Okay, It's Time for a Rest...

I'm exhausted. I'm not sleeping well and I wake up tired. I have no energy whatsoever. I didn't run/walk all last week like I said was going to and I didn't run this morning either, and I fear I am going to have to start the Couch-2-5K over again at week one. Arrrggghhhh!

It's hot. Today will hit 100º with a heat index of ("feels like") 104º to 110º. This should be easy for me. I was raised in Fresno, California and I remember it being in the 90's after dark! When Tom and I moved to the southern California coast in the early 80's, I think I wore something with long sleeves year around. When I couldn't take the cool weather any longer and needed to get some heat to warm my bones, we would drive inland to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido for the day. I just thrived on the heat. Not any more. Our "hot" tub has become our "cool" tub. Rather than 100º degrees, it's turned down to 90º, well below body temperature and cool enough to bring the body temperature down very nicely before heading to bed.

So, I stayed in today and primed the lower cabinets in the kitchen. My regular readers know that we are attempting to remodel our house. We have been remodeling our house since right after we moved in October 1, 2006. And, it's not done. Not even close. We've done some major stuff ~ knocking out a wall in the kitchen, adding an island, rearranging the existing cabinets, installing a few new cabinets, installing new appliances and installing granite countertops, tile and formica backsplashes. Tom installed most of the ceramic tile on the floor, but we still have to empty the hutch (ugh!!), tile and grout underneath it and paint the wall behind it before we put it back in place. Then we have to remove all the popcorn from the ceilings (the house was built 18 years ago), remove chair rail, paint walls in all the rooms, knock down walls in the laundry room, install two pocket doors and install new flooring in the living room, den, hallway and bedrooms. But, Tom has finished making the new doors for the kitchen cabinets and told me this last weekend that he is taking them over to a cabinet shop and will have them sanded, primed and drilled for hinges. He put the pressure on. Damn, I had to get busy. So, I primed.

But, back to being tired. It's late afternoon and very untypically I am sitting here with a LARGE glass of iced coffee, which is nearly gone and I am seriously considering fixing another, hoping it will help me stay alert until bedtime. As I said, I am not sleeping at night. I hear every single little noise, also very untypical. I've always been a fairly light sleeper, but I have also had those nights when I fall asleep and stay asleep all night long and wake up rested and refreshed. God, I would love to have just one of those nights again.

Tom suggested I try to find some kind of sleep CD with nature sounds. I thought, you know, he is right. What puts me to sleep? The sound of the country ~ crickets, frogs, bugs (cicadas), owls, mockingbirds, whippoorwills, coyotes in the distance. When we lived in the country, that was my lullaby or nightly meditation that calmed my brain waves and prepared me for a deep, restful sleep. I scoured the internet for CD's of nature sounds. I have ordered four: Southern Swamp, A Night in the Canyon, Summer Nights, and Crickets Calming. All of them are sounds of nature, no music or voices. I am hoping that listening to them when I go to bed will help me sleep. We shall see.

In the meantime, I suppose I will just have to mainline coffee.