Is A Part Of
Many folks would envy my current lifestyle, Officially Disabled, but somewhat mobile and able to live on my own (but still with enough pain, limitations and general discomfort that I’m not going to be rejudged “not disabled enough”, if anybody from the Social Security Administration is reading this). And only required to be at a certain place at a certain time a couple times a month, the alarm clock is no longer part of my daily lifestyle.
But that luxury of time can have strange side effects, as I learned recently. Apparently, my biological clock/sleep cycle has realigned itself to a 26-hour daily schedule. That means that without major intervention (and full sunlight through the window near the bed is not enough intervention), I will go to sleep and wake up just about two hours later than I have the day/night before. Undeterred, this will result in ending up one full day behind every 12 -13 days (12 of my days = 13 real days). Really, I’ve lived with this long enough to know that, while varying, it averages out to 2 hours a day. And since trying to override it every day has resulted in periods of alternating insomnia and somnolence, I have handed over my lifestyle to this strange schedule and remain extra thankful for my Officially Disabled status.
But the real reason I mention this now is that I woke up today a full hour earlier than I woke yesterday, and in doing so, interrupted an extraordinary dream. In this dream, the Hero (not me, I was observing it all from a distance) had to stop a Villain in an advanced fighter jet plane. Now, I don’t remember ever having “Top Gun” aerial dogfight dreams before, and maybe this is why: the Hero’s plane was electrically powered, and thus dragged behind it a miles-long electrical cord. Although that cord seemed at first to slow down the Hero’s aerial maneuvering, the Villain’s plane ended up tangled in the cord, and was effectively captured. But then, it happened: the Hero’s plane reached the end of its cord. This not only tightened the tangle around the Villain’s plane, breaking it to bits, but the sudden jolt caused the Hero to eject from his own plane! Then the cord came loose from its earthbound plug and both Hero and Villain ended up hanging on for dear life to the cord as it dangled behind the plane. That’s when I woke up. (The dreams I am most likely to remember are the ones that are still in progress when I wake; how about you?)
Well, I don’t like unresolved cliffhangers any more than the next frustrated “X-Files” viewer, so, after trying to logically work out an ending in my awakened mind (and realizing the physical absurdity of the whole scenario), I went back to sleep, hoping to continue the dream where I left off (which is something I have done successfully in the past; anybody else ever do that?), but no such luck. I went into a variation of one of my more frequent dreams: driving around in an unfamiliar but very scenic area (which is one of the reasons I moved to a much more naturally beautiful area over a year ago). And when I woke up, it was three hours later. Back on my 26-hour schedule.
So here I am, nearing the hour that I should go to sleep if I had a normal, 24-hour biological clock, and I am not sleepy. I have come to the conclusion that (a) the residents of that particular dreamworld are cartoon characters (in fact, I think the Villain was a fox), and (b) the Hero’s plane does indeed have an onboard battery, but he was called to action before it had been charged, so there is enough power to keep it from just falling out of the sky (after all, the cord snap had briefly stopped its forward momentum – even cartoon physics isn’t going to keep a plane flying forward without power after that). And, after taking most of an hour writing this totally ridiculous blog entry, I don’t think I’m going to be getting to sleep very soon.
