Exhaustion

I haven't been sleeping well lately.  Lately as in past several months.  Part of it is I go to bed too late to wake up too early in the morning.  When I do sleep it comes in small bits and pieces and I wake up with a start every hour or so.  Or nightmares keep me asleep but restless.   Any way you look at it, I've been very very tired for awhile. 

Mental exhaustion doesn't make a different.  It just makes my dreams a lot more vivid.  But I've discovered complete and utter physical exhaustion will give me at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. 

This is good, because I have the means to do this. 

Thursday I spent three hours at the gym basically getting the crap beat out of my muscles.  Figuratively, not literally.  Then I spent another 2 hours on my feet at a food bank, helping to prepare bags of food for the elderly.  I slept 9 hours that night, and when I woke up I was so disoriented I couldn't figure out why my alarm was going off.  Thats the sign of a good night.

Yesterday I spent 3 or so hours doing yard work:  mowed, weed wacked, and started hand-tilling a space for my garden.  I only quit  because when I came inside and had to wash my hands, they stung (my hands I mean) so badly I didn't want to put on gloves again.  So instead I went to the gym for two hours.  Of course my movements were a little more limited than normal, considering 75% of my body muscles were aching or sore, but still.  Spent the evening with my neighbor watching a movie....which is when the rest of my muscles that weren't already hurting decided they'd make themselves known.  Everything - from the weird muscles under my armpit to my legs to my fingers...HURT. 

Ahhhhhhh....another 9 hours of sleep, and this morning I feel good. 

So, here's to physical exhaustion.  Hopefully I may find you more often for more sleep.

Above is my new mower and weed wacker.  I spent ENTIRELY too much money.  I know that.  BUT...I love that mower.  Used it for the first time yesterday.  Its easy to start, easy to use (the reason I bought it), and mows like a champ.

The weedwacker I'm still deciding on.  Now that I figured out how to start it (its a multi-step process involving priming, a choke, a trigger, pullcord, etc...its complicated), its easy to use.  BUT the stupid plastic string or whatever you call it wasn't wound well inside the thing so I had to have my neighbor's husband help me take it apart and rewind it.  Still after doing that I had to take it apart 3 more times and rewind it.  Its now out of string so maybe starting from scratch will help. 

There is something quite manly and fun about owning your own gas powered lawn tools though.  I felt pretty awesome edging my sidewalk and my fence. 

My neighbor's husband (although technically that would make him my neighbor too, right?) came over to help me get everything out of my car and then he man-drooled over everything for awhile.  Made me feel good that I had bought decent tools and hadn't settled on the $100 piece of crap mower. 

Anyways, I had more to write but I need to get dressed and started on the last day of my weekend.

Hope you all are well.

The great omission in American life is solitude; not loneliness, for this is an alienation that thrives most in the midst of crowds, but that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incubator of the spirit.
~ Marya Mannes