Wasted Wednesday

Wednesday was totally frustrating. I hope today turns out better.

I was awake until 8 a.m. making sure I got a few lingering tasks accomplished, plus two giveaways — one of which I was far behind on posting. No problem. I’m tired all the time, but I’ve gotten used to staying up all night. It’s cooler and it’s quiet — peace and quiet is something I crave and live for.

I always surprise Scott when I run out of steam and go to bed at a decent hour. He turns in at 10 p.m. or so and wakes up at 7 a.m. He never complains and always let’s me do my own thing.  It’s one of the things I love about him. He’s not at all controlling like an abusive relationship I was stuck in previously.

Back to the subject at hand. No sooner do I fall into a deep sleep than the doorbell rings at 10 a.m. It’s the mail carrier with packages. Not only that, but my miniature schnauzer Pepper always barks furiously and loudly at all delivery services. I stumble down the stairs, retrieve the mail, and head upstairs to lay back down for a little while longer.  Sorry, but two hours or less of sleep doesn’t work for me.  In a perfect world, I would sleep eight dreamless, uninterrupted hours.  In my real world, I’m lucky to get five or six and I usually toss and turn the entire time.  Like I said, I’m tired all the time.

Two hours later Scott’s calling on the phone.  He’s already through with work for the day   It’s a sad but true fact of life that the recession still affects us.  It’s now Thursday — the fourth day of a normal work week — and Scott was lucky to collect eight puny hours at his job.  Most of that was work he rummaged on his own to get.  Partiality aside, Scott is the best, hardest worker I know, but more on that another time.  I’m starting to believe that age discrimination plays a part in that story.

Scott was calling from our Meijer grocery store.  That’s another thing I truly love about him.  He goes grocery shopping for me!  It only makes sense since it’s on his way home.  I clip and organize coupons, scour and put together deals and make lists, and he goes to the store.  Scott is one of the few men I know who actually enjoys shopping.  (Oh, and he’s started helping me clip coupons.  I clip inserts and he clips loose ones from magazines and printables.)

He LOVES shopping and I’m the total opposite.  Sure, when I was a teeny-bopper and even beyond — I loved hanging out at the mall with my school friends and trying new things on or window shopping.  Now, you have to drag me out the door.  On the rare occasion, I like to check out the clearance aisles at Target, but that’s about it.  Every once in awhile I’ll shop online.  Last night I finally shopped at Nautica online to spend a $100 gift certificate I won in June (sometimes it takes much, much longer).

Honestly though, sometimes I think he loves shopping too much and I have to tell him so.  He’s an eBay addict, but he’s a good seller too.  Scott cannot stop looking for “deals” whether we need them or not.  His purchases will sit around for years unused (not that I didn’t use to do the same thing, but I think I’ve grown out of it).

I often do much the same with prizes, but it doesn’t cost us anything except storage space (and a bit of a mess).  I’m lucky to win more than we need.  I’ve been so disorganized in the last several years that I’m not sure what I’ve got and a lot of it isn’t being used   Death and depression have a lot to do with it.  First my dad in 1997, then my mom in 2005, and two beloved senior dogs in 2006.  Grief lingers and never really goes away.  It’s in the back of my head, the bottom of my thoughts, central to my broken heart.

I’m rambling again — I tend to do that.  The worst part of my wicked Wednesday was a power outage — for four full frackin’ (watch BSG?  Battlestar Galactica) HOURS.  It started raining after a sweltering hot day, then thunderstorms, and next thing you know KABOOM.  Right in the middle of our early dinner and an episode of our latest favorite TV show, LOST.  I’m not used to twiddling my thumbs and I rarely get bored, but doing nothing does it for me.  We have battery-powered lanterns, LED flashlights, and hundreds of candles — so no problem there.  But it was hot and stuffy indoors without air conditioning or fans, and muggy outdoors with not much of a breeze.

We don’t play board games or cards.  Both of us enjoy solitaire best, but I only like to play online.  I have hand game devices that I’m forever misplacing, so no luck there.  Scott has a ton of games he likes to play on his iPhone and I tried reading my latest book, The Castaways, a few times.  We semi-napped on the couch or sat on the front porch where it was a little bit cooler.  The dogs love the extra attention they get when we sit around doing nothing

Around 9:25 p.m. when it’s getting dark, we see the utility truck at the end of the street and hear them talking on the bullhorn.  Same as during our last extended power outage, not five minutes later we finally have electricity.  The suckiest thing about that?  The power company is only two to three miles away.  How and why does it take FOUR HOURS to restore service?  I guess I should be thankful that it’s back on — and that I can sit here at my computer and write.  You never really know how much you miss something until you don’t have it anymore.  I’ve learned that lesson over and over, and nearly forget each time until it happens again.

No daily sweepstakes entries for me last night   I’ve been trying so hard to make it a habit.  I’m off to catch up with RSS feeds a bit, but I might actually make it an early(ier) night.  Sitting around doing nothing wore me out.

Thanks for following and hanging about for what’s turned out to be monthly or fewer missives.  I’m still working on improving in that area too.

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