Friday, March 10, 2017

Days and Nights Switched

I was blessed to become the mother of four babies.  At one time or another, at least two of them got their days and nights switched around.  They wanted to sleep during daylight hours and were wide awake, happy, smiling and wanting to play at 2 AM.

It seems I have reverted to the behavior of those babies.  I suppose I can blame some of it on being retired and living alone.  I no longer need to keep "office hours."  Nobody tells me it is time to get up or time to go to bed.  I can nap whenever I feel tired.  I can stay up all night if I am not tired.  And I do.

It is not all bad.  There are no revving of engines or honking of horns in the street outside my windows in the middle of the night.  There are no delivery trucks in the alley alongside my building.  The bar patrons have gone home.  Aside from the occasional train going past on the tracks a half a block away, the city is peaceful at 3 AM.  I like that.

It is 2:30 AM.  My second load of laundry is swooshing away in the washer and the dryer is humming along.  I am slowly but surely moving my home canned fruit and soups from the bedroom shelves to the ones in the living room, and arranging the meat and vegetables on the bedroom shelves.

I take frequent breaks.  I can not be on my feet for more than 15 minutes at a time without feeling pain in my back and legs.  So I use this down time to write blog posts or watch videos or read.  The sit-down time is also used to make out my grocery order and decide what I need to can or dehydrate next week.  I do online research to find the items I need to get to round out my preps and make a list to send with Duane or Lori the next time they are going shopping.  They are so good to pick up what I need.

My sewing mojo seems to have left me, but I have been pinning together quilt pieces, getting them ready for the sewing machine.  Perhaps by the weekend I will be inspired to sew them together.  Lori has said she will take me to the fabric store for quilt batting and fabric for the backs of my quilts.  We will do that when the weather is warmer and when I have my walker.   I don't think the fabric store has those handicap motorized carts, so it is necessary to wait until my walker arrives.  It will be nice to be able to get out and about again.

Maybe by then my days and nights will be back where they should be.  This weekend we start Daylight Savings Time, so that might help.  Maybe.  At any rate, I guess it really doesn't matter when a person sleeps or when they are up and about.  This should come as no great surprise to me as I have never been one to do things strictly by the book anyway.  :)

16 comments:

  1. hi, vicki.
    french did a study years ago.
    people in a cave and no outside light.
    eventually every one of them went all around the clock and then started over again.
    makes me think the daylight hours are a bit off from the time of eden.
    i figure the time the experimenters were going on might have been the original day length, which our genes are still set for.
    just a thought.

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    1. deborah...Your explanation could very well be true. And then we toss in Daylight Savings Time, which usually messes me up some. For me, having 4 children in a 6 year time frame could have something to do with it. Nights were the only quiet time I had. That and I worked nights for many years. Whatever the cause, I do enjoy the nighttime quiet. :)

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  2. p.s. daffodils bloomed yesterday. under snow today! hah!

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    1. Oh, No!! Here the tree outside my window is beginning to bud. Then it turned cold again with snow predicted over the weekend. The local plant life has to be confused. We have a number of apple orchards close by and I hope the cold, warm and cold again doesn't mess up the apple crop.

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  3. I hope your walker has a seat. My wife's does and it's handy. I call it her "chariot."

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    1. Gorges...I haven't ordered one as yet, but a seat is absolutely necessary for me. I have been telling my kids that I also require a cup holder and a bicycle horn. They just laugh at me. I don't know why. :)

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  4. I also like how it is nice and quiet at night. If I didn't have a job I'd likely be up until 1 or 2 am, I seem to be very productive at those hours lol. I have to force myself to bed at 11.

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    1. Jenn...Late nights or early mornings have always been my favorite times of day. Might have had something to do with having a passel of kids and those times were the only quiet times. Like you, I seem to accomplish more then as opposed to daylight hours. But the best part is that I no longer have to set my alarm clock!!

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  5. Your post brought a smile to my face. I frequently have to live life in 15 minute increments. Not from age, per se, but health limitations of ChronicFatigue. It's certainly not where I thought I'd be at this point in my life but it's where I am. Five plus years into it, I'm learning to be grateful for what I am able to accomplish in a day. Today, I was able to workout and swim. Not for very long but I did what I could.
    Looking forward to seeing your quilt should you chose to post pictures. Cheers, SJ

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    1. SJ...I get it. Although I kid about being as old as dirt, I really don't feel old. It is just that our bodies are letting us down. I think the worst part for me was having to admit that I have limitations. The second hardest was needing to ask for help. Good for you - working out and swimming. If it weren't for having to have my legs bandaged 24-7, I believe I would be at the community center pool nearly every day. That was one of the activities I dearly loved. Right now I will settle for getting out and about now and then when the weather warms up. It will warm up, won't it?

      I am hoping the spirit will move me to get back to the sewing machine over the weekend. What I have now are just the quilt tops - a couple finished and several more in the works. But I can take pictures of those. I need to get to the fabric store in order to finish them. Hope to do that in a month or so.

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  6. It looks like you and I are having the same issues. I too can't spend alot of time on my feet, before my back starts yelling at me. I have a stool for doing dishes. I spend many hours in my recliner I have from my FIL. Today is outdoors time, not looking forward to that at all..Parade in Maple Lake.

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    1. Rob...I know there are those who don't believe that changes in the weather affect arthritis, but I am here to tell you that it does. This winter, with the up - down - up - down changes in temperature has been the roughest for me in memory. I completely understand why you are not looking forward to outdoor time. Being someplace where you can't sit down when the pain hits is miserable. We refuse to give up, though. We just look for alternative ways to do what we need to do.

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  7. Because of my back I cannot be up for more than fifteen minutes. Actually, I have to lie down most of the time. I am typing lying down. And, I like to do work at night. In the summer it is cooler then. Of course, I hang clothes out in the day and feed hens. But, I sleep or not as the mood strikes me...lol.

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    1. Linda...Glad to see you are back up and running.

      This living in 15 minute increments does have it's challenges. But we seem to adapt.

      The part of retirement I like best is that I don't need to adhere to a schedule. Sleep if I want or not. And given that it is snowing here today and I don't need to go out, is a bonus!

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