Tag Archives: sleep

When Will I Sleep?

dogs, humor, inspiration, music, philosophy, poetry, writing, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I think there must be something in the air. Maybe it’s autumn. Or aliens. Or the fact that I haven’t had to mow my lawn in three weeks. Whatever it is, it’s causing me to throw myself into certain indoor projects with a vengeance. And while that means I’m getting things done, and enjoying all this work, it also means I’m staying up late and not getting enough sleep.

Maya has no trouble sleeping.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be blogging about what’s been keeping me so busy (for example, reading, writing, cooking, and packing for a trip to California where I’ll attend a writing workshop), but today I’m excited to tell you about my newest music project, the YouTube song video IF TIME CAN BEND.

If Time Can Bend began its life as a poem several years ago. It’s about astrophysics, and therefore it touches on relativity, planets, time travel, and string theory. Do I sound like I know what I’m talking about? If so, my effort to pull the wool over your eyes has been a complete success!

Seriously, though, I know just enough about these topics to be dangerous, so I recklessly decided to turn my pseudoscientific poem into a song. Then, even more recklessly, I boldly asked keyboardist Chuck Phillips to help me record it, and the rest is history. Or is it? Maybe it hasn’t been recorded yet? Aha! Now you’re starting to see what the song is about.

Here’s how I describe it on YouTube:

“This lush song based on Lori’s original poem about time will have your head spinning and your heart swooning. Physics never sounded so good! Original music & lyrics by Lori Bonati, with Lori on vocals & midi instruments, and Chuck Phillips on piano and bass.”

I’m not going to apologize for tooting my own horn in that description. First of all, there are absolutely NO HORNS in this song. And also, I’m kind of proud of it, to tell you the truth!

Okay, enough talking. Maybe you should just go check it out here: IF TIME CAN BEND. A big thank you to those of you who do.

By the way, you can like and comment on the video directly on YouTube, or you can just leave a comment below.

So, that’s one song video down, a few more to go, and then I might just sit back and relax for a while. Or not! I’ve got all those books to finish writing … oh well, as Governor Tim Walz says, “We’ll sleep when we’re dead!”

Daylight Saving Time

writing, , , , , ,

Last Thursday night, I got only five hours of sleep. I blame Nano Poblano. All of those impassioned opinions, perfect word choices, and gutsy poems – you peppers really know how to inform, inspire, and interrupt a good night’s slumber. I was awake until 3 a.m. reading. Your titles were compelling and your photos so interesting. Even your badges were calling my name. I think I dreamt about peppers that night (er … morning).

Later that day (at 8 a.m.), I pulled myself out of bed because I had company coming over at 9. I rubbed my tired eyes, stumbled to the coffee machine, and pressed “brew” without putting water in first. After a couple of tries, I finally got everything (water, coffee, cup) arranged and ready. After my success making and drinking my first cup of java, I decided I was capable of vacuuming the living room rug.

All was going fine until I decided to try connecting one of the attachments. I couldn’t get the hoses and attachments to fit together. Everything seemed to be the wrong size; nothing would fit into anything else. Five minutes, four failed attempts, and three expletives later, I finally managed to figure it out. But then I tried turning the vacuum on again, and I couldn’t remember where the “on” switch was. (I’m not making this up.) This is not my normal operating mode. I do not have early onset Alzheimer’s. I just wasn’t running on all three bike tires.

I’m not complaining. I’ve always been a night owl, but lately I’m starting to see that maybe it’s not that healthy to skimp on sleep. I read an article about this the other day. The article said that you can never catch up on lost sleep. Once lost, it’s gone forever. If that’s the case, I figure I’ve lost 20,160 hours of sleep since graduating from college. That’s more than 2 years’ worth of lost time. Does that mean I’m really 2 years younger than I thought? Or am I older? I need another cup of coffee to figure that one out.

In the United States, we have something called “Daylight Saving Time” for part of every year. This government-imposed fiddling with our biological and actual clocks came about during World War I in an effort to save energy. In most parts of the country, clocks “spring ahead” one hour in the spring and “fall back” an hour in the fall. They are about to fall back this Sunday, Nov. 5, at 2 a.m. The rationale behind this widely accepted (but unpopular) practice is explained here.

I happen to live in Arizona, where Daylight Saving Time is not observed, unless you live on the Navajo Nation, where they do observe it. But then, if you live on the Hopi Reservation, which is completely surrounded by the Navajo Nation, you don’t observe Daylight Saving Time, which must be especially confusing. Arizona seems to celebrate confusion. After all, we have towns named Why, Surprise, and – believe it or not – Avenue B and C.

Since I live in Arizona, I won’t be “falling back” one hour this year. But while the rest of the country celebrates their extra hour of sleep, I’ll make myself content in the knowledge that even if I’d gotten the extra hour, it would not have made up for the 20,160 hours I’ve already lost.

Badge 2017