This essay relates to an unusual practice that seems to have become a regular part of my routine this summer.  Isn’t much fun when it’s happening, but you still find yourself doing it.

Word Count: 1083

Sleepless in

Summer 2021

Sleep, or the, “Horizontal Zombie State” as certain Monster Aficionados refer to it, is an unusual form of physical rejuvenation. Here we have a form of rest and relaxation that’s required for every human-being in order to maintain a healthy, well-rounded, and happy, existence. Everyone needs it, and most folks, including the majority of teenagers and a lot of kids, should get at least 8-10 hours of sleep every night. Sometimes they end up getting more if the individual happens to be the living embodiment of a “couch potato”. Having hopelessly fallen into the slug mode of relaxation as a regular part of their existence.

Those of us in the octogenarian category (including myself unfortunately…) should get into the 7-8 hour “shut eye” mode every night. Then again, there are certain times in my life when

I’ve found myself going with only minimal amounts of this sleep thing on a semi-regular basis. I know that isn’t healthy, but I still do it because at this point in my life, I’m still capable of physically pulling it off. That’ll probably be a very different story ten years from now. Then again, I’ll cross that particular physical bridge when I get to it.

This sleepless thing for me started out early in summer-2021. Since I love hiking, I found myself getting up early to go on some sort of mountain jaunt way back in May. Nothing wrong with that, but I’d also stay up past the healthy sleep time because I was working on the latest writing project the prior night.

Then on top of that, I’ve been asked by my superiors at the Parks-n-Rec. department of the town to take care of the flower planters on Main & Blair streets this summer. This has turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the job, and I’ve gotten into the regular habit of starting work every morning at 6:00 am just so I can take care of the plants-whether its watering them, or dead-heading the flowers right as the sun is coming up. Definitely a pretty sweet gig unless I’m staying up till midnight the previous night, living on 5-6 hours the next day. This ignominious feat has happened more than a few times in the last few months. Glutton for punishment? I guess you’d say I am.

The ultimate sleepless episode happened three weeks ago. The Town sponsored the second in a series of summer concerts at Columbine Park, so that entailed helping with set-up and preparation for the event on 7/16/21. Started work at 6:00, then my part of helping out with the concert required me to be in Silverton till about 9:30 that night. Next, I jumped into the car and drove over to Telluride. Slept for four hours in that same auto, followed by going on shift as one of the people helping out with the Hard Rock 100-Ultra Distance running race Aid Station (See the last essay).

The volunteer gig lasted till around 3:30 in the afternoon, followed by driving back to Silverton that afternoon. Avoided the drowsiness thing happening-which could lead to an “auto accident” kicking in, by driving with a 1-liter bottle of Mountain Dew in tow. Taking big swigs of the artificial liquid (and a caffeine injection) every time the sleepiness thing started to rear its ugly head. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep when my head finally hit the pillow that night.

This sleepless habit continues to happen. It’s a good thing the Olympics only happens once every two years (I live in Colorado-not Florida, so you damn right the Winter Olympics count). If the Olympics took place on a regular basis, I might turn into one of those self-same couch potato types we’ve talked about earlier in this particular essay.

Ok I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to watching this year’s version (CoVid-19 delayed from 2020) every chance I get, and because Tokyo time is basically the complete opposite of Colorado time, I’m finding myself waking up at 4:00 am just so I can check results from that day. Two weeks to go with that habit, so I’ll survive. Whether or not my body does is the question we need to consider.

This past weekend I went for another hike/mountain climb with an old buddy who drove down from Crested Butte. By the time I got off work at my grocery store job and took care of various other things, it was 9:20 when I got home. By the time my head hit the pillow, it was 10:00. Follow that by getting up at 4:00 the next morning to catch Olympic highlights, and ultimately, my friend and I blew out of Dodge around 5:30.

Fortunately, neither of us felt all that ambitious, so we only reached the summit of a lower peak in our hike instead of bagging our main objective higher up on the ridge (total Slackers…). Did I survive? I’m writing this, so I guess I did?

One last musing. I’m not your typical Red-Blooded American male. For one, I hate the taste of coffee and don’t drink it. Then you’ve got the fact that the older I get, the more I’m convinced American Football is a modern-day incarnation of Roman Gladiator bouts. Insanity personified.

On top of that, lots of folks look at me with a bewildered stare whenever I tell them I look forward to the advent of “Driver-less Cars”. I hate having to drive anywhere.

With driver-less cars, you’re drastically cutting down on the traffic fatality scenario, followed by eliminating drunk driving altogether. This scenario would also provide all sorts of side benefits for the individual not having to drive an automobile. Think of all the books & magazines you could read, or movies and television you can watch, by leaving that particular task up to something, or someone else (robot, computer, or otherwise).

Driver-less cars probably won’t happen in my lifetime. Unless of course I end up living to 150. Now if that happens, I’ll definitely need someone to drive the car for me. My reaction time will be atrocious for one.

Here’s the truth. Having a driver-less car will allow me to take a nap. What the H*?? is wrong with that philosophy?