I would like to sing someone to sleep,
by someone to sit and be,
I would like to rock you and croon you to sleep
and attend you in slumber and out.
I would like to be the only one in the house
who would know: The night was cold.
And you would like to hearken within and without
to you, to the world, to the woo,—
The clocks call striking to each other,
and one sees to the bottom of time.
And below a strange man passes yet
and rouses a strange dog.
Behind that comes stillness. I have laid
my eyes upon you wide;
they hold you gently and let you go
when something stirs in the dark.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by M.D. Hester Norton
Why oh why oh why oh why is the sleep you get just before you wake up the deepest, most delicious, and most restful? Another of life's unfathomable mysteries?
Happily for me, after a week or so of no sleep medication, I was able to pick up a new prescription. I had been in a "waking up tired" mode. (If you haven't listened to that song, you really should.) Sleeplessness
Digression alert ... or digression from digression alert ...
... shouldn't there be a better word for sleeplessness than that which defines the negative here? Google translate gives us versions of insomnia in French and Italian. German is schlaflosigkeit which undoubtedly better describes the state, and looks a lot like I feel. Finnish is unettomuus, and that, too, is far more descriptive than sleeplessness or insomnia. I could go on, but you might not be quite as amused at this kind of digression as I am. Yusuzluq is how the Azerbaijanis say it.
... and then there is the problem of remembering what you were on about when you digressed.
Just sayin' that sleeplessness for me can be a significant problem. I don't make good decisions (and here there is evidence that I rarely do anyway, which would be another rabbit hole of digression) and cannot focus on much besides relieving my exhaustion.
Contrary to popular belief, .... that was a good start for a sentence of which I have now forgotten the main thought ... oh! I don't nap so well anymore. Maybe Janet is using up all of the nap vibes in the house as she will take three or four naps on a day she is just around the house. That said, a bit of a lie down can be refreshing.
A person can spend a fair amount of time getting lost on Google translate. (Why is there no word for sleeplessness in Hebrew?)
And so we gird our mental loins (don't think too hard about that) and prepare for the onslaught of a 10-day heat wave. Janet, having lived in California her whole life, is fascinated with the extreme weather that is found in other places. She has been glued to Hurricane Harvey, which I suppose is more interesting than her (annoying) obsession with Shark Tank or endless repeats of Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow, and Brian Williams. She has a difficult time following almost any movie or tv show these days. I wonder if the endless repetition of the news programs makes them easier to follow. Hadn't really thought about that.
This would be a good moment for me to switch my sleeping schedule as when it gets really hot, around 3:00 or 4:00 pm, the heat becomes so oppressive and disorienting that productivity is a Sisyphean task. Also, the back of the house, where I mostly lurk, stores heat, I think. The heat can be oppressive far into the night. And if there is gardening to be accomplished, it will most certainly need to happen early in the day.
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