Making It Up As I Go Along #286

MONDAY...
— After walking on Saturday and Sunday of last week... I take tonight off.
— Work is work... before work there’s not much going on.

TUESDAY...
— How many white guys were walking around at five to twelve this morning, listening to Japanese music on their MP3 player? Well I can name one anyway. I guess we’re all unique on some level. Out there for a little short of an hour. It’s different doing it in the daytime rather than night.
— I also did some writing today. That was good... I haven’t done that too often lately.

WEDNESDAY...
— Hour and forty-five minute walk after work tonight. Likely my last real like evening walk as I’m not home until 2:20. I need to be in bed earlier than that most nights now as day shift is coming next week and I need to get a more consistent sleep pattern. But it’s a nice night to stretch it out tonight.

THURSDAY...
— Watched that Survivor show again. Silly me.
— No walk tonight. Taking a break but plan to go again tomorrow.

FRIDAY...
— Some playing around with the computer. Normal work day. Not much else going on really.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Then off with Atlas for a poker night at the RCMP Mess. It’s a fund raiser. I do badly but have fun all the same. I actually get a prize as me and another tied for the first people knocked out of the tournament.


These are the Days of Our Lives
Well it’s upon me. After close to three straight months of evening shift at work... I am returning to the regular shift pattern. Well, pretty close to regular. I’ll still do Tina’s evenings too. But still, I’ll be on days as much as evenings again.

So how will it go? What will I do to maintain sleep and energy? We’ll have to wait and see. The plan is to aim for earlier bedtimes while on evenings. To cut down the 3:00 AM and later turn ins and try to keep a bedtime that’s more consistent between days and evenings. Although maybe I’ll sneak some late nights in there still. With Tina’s evening shift, it comes right after mine... so I’ll be two straight weeks of evenings when I do them. Perhaps I’ll be able to sneak in three or four late nights during that two week span.

Cause the thing is... I love the night. I’m not dying to work at night mind you. To think of going from midnight to 7:00 AM at the office is not appealing. I just love the quiet and freedom of it.

Being able to go out for an hour and a half walk and not see anyone is really something special. Being able to be around the house and only hear crickets outside and not even think about phone calls is also quite peaceful.

But, I have a job that doesn’t allow for this to be my everyday reality. For three months, it was great... but it’s time to rejoin the real world.

So what does this mean? It means that I’ll be looking at a clock at 9:30 each night and thinking about cluing up a few more things before getting ready for bed. It means forcing myself to bed, whether I’m tired or not, by 11:00 at the latest. And it means awaking to my CD player while it’s still dark outside.

And the late night walks? Cut back to a reasonable hour I guess. Maybe right after work in the broad daylight. Maybe after supper. Or perhaps a few hours before bed. Either way, I’m sure it won’t just be me and the rabbits... too bad.

That all said, there will be some good in all this. After all, I could have stayed on evenings for another month but I decided to make the change back early. I’ll be with a team again. Part of a group and one of the gang.

I’ll be able to do some things in the evenings. Shopping for underwear at Mark’s Work Warehouse can happen with regular people rather than the legions of retirees who shop in the late mornings. No more dodging old person go-carts... I can stride around with the people in their prime!

There will be people I’ll see again. Derek, Sheila, Laura, Megan... all day shift people who I either haven’t seen or have only briefly spoken to at shift change. Although... Sheila and Laura are on different floors and I probably won’t see a great deal of them anyway... and Megan is busy in CNI, so I won’t see much of her either... and Derek... well Derek I may see more of. But do I give up the magic of the night so I can hang out with Derek? I mean he’s a good guy and all but...

Aww, let’s do it! Derek is THE man... and besides, I do need new underwear. And those old people and their go-carts scare me!