Still Here

As usual sleepless and bored I find a use for what is left of my brain by semaphoring anyone else who may be sharing the night hours with me.

It strikes me as odd that there is no pattern to insomnia (mine anyway), and no apparent cause.

Neither being overly busy, or particularly idle the previous day seems to have a bearing on spending the night wide-eyed or blissfully unconscious. 

Too old to care much about my baggy-eyed appearance after a sleepless night I am still aware that my brain functions on a single cylinder and at about half its normal speed the following day, which is not a desirable state for someone who still likes to appear to be in possession of some of their faculties.

Watching night-time TV is not for the faint hearted, and is either over stimulating, or excrutiatingly dull .

I have abandoned my book (Richard Osman's excellent "The man who died twice"), because I want to make it last rather than read it all in one go.

Talking to myself , while not unusual, is unrewarding  at this timeof night/morning so silence reigns.

I am not, after all these years, seeking a non-existent cure for sleeplessness, just an idea of some other way of filling the long boring silent hours when all good folk should be abed.

Things that go bang in the night

The image above is a pretty accurate one of my current life.

Never one to dwell too long on uncomfortable news daily happenings local or worldwide, or even knowingly to pay much attention to other peoples' heated arguments unless directly involving my own life, I am finding everyday life increasingly difficult.

The world I knew appears to be vanishing, drowning in a sea of problems which it is impossible to ignore.

If I  believed I could do anything to change things for the better, to offer a solution or a personal contribution which would ease the tide of damage harm and destruction which is assailing the entire planet I would gladly make whatever sacrifice was necessary, but at the moment nothing I can think of would make the slightest difference,

Of course I can and do pray and  sign petitions and make financial contributions where appropriate but what are such activities worth I cannot help but ask?

The fact that I am now a very old woman with Parkinson's disease and a variety of other 'blessings' to add to the equation means that I find that one thing I can do with no effort whatever, is fall asleep at the drop of a hat, usually when watching something on TV which I have been looking forward to. 

The same, however, cannot be said when I go to bed. 

There, sleep as it always has, evades my every effort and much of the night is spent on the computer or watching even more awful TV.

When I eventually go back to bed I can guarantee that within a few minutes of finally dropping off to sleep something, some noise, sound or outside activity will have me jumping out of bed looking out of  the window to see what form of nocturnal entertainment is being provided this time.

Tonight to my utter amazement, a man in a Hi vis jacket was walking round the Close with a metal rod in his hand, lifting the metal covers on the water pipe thingies.  Every single one was lifted, peered into dropped back with a clang and off he marched,

This was at 12.45 am

What next I wonder?

I can hardly contain my excitement!
 

How to tell the difference between day and night

Well obviously it must be night time because I have to put the lights on to type this.  

No, that's not right, it has b een so dark most  of the day that I had the lights on most of the time.

Maybe it can only be night because the television is silent (for once)

No, sometimes I have to sit and watch whatever is onbecause I can't sleep.

Why is there no distant sound of traffic.

Why is there no bird song

Oh a clue, I am wearing my nightdress.

But I'm not in bed.

Now I know it is night because in the corner of my computer it says 1.43 am.

I know I am old (87 last week) but I can still tell the time.

Returning to the Arena

 I have no idea whether this will work but am attempting to re-enter the world of Blog. 

Last July I decided that since my life was on hold until pandemic rules were dropped I would not bore anyone with more blogs about nothing at all. 

From October when i had made up my mind to go back to church/choir nothing but problems filled my daily life. First several weeks of agonising sciatica, followed by a large cyst on my back which I could neither see nor reach, entailing trips to the surgery 3times a week for cleaning packing of the wound and dressing etc,  Great fun!

A chill causing stomach problems and a series of nose-bleeds, sudden and heavy.  All these and a breakdown of my gas central heating pump. followed by a leak through the ceiling and down the central light fitting in the small bedroom (on Christmas Eve) have filled my every waking moment with the expectation of a plague of locusts any day now.  Other than that, life has been boring for the past 2 years and I didn't feel inclined to share my gloom with all and sundry.  

Were it