Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

Time passes so fast and yet, it moves so slow. How that works is easily explained in the following quote on relativity, “When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.”
― Albert Einstein

I had two days off and they flew past way to fast. Hey that rhymes, perhaps there is a poem in there... Where was I? Oh yeah, the last two days flew past, yet tomorrow morning will seem like an eternity as it crawls past at a, well, a crawl. Why is that?

I thought I just explained it in the first paragraph, but let me go over it again. See, when your doing something you enjoy time slips past quickly, but when your waiting for that time to do what you enjoy, it moves like the polar ice caps.

Tonight it's getting late as I get in here to write. I have been in here for a while, looking around and checking a few things out. I found something I want to do, but I have to wait to sign up. More waiting; I believe we spend half our life sleeping, half waiting, and then another half trying to accomplish that which we waited for. I know, it doesn't add up, that's my point, there just isn't enough time for everything.

On this same subject, I should add that I spent  apart of my time off sleeping, about half of it. OK, not quite half, but I would estimate that out of the two days I had off, I spent ten hours of each sleeping. I had intended to get up earlier, but then I also intended to not be up so late.

This is kind of a problem all the time, getting to bed early and then getting up early in the morning. I have worked evenings and nights so long that it's always a problem for me anymore.

As a child I was an early riser, and I preferred to go to bed at a decent time. As a young adult, I was the same until after I joined the service and worked mostly graveyard shifts.  After a few years of this, I found it very easy to stay up most of the night. Of course this results in not wanting to get up early, so I would often sleep in, or else get behind in my sleep, so that when I had a day off, I would sleep in late.

Now, it's still the same, I find myself up late and then suffer trying to get up for work at three in the morning. By the time I get home, I'm beat, so I take a nap, since I'm too tired to do much else, and often fall asleep sitting at the computer if I don't. But, then I find myself staying up late yet again, and the cycle repeats.

Then, I get a couple days off, and what do I do? I stay up late having fun and enjoying not having to get up that damn early. The next morning comes, and I wake after sleeping in, and of course, that night I won't be tired until late and again, the cycle repeats.

Any ideas how to break the cycle? I know, quit staying up so late. Easy to see, but how do I make myself sleep? Easy, get up earlier. I do, five days a week. The problem is, I was up late the night before, so then my first day of early rising has me short on sleep, and I end up falling asleep and taking a nap.

So take out the nap, right? OK, I did that on Sunday, figuring I would be tired and sleep early, then get up early on Monday. However, it didn't work. I think part of it is I get so behind on sleep, that I need a few days to rest up. Then, I'm back to my normal sleep patterns of getting about four to six hours a night. Of course, by the end of the  week, my body is exhausted and I need a good ten hours a night sleep or more for a few days.

I know there is a way, and it's in being consistent with my going to bed and getting up. That's what got me messed up so long ago. Working nights in the United States Air Force was never consistent. Normally I would go in about three in the afternoon and work until eleven, or twelve, or even three the next morning. It depended on work load and need.

But, then there were the times we worked from seven at night to seven in the morning. Of course, sometimes, we worked twelve hours, got eight to rest and then another twelve, and so on, until the exercise was over. In the midst of normal, non-normal, and exercises, there was training, that was always done during days, so in at seven in the morning for training. We also had to work early shift, everyone in the shop taking a turn, which meant for one week, I would have to be to my duty station by three in the morning.

As you can see, it was anything but consistent. After, I did have jobs that were consistent. I would work five days a week most of the time, starting and ending at the same time every day. Very seldom did these jobs vary the start time, end time, or days I would work. Even so, I would end up being up late and then tired the next morning. It seemed I had become inconsistent myself, and about the time I should go to bed, I get my second wind, so to speak.

I have also had jobs that were very inconsistent, and do well with them, but this current job, over the last nine months, has had me working various hours and days as needed, and they were always needed. For example, this past summer I worked seven days a week without break. I also worked any of the three shifts as needed, often times working the evening shift and then having to be back in a few hours later to work the morning shift.

It just became normal, and now I have to try and become consistent in going to bed early and getting up to work the same shift every morning again. To add to the difficult, Monday through Saturday is work at five, so up at three. But Sunday's are eight, so up at six. Then, one week I have Monday and Tuesday off, but the next week it's Tuesday and Wednesday off. But if you think I'm getting up at three in the morning on my days off, or on Sunday, when I don't have to be to work until eight, your crazier than I am.

No, I enjoy being up late at night, to some degree. I also enjoy being up early so I can enjoy a full day. The trick is to find the balance in there, and stick to it until it becomes consistent and routine. But, that's also the difficult part, getting into the new habit, and breaking the old habit.

Maybe that would have been a good goal to set yesterday. Maybe I will next Monday, that way I can practice for a week first and try and find that balance. Of course, in a couple more weeks, I'm taking a four day vacation, and will get things all messed up again anyway. Then again, maybe I'll work on this and by then I'll have it down and can enjoy that balance of staying up late enough, but still able to get up early and enjoy the day.