.

Couldn't go back to sleep: Ghost wanted in and out, in and out. After enough time had passed that the heater should have warmed up his own bench, I stopped letting him in. He didn't complain, finding that his bench was comfy again.

I drowsed for roughly a million years. When I decided I was fully awake, I saw light coming in the window. Wow, I must have actually fallen asleep at some point, because sure enough it was 6:30. Dammit, I wanted to write this morning and now half the morning was gone. I was sure I'd wake up at 3 or 3:30 and have lots of time. It's shit-shoveling day.

I got halfway through a chapter that had gelled pretty well in my head, and got to worrying about shit shoveling. Too damned cold: Maybe I can call J and tell him I'd be there after noon. Just then the phone rang, and it was J. He'd be wanting to know when I was coming.

Instead he wanted to know how I was doing in the cold, and to tell me all about his broken pipes. He said the horseshit was still all frozen in the snow – I'll bet H hasn't raked up once, and it's been two weeks which is why I was dreading this morning – and I should probably put it off till tomorrow because it's supposed to warm up. The only thing I hate worse than shoveling shit in mud is (trying to) do it in ice, so I agreed promptly. Now I had some time, and could go back and finish my chapter.

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