Yawn? Not even...

It's 2:40 A.M. The world slumbers. Not even a train passing at this hour. Paco and I have taken the hide-a-bed for the next week or so because we gave our guests the "suite". The hide-a-bed mattress is thin, and our bed (like most I've seen) bows a little giving us a sort of sandwich feeling. We have just a sheet (because it's summer) which is hard to keep tucked in. Paco's feet are sticking out. My mind has been racing with my pre-bed book,
and when I tried to count sheep some of them stumbled, and I lost count. So now I'm up. I rustled unsuccessfully through the medicine cabinet to see if I could chemically induce some sleep, ate a few animal crackers and a calcium caramel, and stared outside at the dark--letting the breeze wash over me. I'm not even a teensy bit tired. Boring yes. Tired no. Mugsy is barking outside. Say what??? I'll just let him in and hope he hasn't been fratrenizing with the skunks. Brrrrr...cold out there. Chilly dog fur when I hugged him. One of these nights the famous Bear Hollow wind will blow down the road and take out all our gardens--regular as clockwork in August here. We'll weep and wail...and plant again next spring. Slow learners. Tomorrow--adding 4 bags of "conditioner" to my garden to take out tangles I guess, putting in some brick borders I hauled home from Orem, setting up the trampoline, and pulling out all the stops on a fancy cake our 10-year-old guest showed interest in making. About this book I'm reading--according to this author, talent is overrated. It's possible (by putting in 10,000 hours and "deep practice"-ing) to exhibit genius. A great quote from Darwin says something about his never really detecting much difference in people except for effort and sweat. This opens up a whole new world! 10,000 hours and I can take home tennis trophies! 10,000 hours and I can play swooning music! I'm just 10,000 hours away from a bestseller! Actually 10,000 hours breaks down to 2 hours a day for roughly thirteen years. Of if I give it 8 hours a day then approximately four until I'll be on The View as someone having done something--say, like be president. Actually I HAVE spent 10,000 hours doing several things: sleeping, reading I'll bet, and teaching. And how about those Bronte sisters? All three of them stuck away in a drab parsonage with a cranky widowed father, and YET they wrote those smashing books? Well, it just so happens that they were prolific in turning out all manner of little mini 80 page novels. At least 10,000 hours clocked in for each of them. And all the other greats? 10,000 hours sculpting, painting, composing--you name it. Oooh, I smell the llamas through the open window here. The wind must have shifted. And something is flapping around the light bulb. I will just not look up because if I see a bat, I WILL infarc. Right here mid blog. Moth. Phew. I randomly "ran into" two friends of my daughter's today at the parking lot by Temple Square. I had never met them, but I saw their nametags and immediately recognized them from pictures. My daughter had tutored the wife in Japanese several years ago and then stayed a week in Japan with them on another occasion. Weird. We had to immediately call her. Nice surprise! Ho hum tweedly dum. I was emptying a drawer in our bedroom tonight and came upon a rolled up heating pad full of.....wait for it......wait for it...dog food!!! Yes, dog food!!!! According to my knitting friends (who witnessed me pulling dog food out of a knitting bag) we are the victims of mice squirreling away dog food for--I don't know--winter? The thoughts of mice scurrying through our house up and down stairs holding dog food high over their heads like a battering ram are too much for me. Or maybe they put it in their mouths and make multiple trips. I am THIS close to completely giving into the beasts and insects who plot against us pretty much around the clock here at Provident Heritage Farm. Who am I to stand in the way of the silent marchings of instinctual beings spurned on by much higher survival imprintings than I can comprehend? Flies. Mice. Skunks (who haven't ventured our way so much but have wreaked HAVOC at the neighbor's!!!!!) Bats. Birds who nest in all manner of places. Moles who burrow. 3:41. Still no train. Mugsy is making doggy dream whimper noises. At least HE'S sleeping. I'm wired. If I didn't worry about encountering mouse forces of dog food moving entities, I might venture back to the black bed of death. Maybe I'll chance it.