I woke up at four thirty this morning. This is not unusual for me. I wake up a few times during the night and usually I fall back to sleep. But every now and then my addled brain locks into ADHD mode and then I’m wide awake for hours. That was the case this morning. I did about an hour of staring at the ceiling while my mind did cartwheels ad nauseam. So at around five thirty I staggered out of bed. In days gone by this would have been a nightmare because I’d have to go to work in an hour or two, spend the whole day bumping into cubicle walls and falling asleep in front of a computer monitor, with a fine line of drool descending towards my chest. But now I work from home so if I can go back to sleep at some point I just do it.
My wife woke up as well. She sleeps far sounder than me but once awakened she’s cast to a similar fate. She had wanted me to defrost our standing freezer and suggested in her morning growl that I should do that if I was going to stay up. Then she went into her own office to stare at the posts of people on Facebook that piss her off. So I dumped the contents of the freezer into garbage bags and set it all out on the back step (“feels like” temperature of twenty above right then). I put cookie sheets at the bottom of the freezer, shut off the fridge, left its door open, and laid a towel in front of it. An hour or so later it was all done.
I couldn’t concentrate enough to get any work done that required brain power so I resorted to what brawn I had. The photo above I first published in December of 2013. I and the Singing Farmer had disassembled the giant oak entertainment center in the living room and moved it downstairs. It was a herculean effort on our parts. But having it downstairs wasn’t enough. I needed it gone. So a couple weeks ago I texted my contractor friend, The Son of the Preacher Man, to see if he could make use of it. A couple days ago he stopped by and took a look. He figured he could. But I had a lot to do to make it all work.
There were a couple pieces of furniture in the way, along with our collection of three litter boxes, and a concrete floor that my cats find it amusing to scatter litter across. One of those pieces of furniture is a heavy bookcase loaded with cat food, bottled water, a pack of ten paper towels, and some other stuff I’m too dazed to remember. So I got to work cleaning everything out and moving it all out of the way. Plus that freezer I defrosted was in the way as well. Oh that was a treat to move. Two of the cats supervised me. They find physical labor fascinating. Around lunchtime I got a text from SoaPM saying he’d be over in the afternoon. For once my timing was pretty good.
He showed up with a friend of his, a farmer I’ve known since we were kids. They made quick but strenuous work of hauling the three big pieces of oak back upstairs and out to a waiting trailer. I had just enough time to run downtown to buy a pound of hamburger for supper. While Carjo made some extravagant spaghetti sauce I moved everything back into place. My ankle was definitely hitting its limits but hey, what are limits for. I got it all back in place, including the freezer. I opened a bottle of IPA and oh mercy that went down good.
My wife has been sound asleep for an hour or so. I’ll probably join her in an hour. I suspect I’ll take some Zzzquil to make sure I stay unconscious because at this point I don’t need a repeat of last night. But I feel good. That oaken monstrosity is gone. I have a free weekend ahead unless I decide to get some writing done. I didn’t strain my back in any way which is a miracle in itself (but I can feel it in my arms and shoulders already). And I’ve actually managed to string together several sentences and make sense. Go me. Have a good weekend.
jeroljohnson 