Just Another Day

Just Another Day



I really have no need for an alarm clock anymore. Ever since I started working second shift at my County job, there isn't any particular time I have to get up in the morning. Oh, sure, there are the occasional times when I have to get out of bed early. Morning appointments I have to go to, like the doctor and the dentist. Once in a while I have to take the wife to work on days that one of our cars is in the shop. Stuff like that. I generally use my wife for my alarm clock on those days. She works day shift, so she can give me a holler before she heads off to her daily grind. It's not normally necessary, though. My internal clock usually has me awake in plenty of time on those particular days.

As a rule, I climb into bed around 1 am on weekday nights. The wife usually mumbles something incoherent to me and drops back to her slumbers almost immediately. I turn on the TV at the foot of the bed and keep the volume low. It never seems to bother her. Maybe I'll click over to watch the Discovery Channel and see Jamie and Adam on Myth Busters. Or watch Mike Rowe doing some disgustingly dirty job. Sometimes I'll turn to the Travel Channel and watch Andrew Zimmern, who eats all the nasty stuff around the world. I'm OK with that unless he's chomping on members of the insect world or some big, fat spider. I'll give him a pass on those nights. I like Anthony Bordain also. Or maybe I'll check out something on the SciFi Channel. Just something to help me transition from awake to asleep.

I'll watch a little of something like that until my eyelids start drooping, which usually doesn't take too long. I'm clicking the off button on the TV remote and turning off the light generally around 1:30.

Sleep comes quickly most nights.

This morning, like most mornings, the alarm didn't go off. My consciousness slowly rose from sleep mode to a groggy awakening and I noticed the dimness of the bedroom. It looked like it was going to be another gray morning in beautiful northeast Ohioland. I recalled from the night before a weather forecast of rain and maybe some early autumn snow showers for this Tuesday morning and clearing later in the evening. Nice. Not even Halloween yet and frozen stuff falling from the sky. The older I get the more I hate snow and ice. One eyeball peered at the alarm clock on my nightstand and saw it was around a quarter to nine. About the time I normally say hello to the new day.

Hello day...

I glanced over to the other side of the bed. Yep, ol' Bailey was there. My older Schnauzer dog was stretched out on the bed where my wife sleeps. This was normal – he usually sleeps with us through the night and, after his morning visit to the outdoors for his relief and a quick dog biscuit, would return to the bed for some more snoozes with me. He is an older fellow and takes his sleeping seriously. I leaned over the side of the bed and saw Barney, the other, younger Schnauzer, the blind one, laying next to the bed. That was normal also. Once in a while either my wife or my son would toss him on the bed before I woke and then, when I came to, there would be two hairy beasts sleeping with me. That was OK with me too. They were part of our little family.

As long as they didn't hog the bed too much.

I padded to the bathroom to take care of my morning business, then returned and pet the dogs for a minute or two. The furnace had clicked into its cooler setback mode at 8 am, so it was chilly. I quickly dressed in my usual uniform of jeans and sweatshirt, put on my glasses and watch and headed downstairs. The dogs followed, knowing I'd let them out again, which I did. I glanced at the front page of the newspaper and checked the obits. My name wasn't there. A definite plus, I thought.

I took my pillbox off the shelf above the sink then quickly downed my daily allotment of meds with a glass of water. Gotta keep the pharmaceutical companies in the black, I thought. And my doctor happy, of course. I tried to remember a day which didn't start with a fistful of medicine. I could remember it, but it was a long time ago. Getting old is not for the fainthearted, as the old adage goes.

Then I let the dogs in and checked my calendar on the wall to see what was up for the day. Hmmm... Oh, yeah. Rotate the tires on the Toyota. One of those husband kind of jobs. Guess I could handle that. Or, rather, the tire dealer could handle that. Which meant I had to leave for the tire shop fairly soon.

I gave the dogs another minute of petting before slipping out the door and getting into my car. I zipped my hooded sweatshirt tighter as the cold started biting into my not-ready-for-winter skin. It was about nine in the morning.

I walked into the tire shop a few minutes later and was told that it'd be at least a 2 hour wait to get my tires rotated. They did their servicing first come, first served. I knew I'd probably have to wait before I even left the house. I agreed as I had nothing much going on until noon. Figured I'd be out of there LONG before that time. (You can see where this is heading, right?) I walked from the tire shop to a nearby gas station and bought a big cup of coffee to help brush away the cobwebs that still clustered at the corners of my eyes.

At 11:45, almost THREE hours after I had arrived, I was handed my car keys by one of the smiling tire guys and I ended my long morning at the tire shop waiting for my free tire rotation. I'd thoroughly read two magazines, went through the daily
Akron newspaper and had watched a little daytime TV which was on in the waiting area. Women's stuff. I mean, I didn't even know they sold pubic hair dye! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, right there on the tire guy's TV. Holy smoke! Guess that's what ya gotta suffer through when your tire dealer is the most popular guy in town that morning.

Since the clock was fast approaching 12 o'clock noon, I left there and drove directly to the gym. It was a workout day for the wife and I.

She and I meet several days a week at a local gym where we have memberships. She goes there for her lunch hour and I meet her. We walk the treadmills, do some weight stuff, maybe a bit on the stationary bikes. Enough to make us sweat and feel like we're doing something good for our bodies. You wouldn't notice it to look at us, but these things are gradual, they keep telling us. Don't want to lose too much weight all at once. Ha – like that's gonna happen! We usually have the gym's TV tuned to the Cleveland news while we move about and sweat, watching the weather, watching the news, watching the familiar anchors read their teleprompters. This day the politicians are still lying and slinging mud, the stock market is still an abysmal horror and the criminals are still plying their trade in thievery, murder and mayhem.

Pretty much a normal Tuesday.

When our hour at the gym is over, the wife hops into the Honda and zips back to her office. She muches a little something for lunch at her desk on those days. I drive home and fix something to eat for lunch myself. I pop the dogs outside on their chains again to make sure they have that opportunity. I usually carry whatever food I'm having for lunch upstairs to our office and eat it while checking my email, responding with a letter as needed and probably surf the Internet a while. Today my lunch is eggs, toast with marmalade and orange juice.

Around 2 pm I hop into the shower and clean up for my approaching work shift. I shave, dress and then it's time to pack a supper to take with me and check to make sure that I have a newspaper and a book in my briefcase.

Then it's into the old Toyota for my 45 minute drive to the office.

The drive north, to the next county seat where my workplace is, is usually pleasant. It's now autumn, so I get the added treat of seeing the colorful fall foliage along the roadside. Today isn't the best of days, being cloudy and gloomy, but I keep my eyes on the countryside drifting by and admire the changing of the seasons anyhow. Most of the trees have turned color already and quite a few of them have already shed their leaves. The road surface is paved in leaves in certain stretches like colorful sheets of construction paper – red oak, yellow maple, cream-and-green sycamore, brown ash. The highway closer to my destination, for a dozen miles or so, was freshly paved only a month ago and is pleasant to drive on. With my newly rotated tires (You remember I had that done this morning, don't you?) and the smooth road, I'm in a good mood by the time I reach the office and park my car.

I walk into the building, step into my work area and say hello to my fellow workmates. Bill, my old friend from high school is working on his laptop doing some design work; Pat, the man I work the 2nd shift with is in his wheelchair and checking out the upcoming nightly work; Dale, the vivacious lady who works the computer on day shift is updating a spreadsheet and keeping a close eye on the primary computer console, and my boss Larry is on the phone with a customer or perhaps a supplier. I put my supper in the little refrigerator we have in our area and talk to the day-shift people about the upcoming work to be done for the half-hour that our workdays overlap. The boss then comes over and shows me some special work he needs accomplished. Before long Pat and I say our goodbyes to all the day-shift folks leaving for the evening. He sits down at the computer and I get busy doing the paperwork that's always there to be processed. I chit-chat with Patrick as we handle the workload to be accomplished that evening. The hours pass and soon it's supper time. I pull my dinner from the refrigerator and pop it into the microwave after Pat's got his warmed up. Tonight it's chicken curry and sticky rice that I made yesterday. The spicy aroma from the curry makes my eyes tear as I carry it to my desk to eat. I add a little Tabasco to it and eat it with gusto, reading my local newspaper and chatting with Patrick. Then it's my turn at the primary computer and I spend the rest of the shift watching the systems we have to monitor 24/7. I make the necessary adjustments as the night lengthens and before long it's almost midnight and time for our relief to arrive.

First through the door is Christine who puts her lunch away and sits down with us to get the turnover for the upcoming overnight hours. We pass on whatever is happening with the systems and what special tasks need to be worked on. Then Alice, the second overnight operator arrives and she also gets the information she'll need for the night. The four of us talk for a while about whatever is on our minds. Tonight it's a mixture of politics (both office and national), Alice's upcoming wedding, kids, the upcoming winter and the arrival of a work manual we're all waiting for. We laugh a lot and enjoy each other's company for a little while.

Sometime between 12:15 and 12:30 I bid adieu to the night ladies and start my trip home. It's gotten cold outside and the road's still wet from the snow/rain mixture that's been off and on most of the evening. The drive home is quiet – there is usually very little traffic at this time in the morning. I notice that the sky has finally cleared and the stars are out. I see the constellation Orion riding high and bright in the clear black eastern sky. The year is definitely waning, I think to myself. My major concern on my trip home is whitetail deer, as this is autumn and they're starting to move across the roads more often than they do in the summertime. I watch closely as I drive and do see a doe crossing the road in front of me just before I enter the city limits of my hometown. I see her in plenty of time to slow down. Some nights its all I can do to keep from hitting them.

The back porch light is on for me when I pull into my driveway. The wife leaves it on to light my way to the door. I pop into the house and grab a piece of pepperjack cheese from the refrigerator to take up to bed. I hate going to bed hungry and it's been a long time since supper.

The wife is in bed but still awake this particular evening, watching the end of a TV program. We chit-chat for a few minutes while I slip under the sheets and munch the cheese I brought up to eat. Our old dog Bailey watches carefully from his spot on the bed as he usually gets the last bite. I reach over and pet the younger dog who's under the bed before I turn out the light.

Sleep comes quickly, again.

And another exciting day for yours truly ends.

Was it a good day? Sure!

I have a home to go to at the end of the day, a wife who's there waiting, a job to occupy my time and give me mental stimulation and friends to share my day with. I have enough to eat, my health is fine and I live in the best nation on earth.

I'm a lucky guy. Even on “just another day”.