INSOMNIA

Sleep. What I wouldn't give for 6 uninterrupted hours of the stuff. Ain't happenin'.



I have to take a pill to knock me out. 1st hour - no problem, lights out. After that (seems like 60 minutes to the second!) it's all tossin', turnin', pillow fluffin', thinkin' about "stuff" - & taking lots of these



Exhaustion finally takes over & I sleep uninterrupted - for half an hour before the alarm goes off. I wake up with these -




I've tried everything - bought a ridiculously expensive mattress, purchased every variation of pillow imaginable, avoided caffeine after noon. Nuttin'! My ritual is always the same - I put my bottle of Rolaids on the end table, next to my iced tea (I use a bottle with a lid so I can't knock it over in the dark), turn the ceiling fan on, turn another fan (for noise) on high, take my knock out pill, read for 15 minutes, (I don't watch TV), & then crash...... for my hour-long ration of rest.



So I get home today, kiss Deb Hiya & ask "How was your day?"

Deb - "Fine - been doing laundry." Doesn't look as thrilled as usual to see me.

Deb - "What the HELL did you get all over the sheet & blanket last night?"

Sidebar - Deb has a thing for WHITE. She get's personalized Christmas cards from the folks at Clorox. When she buys new shirts (blouses?) they're usually white - she had 47 of 'em at last count. Typical shopping conversation would go like this:
Deb - "Look, I bought a couple new tops. Aren't they cute?"
Me - "They're white - right?"
Deb - "Yep"
Me - "Yeah - real cute."

So I'm tryin' to figure out what she's talkin' about when it hits me. My acid reflux had kicked into high gear. I was groggy - so I grabbed what I thought was the bottle of Rolaids, screwed the top off & tried to shake a few out. Instead, I grabbed the bottle of iced tea, & dumped it, in a shaking motion no less, all over my side of the bed (top sheet & blanket - white of course). A cold & rude awakening.

My routine is about to change - Deb says I'd better learn to like bottled water.

Characters

I'm gonna get in trouble for this post.

Lots of writing blogs stress the importance of developing your characters - making them real. Personally I prefer mine (when reading or writing) to be good guys. Tough, Smart, Independent, Adventurous, Funny, Loyal, Good Hearted & Down to Earth.

'Creating' my characters has been a blast, but I might have had an advantage. I got to watch a coupla 'characters' grow up so I used these chuckleheads as inspiration for my story's 'good guys'.




These are my boys a looooonggg time ago. The older of the two is Mike (now 32) & the kid in the chair (probably being tormented) is Chris (now 28). I'm proud to say they've always been best friends. Other than the time Chris (then 2) hit Mike in the head with a doorstop (a stupid looking needlepoint covered brick) they always got along. Hey, it was dark, Mike was in bed & never saw it comin'. I suspect Michael got even..... eventually.




They've always hung out together. If one was in trouble, the other jumped in to help out (or hide the evidence?). I don't think they ever threw each other "under the bus" - despite the bus-colored yellow pants & suspenders in this picture. (They're gonna hate seein' this pic!!!)




Both were very coordinated (NOT a reference to the yellow britches), good at sports, especially baseball. Good hand-eye coordination, made them terrific hitters, but both were ridiculously slow runners. I was faster than they were & I'm probably STILL faster today - even with a bad back.... usin' a cane... wearin' flip flops..... n' givin' 'em a head start. A BIG head start.

Like me, they're in the construction management business. They can read drawings & manage the process of putting things together to end up with a very nice finished product.... unless they're working on LEGOs. LEGOs must be so much more complicated than office buildings.




Today they're all grown up. Whaddya mean you couldn't tell from that last photo?