THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, January 19, 2012 Formerly & Everywhere! RFD# to the gulf stream waters 3 to the New York Island by Lorrie Baird
jim-lorrie@earthlink.net WHEN THE SANDMAN REFUSES TO SHOW UP by Lorrie Baird I jumped into bed, pulled
the covers up and Jim muttered sleepily, “Is it five-dark thirty already?” That’s not my husband
on a controlled substance, that’s Jim teetering on the abyss of consciousness and REM sleep precisely ten seconds after his head hits the pillow. Then there’s me. I wear
the remnants of my day like an ongoing mental video that refuses to go to sleep when I want to. I’ve tried everything to remedy the situation from natural herbs and melatonin to mild sleeping pills. For someone who refuses to take an aspirin unless my head is exploding; a pre- scription sleep drug is not an option. One of two things usu-
ally happens. Sometimes I lie awake until the wee hours of the morning when I’ve had a particu- larly stimulating day and the nagging video rerun simply refuses to fade to black until I pass out from exhaustion. More often than not I fall asleep af- ter a half-hour or so and wake up three hours later as if “five-dark-thirty” is already here. Then the video shows up again… and she’s off! I’ve tried everything I
know from bio-feedback to prayer and meditation to remedy the insomnia but usually to no avail. There are just some nights that the Sandman refuses to pay a courtesy call. So what do I do about
it? I think. I think about everything and every- one…this is how my mind works even when I don’t want it to… especially when I don’t want it to. I flashback to how funny it was that during the Bocce
game Barb was asked if she was tired. “Taking a shower every day is the most strenuous thing I do. How can I be tired?” So then I think about
my day’s activities. Up early, took a long walk (one of these days I’m going to count the miles) came back; got my face on as best as it goes on at my age; cleaned the house and went grocery shop- ping and it wasn’t even eleven-o’clock yet. Grocery shopping these
days means jumping on our bicycles, grab- bing some of those cloth “green” bags and pedal- ing five minutes down the road to our community supermarket. We feel all kinds of self-righteous jumping back on our bikes and balancing those bags precariously on the handlebars like saving a thimbleful of gas is going to credit the positive side of eco responsibility. What will help the en-
vironment is for me to stop procrastinating and get off my duff to set up those recycling bins and
getting serious about de- livering all that stuff to the Walmart recycling center. After all, it’s really close by and right now all we re- cycle is used egg cartons, plastic bags, and newspa- pers. Big Whoop…give the girl a gold star. Are you getting the pic-
ture? That’s how I think on nights I can’t sleep. Jim’s head hits the pillow and he’s checked out un- til morning. My head hits the pillow and off I go on a mental sprint that takes me places I really, really, don’t want to go. For those of us who are of the older persuasion, I’ve been told it’s my hormones run- ning amuck. They’ve run amuck all my life caus- ing all kinds of havoc and NOW is the time they re- fuse to go to sleep? Just when I need it the most while Jim sleeps like a baby? Life is not fair. Before I know it my
mind is off again, review- ing my day. After playing Bocce (my team lost again but not because of me which makes me grateful because I’m new at the
game) we were off to a free dinner at the Silverthorn Country Club. It’s like this: Florida re-
tirees get all kinds of of- fers for free food for just showing up at seminars. You can practically make a living doing this. This week we had three of- fers: lunch at the Pal- ace Grande and/or Olive Garden, or dinner at the Silverthorn Country Club which sounded a whole lot better than lunch and besides, we hadn’t seen Silverthorn’s country club and we wanted to see if it was any better than ours. (It wasn’t). After dinner (Jim had the sirloin, I had the chicken) we both liked the salad, but Jim didn’t eat his vegetables so I did and the seminar was entertaining. We came home just in time to watch Mitt Romney win the New Hampshire pri- mary. And that got me thinking about how much we need a strong leader for our next president and we’d better get it right this time because there’s so much at stake…and next
thing I know Jim is kiss- ing my cheek because it’s seven-not-so-dark-thirty. Already. Today I’m wearing a set
of matching circles under my eyes and it’s not pret- ty. What else is new?
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EXPERIENCE IT LIVE! ON SALE FRIDAY!
The Music of Bill Monroe: Featuring Peter Rowan and
The Travelin’ McCourys April 19, 7:30pm
COMING SOON TO THE CCA
The Intergalactic Nemesis Jan. 20, 7:30pm
www.docksource.com
The MET Live in HD: The Enchanted Island Jan. 21, 12:55pm
Everett Dance Theatre’s Brain Storm Jan. 28, 8:00pm
The Classical Theatre Project: Twelfth Night Feb. 1, 7:30pm
NOTEable DECADES: New Hampshire’s Favorite Party Band Feb. 10, 8:00pm
H e r From California... , T here...
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From the redwood forest...
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