COLD COUNTRY WEEKEND

That's what it was last weekend and will also be this weekend---a cold weekend in the country. This is our nesting time in the country. We don't go outside too often, except to take Snoopy for a walk--when it's not too miserably cold outside. But we are perfectly content to sit in the "cave" as Papa calls it, and watch old movies and watch out the window for anything interesting that may be happening outside. That's usually not much since we have 5 neighbors and when it's cold, they don't do much moving around either. So most of the excitement out the window is when the mailman arrives.

Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what we need. I've been hearing on the news in the last week that they have discovered that there are less heart attacks after daylight savings time ends. I believe that and think that it's because it gets dark earlier, it's cold outside, and so everyone puts their life/body into low gear and they relax more.

It's cold outside, so you don't have all the outside activity or yard work around the house, it's dark earlier and so people tend to stay inside and rest and sleep more. Or at least I do. I work real long hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday and then try to go to the Fitness Center after work on Mondays and Tuesdays and run "city" errands on Thursday, so usually by the time I get home on those three days, I've been at work 10 or 11 hours (or at least away from home that long) and I tend to go home, shower and put on my pajamas. I feel kind of guilty doing this in the summer because it's still light out but when the time changes, I have no guilt getting ready for bed at 6:30---I don't go to sleep that early, but I'm all ready to whenever the urge strikes me.

I've also recently read an article on Tina Turner and what it is she attributes to looking so good at her age (69)---Sleep. She says she sleeps alot and when she gets tired, she goes to sleep. She's kind of on her own clock. I would like to be able to live like that but since I don't have the income she does, I have to stay upright and awake most of the daytime hours (although I do nap alot on weekends). But I have decided I am not going to feel guilty about going to sleep earlier than usual from now on. I want to look good in my 90's!!

I used to be under the impression that it was a feat to exist with under 5 hours of sleep a night and I am so glad I got over that misconception. Sure I seemed to get more done but I felt horrible, was always tired, and quite irritable. Now if I could convince Papa who's an incurable insomniac, to work on increasing his sleeping hours, life would be good. But I can't pry his fingers away from the Mountain Dew cans (his drink of choice--morning, noon, and night) and he smokes and I think nicotine is another culprit keeping the sandman away. He has yet to believe any benefits of increasing his sleep--he teases me because he thinks I sleep too much. Just wait though and see who's around in their 90's and who looks the best, eh!!

So I'm off to join a few of the Elders for lunch (just lunch, we said, not lunch which turns into a visit going into the wee hours of the next day!). We are just lunching like grownups and then I'm picking up Snoopy and going down to meet Papa in the country and I'll report back next week.

Until then.....Grammy