Sleep Deprivation, Flying Marathoners, & Copperheads

Once again, I have been slack in my regular updates to my blog. Lately, I have just been too tired to put words to paper thanks to my erratic sleep patterns. Normally, I am one of those people that simply needs a pillow and I am out like a light. Sometimes, I don’t even need a pillow, I could fall asleep on a concrete floor if the lighting was right or it was quiet or say, there was oxygen in the room. Yeah, I am one of those people. But, lately, not so much. Oh sure, I can still fall asleep...I can always fall asleep,but not stay asleep. And, now I can fall asleep only when it’s not time for bed. If it’s 4:30pm, I am exhausted and want to fall asleep then. Come 10 pm when I should be going to sleep, I am wide eyed and bushy tailed. I suddenly get a burst of energy and want to do everything besides go to bed to get a good night’s rest. And, then I am waking myself up (and my hubby, which he is not all too jazzed about) with all my constant tossing and turning every few hours. Of course when the alarm rings at 5:30am, I am dragging myself out of bed like a mafia victim outfitted with cement shoes. I am becoming totally addicted to caffeine to get through the days which is not helping any... And so the cycle goes. I really think I need to lay off the caffeine because going to Starbucks and now having to order a double espresso shot to get any buzz at all can’t be doing me any good. I think it’s screwing up my sleep cycle and now I feel like I am in this vicious circle that can only get worse. Agggh...So anyway, inability to sleep means inability to think clearly and hence the lack of entries to the blog. Not like you care, but if you did.

Anyhoo enough of the snooze babble...

Went to see a new movie the other night-“Moon” starring Sam Rockwell playing a dual role. It was brilliant to say the least. It takes a very compelling actor to hold your interest when they are the only character in the movie. Sort of like “Castaway” if you have ever seen that Tom Hanks film, but in Space. It was one of the lesser known films apparently, because my husband and I went to a 10pm show on a Friday night and we were the ONLY ones in that theatre. And it was only playing at this one theatre within 35 miles of us.

So there we are with the whole theatre all to ourselves and nothing showing on the screen. No dimmed lights, no previews, no dancing movie snacks, nothing. So we waited a few minutes and decide that we should really go alert the movie usher. He tells us, “oh yeah, she’s on her way now to start the film.” Umm... did she have something else more important going on she had to tend to other than her job? So we run back to the theatre because we don’t want to miss the previews. Well it’s a good thing we ran, because there were no previews. What a gyp. They just started the movie....bam, no warm up or anything. Oh well, at least we had the theatre to ourselves. No sick individuals with possible swine flu to contend with. Anyway, it was fantastic. If you get the chance and it comes to your area, make an effort to see it. You won’t be disappointed. Well, if you like previews you might be, but the movie itself really is well done. Two thumbs up.

Speaking of thumbs...(okay not really, but it seemed like I needed a good transition statement there and that's all I had. Hey did I mention I am not getting much sleep lately?) This weekend, I also enjoyed some nice interactions with nature. First, encounter was on one of my runs. I decided to go back and run the 5k route from my last race. As soon as I entered the open field, it began. This field was completely silent until I came pounding into it. There is a nice little mowed path that you can run through which is surrounded by high grass fields which forms a nice loop that dumps you back into the woods when you complete it. Not long after my first step in, it was like I awakened the sleeping locust club or something. Once I starting running there, all these just moments before, dormant flying bugs began coming out of the high grass and slamming into my legs. For the first few seconds I was freaked, but I kept running. Once I realized these, whatever the hell they were, flying bugs were harmless and not biting me, it was easy to just keep my stride. They were everywhere and seemed to fly no higher than thigh high. I continued to run, they continued to slam into my legs with their soft little winged bodies as I kicked forward with every step. I suddenly began to laugh out loud when I realized I had actually somehow entered a bug marathon without even realizing it. I ran and there were always a few of them just ahead of me giving me something to chase, some to the side of me and still more behind me. I picked up my speed and returned into the woods to carry on with my run.

Unfortunately, a portion of this 5k route is on actual paved road in the blistering sun. Gawd, I don’t know how people run asphalt in the summertime. It’s unbearable. I stepped out of the shaded woods and bam the sun started beating down on me. I must have looked like a lost vampire forgetting what time of day it was and raised the back of my hand up to my eyes like any moment I could melt like the wicked witch of the west. Aggghh...who turned on the light. Turn it off!!! I finished my run up and got back to the car to change only to find out that one of those winged fellows didn’t fare so well. There he was, dead on my sock in between that and my shoe tongue. I felt terrible for killing him that way. So, I flicked him into the parking lot and carried on with my business. Hey, he was dead already, it’s not like I could save him with CPR or anything. Sheesh.

I was a little disappointed with my final finishing time though. It took me 5 minutes longer to do the same route I raced nearly 3 months ago. How on earth am I a stronger, more efficient runner now and it’s taking me longer to finish the same dang route I raced in May by 5 whole minutes? Makes NO sense. But, running with those bugs was a strange kind of joy. I still don’t know what they were except, they had yellow bodies, wings, were about the size of a moth and didn’t bite. Oh and apparently, they can’t take a kick.

As if bug girl hadn’t had enough with that incident. I had a second encounter on Saturday with yet another form of nature while visiting my brother. My sister-in-law and I went out to the supermarket to get a few things. We pull into the driveway and there my brother and my husband are with something hanging off a stick doing their obligatory macho guy analyzing thing. So we hop out of the truck and go over to see what all the ruckus is about. Evidently, my beagle found something under the deck and was barking up a storm in his best, “come and look at what I’ve found” voice. When they went to see what he was all excited about, they found a copperhead snake. Cellphone pic is a bit blurry, but here's a better one. With a big bloated belly because he most likely ingested something like an innocent frog not much earlier. So my brother, who apparently has seen one too many episodes of the Croc Hunter, decides to pick it up like he’s seen on tv. He grabbed it real close behind the neck and then got a stick to let him hang onto. As he sat there holding him, the snake ejected all his venom onto the stick and I got to get a real up close and personal view of his teeth and the tiny razor sharp retractable fangs that are the actual source of his venomous bite. This was better than the Discovery channel. Living in the country IS fun. He also wanted me to get a good look at his triangular shaped head so I can tell the difference between a snake that is harmless and one that is poisonous. My brother knows I spend a lot of time in the woods so he thought this was a lesson I really could use unlike the useless ones he taught me growing up. You know like “hey Laura , want to play 52 pick up?” and then he would throw a deck of cards all over the floor and tell me now I have to pick them up. I didn’t think that was much of a game, but he laughed hysterically, so I guess it must be fun somewhere in the world.

Anyway, the rest of the riveting snake conversation was basically my brother and his wife deciding the best way to “dispose” of the offending snake. He suggested cutting its head off. She, being a budding taxidermist, wanted to preserve it for her portfolio and protested saying that a stuffed copperhead that’s missing his head isn’t going to look very menacing. I had to agree. I mean really, you take the head off something and it sort of loses all ability to invoke fear. She had a point. So my husband and my brother hatched another plan. I don’t want to go into details but it involved a broken snake neck and him then being frozen in a bucket of water. The snake, not my husband. So in a week or so, they are either going to have a really nicely preserved specimen for my sis in law to stuff or a really pissed off reptile living in some cryogenic nightmare only to wake up the same age he was a week ago. Unfortunately, as my hubby was helping him with the “disposal” process, he accidentally picked up the stick by the end where the snake had spewed his venom all over and got it on his hand. Needless to say, we spent the next 20 minutes surfing the web trying to determine if the venom itself really is poisonous on the skin or if it has to actually penetrate into the bloodstream to cause harm. Thankfully, it must enter through a bite to do damage, but it’s best not to take chances I say.

Well, that’s all for now folks....I will try to kick my caffeine habit so I can be a more regular contributor to the blogging foray. But, don’t worry, even if I am not writing or commenting, I promise you I am reading. I am always reading....Muhahahaha.