Counting Sheep

Logic doesn’t solve this puzzle. I managed a reasonable sleep through the first two nights after landing in Spain and by all the laws of jet lag, I should have been acclimated to the new time. And yet after turning in at 12:30 am last night, I was awake at 4:00 am. The kind of awake that I knew was hopeless. So might as well— what else?—catch up on e-mail. Then read another chapter in my book, call it a freak middle of the night awakening and hope to still catch a few hours sleep. But Insomnia had other plans for me.

I know a few folks who struggle with insomnia and the few times I’ve had it makes my heart go out to them. Nothing more maddening than lying in bed knowing you should sleep and knowing you won’t. Especially with a full 7-hour day of teaching ahead. If I was working on my next book, it would be a good time to knock off a chapter. If I lived in isolation with a piano, well, great time to practice! The flip side of insomnia is you can get a lot of stuff done. Apparently, Thomas Edison slept very little and hey, had he been snoozing away, I might be awake in a dark room with no electric light.

But I have no piano, I want to save finishing my book, I’m caught up on e-mail and there’s no one around to wake up and talk to. My only company is the church bells ringing every 15 minutes to remind me “Another quarter of an hour you haven’t slept. Ha ha!” And then, suddenly it’s light. Could be a good time for me to go out and walk around town, but I don’t. I’ve seen most of it and I wonder what kind of company I would have in the wee hours.

So here I am with you, dear reader, punishing you with this boring blog and making you secretly glad it’s me and not you. Well, happy to be of service. Sleep well and we’ll see what the day has in store for me.