Another Hobby Blog

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I Am Not a Morning Person!!

I am a night-owl. I don't get to sleep until somewhere between 1:30 am and 3:00 am, and I find it very difficult to wake up before 10:30 am. That's a reasonable 7 to 9 hours worth of sleep each night. There are always exceptions, of course. On the mornings I have ice skating, for example, I have to pull my groggy carcass out from under the blankets and pretend to be happy that the sun is shining. It's a performance I'm not particularly good at.
I am also not very good at staying awake in the mornings. I'm great at staying awake at night. Or, rather, I'm not very good at falling asleep to begin with, but once I am asleep, I find it very difficult to re-orient myself to the waking world. (Even though I often have nightmares and would most of the time prefer to just be awake instead.)
So this morning the doorbell rings at 8:00 am. Shonnon answers it, and the Roofers get to work.
It's like being inside a drum. The compressor roars. The saw whines. The fuses blow. The computer's backup battery complains. The Roofers drop huge planks of plywood on the roof surface to walk on, and the reverberations shake the house. I wonder if this is what a herd of rampaging elephants would sound like. I know they would need to be rampaging because they actually have very soft and sensitive feet, and probably wouldn't make all that much noise if they weren't rampaging, even if they were up on my roof. Unless they fell through the roof. I bet that would be noisy. I wonder if the Roofers are going to fall through the roof? It sure sounds that way. I hope none of them fall off the roof. I'd probably fall off the roof. I wouldn't like that. It's a good thing we have 911 to call just in case.
The dog is panicking. He panicks very quietly, but I can tell that he's panicking nonetheless. He whines and nudges my face and trots back and forth, whining, trying to figure out why his humans are letting strange people make away with the roof. I can just imagine him thinking, "Hey, man! There's noise above us. There's people on the roof! Aren't you gonna DO something about it? Hey, man! They took a piece of the roof! Hey, man, do you think they're going to fall through? Oh, man , they took another piece. Aren't you gonna DO something? Where can I hide?!" He tries to crawl into my lap. He tries to crawl under the furniture. He whines, adding to the cacaphony that is this morning's sonata.
So at 8:00 am, I yawn. I groggily collect my blanket and a pillow, and I head for the couch. The couch is further from the roof, and closer to the television. I turn on the television, hoping to provide cover noise so the dog won't be quite so freaked out, but that just adds to the din.
I stretch out on the couch, one arm draped over the side to be sure the dog is lying nearby and not pacing in misery, and I slip in and out of a comfortable nap. It's a comfortable nap interrupted every few minutes by compressors, wandering dogs, and the need to go reset the fuse box, but it's a comfortable nap nonetheless.
10:30 am: I wake up for real. I'm kinda glad that no elephants have fallen through the roof during the two hours that I was napping. It's still loud. The dog is still panicking. The compressor is still shaking the house. But now I'm well and truly Awake, and able to appreciate the disruption. I don't dare run any major appliances for fear of blowing the fuses again. The dog finds an open door and wanders off down the street. I have to go after him.
For the most part, the noise is just a constant thudding background to the day. But every once in a while, one of the Roofers drops something really heavy with no warning and the house shakes, and I try to join my cowering dog under the couch.

It's going to be like this again tomorrow. Worse, probably, because tomorrow is when the skylight gets put in.

2 Comments:

  • At Mon Sep 19, 08:25:00 PM PDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ack. Is it all over yet??

    :)

     
  • At Fri Sep 23, 08:12:00 AM PDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You and me both. I am so not a morning person but I am your secret pal. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you and start spoiling you but I have been sick for the last few weeks. I just now had a moment to turn on my PC. I deeply apologize. I hope that you will forgive me. Please keep your eyes open. Package should be arriving in the beginning of the coming week.

    Love your blog.
    Your Secret Pal
    "Better Late then never" Sorry!

     

Post a Comment

<< Home