An Early Start

Though we have had a few campground neighbors who seemed to be offended by it over the years (I have no idea why they even care), I make no apologies for the fact that we are night owls by nature and live on a schedule that works for us. I do my best writing in the evening and at night, usually working until about 1 a.m., and we get to bed about 2 on average. Which means we usually wake up somewhere around 9 or 10.

So when the telephone rang a little before 7 yesterday morning, I was deep into REM sleep. Sleep researchers tell us that this is when we have our most vivid dreams and as I recall, the one I was having concerned myself and a squad of cheerleaders from Dallas. It turned out to be my friend Bob Pinner calling to talk about the Escapees RV Club Escapade in Gillette, Wyoming June 30 – July 5. Bob and his beautiful wife Molly are the Escapade Directors, and he had forgotten the time change and my nocturnal nature. I told him it was no big deal, I had to get up to answer the phone anyway.

I was hoping my cheerleaders were waiting for me when I went back to bed, but they wandered off with a bunch of jocks somewhere and I couldn’t get to back sleep. Instead, I laid there for a while thinking about lost opportunities, and by then my brain was awake even if I wasn’t.

Finally giving up, a little after 8 a.m. I called the eye clinic at the V.A. hospital to see if there was any chance of moving up the appointment they had me scheduled for on June 7 so I could get everything done while we are in town and not have to come back. As it turns out, they had a cancellation and changed my appointment to next Wednesday. Very nice!

I had not eaten in the past twelve hours, and since I had to get blood work done before my other appointments on the 13^th, which involved fasting prior to the blood draw, we decided to go ahead and drive over to the hospital and get that out of the way. We were lucky and were in and out in less than half an hour. The tech who drew my blood said it was good timing on our part, because the last few days had been very busy and people had an average wait of up to two hours to get called in.

Leaving the V.A. hospital, we stopped at Jack in the Box for breakfast croissants and then found a Jiffy Lube to get the Explorer’s oil changed. I had to have words with the manager because I told her all I wanted an oil change and no other services, yet they proceeded to drain our differential and other stuff I didn’t want. She said she was sorry, that there had been a misunderstanding on her techs’ part, but it was only another $20 for full service. I told her I was sorry that she was going to have to eat the cost of that, because I did not ask for or authorize any other services and had no intention of paying one cent more. She didn’t seem to appreciate that, but I really didn’t care, and all I paid for was what I had requested.

So let’s recap – discussed Escapade with Bob, changed eye appointment, got blood work done, had breakfast, got oil change, and ticked off Jiffy Lube manager all before noon. Gee, maybe there’s something to be said for getting up early in the morning. But I guess I’ll never know, since I don’t plan to do it again anytime soon.

We spent the rest of the day with my cousin Beverly, where I tried (and failed) to stay awake while she and Miss Terry carried the conversation. The wind picked up and was blowing hard by the time we got back to the motorhome and only got worse through the night. Today is supposed to be cooler, but still windy. We plan to have a quiet day at home; Terry has some chores she wants to get out of the way and I’ll get some writing done. But first I plan to sleep in and make up for lost time. That is, assuming the wind doesn’t blow us into southern California.

Thought For The Day – Whatever you do, always give 100%. Unless you’re donating blood.

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