Monday, December 16, 2024

Getting Woke

 



Ughhhh… when I was a kid I was up with the birds and never needed an alarm. But I had a comical winder with the two bells on it. Same one Donald Duck had… but I never wound it up. They used to have a 5:00 am swim for seniors at the public pool but no one ever showed up so I usually had the pool to myself. I’d be on the bicycle at 0400 and in the water at 0500 sharp!

As young adults until middle age… it was these infernal things. Our clock radio had several alarm choices: one sounded like a big boomer submarine getting ready to launch the nukes, and the other sounded like the “wrong!!” buzzer on a retard game show. Both were good ways to chit the bed in the morn when they went off. On AM or FM setting…the morning show radio crews got it into their heads being silly and stupid was entertaining. One or two crews might have pulled it off, but the rest…? Who wants to wake up to unfunny morons in the morning when you’d have to spend all day with them at work? The best way to shut it off was with a ball peen hammer or a 357 magnum. 

Nowadays the wife charges her cell at night in the chitter. In the morn it softly tinkles out a subdued Japanese tune… so softly you can sleep right through it if ya want and it’ll snooze.  She gets up, unplugs it, throws the dawg out and makes her coffee. I fart and roll over and go back to sleep.

There’s no good way to wake up at our age… but some ways are definitely better than others.

9 comments:

  1. You actually fall asleep? Hell, most nights I lay there forever, staring at the ceiling, thinking stuff like "if I fall asleep right now, I'll get 3 and half hours of sleep before the alarm goes off", followed by "if I fall asleep right now, I'll get 2 hrs and 45 minutes of sleep before the alarm goes off", etc and so forth. Even on the weekends I typically get up around 5 since I'm bored just laying there.

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  2. Still use that very unit The sound quality is appropriate for facing the dawn

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  3. I suppose waking up at our age beats the alternative.

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    1. Roger that! I'm grateful to wake up, despite the pain. From the Seal squaddies I hung out with in the 90's I got this: Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. The manly me says "right on, dude!" the rest of me says...uuuh, doesn't seem so optional.

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    2. Given enough 800mg Ibuprofens...

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    3. watch how much of that stuff you take. as a lot of OTC pain meds do a real job on your kidneys. yeah. ask me how I know this ? I down to one working kidney after taking pain meds for years. life is pain, yeah. but just once in a while it be nice to see a day without any.
      pain sucks no matter what.

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    4. Steve, the anti-opiate VA prescribes Vicodin to me and I USE them. For me, they work like Excedrin extra strength. Unfortunately, no euphoria, no high, no bliss, no dissy, nothing but pain relief. Gets it down to 3-4 on the pain scale, that's good but my DNA jipped me out of the best part of opiates. Not gonna complain though, if I skip a day (I don't need no stinking drugs!) I get reminded what the score is. I see people out in public in chronic, sometimes, acute pain, I recognise it on their face and how they carry themselves, so, again, not going to complain with my piddly little aches. I earned them, I deserve them. It's payment for being a dumbass, addicted to G forces (and dangerous work).

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  4. We still have ours from the 70’s and it still works!

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  5. My alarm Is Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear screaming Wake up wake up you wanker wake up!

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