You Know You're Getting Old When...

Gone--gone!--are the youthful days of yore burning the midnight oil without consequence! Oh, how the weary soul, unable to sleep a wink during those darkest hours, resorts to those most dastardly of vices that he or she or they might not feel such exhaustion tethering their mind to the fog all throughout the day. Afternoon naps and heavy drinking (of coffee), what has become of this generation of degenerates!?

No, but seriously, I learned the hard way this past weekend that staying awake after midnight has negative ramifications that cascade across multiple days. The outside heat more easily saps my strength when I go on my walks, motivation to lift declines, my attention wavers more frequently. Like eating a diet full of junk food, getting less than optimal sleep just leaves me feeling gross and sluggish and unable to function at my fullest, which makes me moody and frothing at my depleted productivity.

"Hades II" has been fun though! Video games don't absorb me as much as they used to, so finding one that draws me in is both a curse and a treat. It's just unfortunate that such a jarring, short-termed shift in my sleep schedule shakes my routine so violently.

Allergies don't help in that regard either, and they've been especially bad for me the last couple of days, since Salad has adopted this new habit of sleeping near my face. I think she wants to kill me, because she's the cat I'm most allergic to. It's like she knows.

I bemoan the days where my eyes start to itch, because it's only downhill from there. The days my allergies strike, I can almost guarantee the following day exhaustion will follow, like my body is trying to recover from some illness that ravaged it. Monday the allergies hit, and lo' and behold, Tuesday the exhaustion followed.

Ah well, nothing to do but work around it. So, I've de-loaded for the week. I'm still going on walks, but I haven't attempted a jog since last Thursday, which is fine, because the heat index has been awful. Concentration-wise, I've primarily jotted down an outline of ideas for this penultimate scene of Teyr'loch Delter Pach, since I haven't been able to cobble enough of my attention together to really sink my teeth into it. Real-time revelations happening as Cael book-ends the finale with a return to the beginning creates a rather unique challenge. I expect the denouement will be easier to write and a welcome reprieve after the blocks writing the performance's 2nd half.

Now, if you'll excuse me, this old lady needs to take a nap.

I mean a walk.

Other Notable Accomplishments:

• I did not expect refilling Salad's prescription would take as much time as it did or be as big a pain as it was. Definitely the wawful of the week.

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

• What occasionally reminds you of your mortality? Is it a thought you indulge for long, or do you brush it aside quickly, uncomfortable with contemplating how fleeting existence really is?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Qiri

Qiri trying to re-enact half of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam."