Get Cracking

I’m fixing to get cracking.

That’s what I told myself when the alarm clock went off this morning, but then I turned over and felt the soft little puffs of air sweeping over me from the overhead fan, which caused me to pull the smooth, cool sheets up over my head as I curled myself around the long, soft king sized pillow and softly crossed back over into the land of nod.

I’ve been getting up early all my life. At first it was going to school when I would be yelled at and dragged or poked out of bed before daylight, fed some cold cereal, and then pushed and pointed down the road until I found myself surrounded by all my groggy friends in home room.

I still wouldn’t be fully awake until Darlene Cunningham sat down next to me and started popping her chewing gum while she flounced around making sure everyone noticed she had arrived. That always got me fully awake—Darlene’s flouncing around.

The next thing I knew the U.S. Army was keeping me awake until late at night, getting me up before the crack of dawn, and assuming I could function on five hours sleep a night.

I learned to do that and it served me well after I got a real job in the business world. But then those years of rising early to chase an airplane, or to fight traffic to arrive at an early meeting began and I thought they would never come to an end.

All that’s over now. I can sleep all day if I want to. Occasionally I do.

In fact, sometimes I stay up all night just so I can sleep all day and dream about thumbing my nose at school teachers, drill sergeants and bosses.

I woke up a while ago and attempted to remember the reason I had to get up and get cracking, but for the life of me I couldn’t, so I’m fixing to just sleep all day.