In the Wee, Small Hours of the Morning

I am picking up trash while the rest of you slumber. In fact, considering it’s Sunday, I probably got home from work before most of you woke up. I can see why you think I’m insane.

I get up at 4:30 each morning, so I can be at work by 5:30 and start the crews at 6:00. This last time is probably the earliest most of you consider waking during the week. (Betty, you frequently work the night shift, so you and I will argue which of us is more abnormal until doomsday.) The crews leave at 2:30 p.m., and sometimes I actually get to leave then, too. It is quite refreshing to have the afternoon to go to the gym, run errands, or just sit on the sofa and read.

Of course, that also means I go to bed early: 9:00 p.m., in fact. By 7:30 or 8:00, my body is slowing down, and my brain is wondering if it’s too early to go to bed. While most of you are thinking of two more hours of primetime TV, I’m thinking that a pillow sandwich would feel pretty darn good about then.

I must confess, that’s my summer schedule. At the end of this month, we’ll switch to a 7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. work schedule, so I’ll return to a more "reasonable" 5:30 a.m. alarm clock and 10:00 p.m. bedtime.

On weekends, I get up at my usual time and go for a walk, rather than sleep in. (That in itself is the clinching point in your arguments that I’m insane.) I like getting my exercise done early, and I still have the rest of the day to clean, go shopping, etc. Football weekends, like today, we work until the job is done. Thankfully, there wasn’t much litter on the tailgate fields this morning, and we were done by 7:30 a.m. Now, what to do for the rest of the day?