Musings & Thoughts for Monday, October 5, 2020: Up Before the Dawn

Hello, there, Dear Reader. It’s early in the morning (4:20 AM Eastern) as I start this post on Monday, October 5, 2020. Outside, the temperature is 74 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) under cloudy skies. Humidity is at 91%, and with a northeasterly breeze blowing from the northeast at 10 MPH/16 KPH, the feels-like temperature is also 74 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius). Although Tropical Storm Gamma is moving well away from the U.S. – it never was a threat to the Gulf Coast, but its bands of moisture were interacting with a weather front over the state of Florida – we can still expect scattered showers here in my corner of Florida.

I don’t know at what time I went to bed; I do remember I was watching The Empire Strikes Back on Blu-ray (with the audio commentary track from the 2004 DVD on) when I started getting sleepy, but I didn’t look at the clock on my smartphone to see the time. I imagine it was between 11 PM and 12 AM, but I had enough presence of mind to eject the Blu-ray disc from the player, turn off the player, put the TV back on cable TV mode before switching it off, and put the disc back in its storage case. Then I went to bed.

All of a sudden, I found myself wide awake. I don’t know why; maybe I had yet another bad dream (I have been having lots of those as of late), or maybe it’s the emotional turmoil caused by the souring of my relationship with my now ex-girlfriend. Whatever the reason, I woke up, and knowing that I was not going to fall back asleep, I made a beeline for my study, booted up my PC, and waited for all the apps to load so I could go on Facebook and WordPress. According to the time on my computer, it was shortly after 3 AM.

The upside, of course, is that at least I’ll have one blog post written and published before I have to cede the Wi-Fi to the caregiver/lady of the house before 8 AM. I usually can’t do this, since I normally wake up between 6 and 6:30 AM (if I am lucky and sleep well, anyway), and it takes me a while to write and edit these blog posts. (A Musings & Thoughts piece, which is usually a stream of consciousness-type of essay, takes me about an hour to do. Reviews take longer because they need a certain amount of research and the addition of relevant media, such as YouTube videos or images.)

As a result, I normally publish my posts for this blog either between 11 AM and 12 PM (when my caregiver has her one-hour lunch break), or I have to wait till just after 5 PM, which is when her work day ends.

Well, since this blog post is going to be posted well before 7 AM (It’s now almost 5 AM), I’ll at least feel like I accomplished something.

The downside, of course, is that in addition to my already sad and hurt state of mind, I’ll be tired, fuzzy-minded, and irritable for most of the day. I’ll try my best not to be, but I have a hard time taking naps during the day, and with the forecast calling for scattered showers throughout this dismal, cloudy Monday, I can’t even go for a walk to get fresh air and clear my head.

Ugh. I’m not fond of Mondays. I’m even less fond of them when I am sleep deprived and more than a bit morose. But…it is what it is.

On the bright side, though, I still have my books, my computer games, and my music to at least keep my mind occupied.

Well, I should wrap this up and plan my ridiculously longer-than-usual Monday. If my mental cobwebs go away, I will write another post for the “afternoon shift,” hopefully a review or something a bit more cheerful than this post. So, until we cross paths, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.