Tuesday, September 22, 2009

How do they know?

Lately, every time I walk into the office at work, I start sneezing. This isn't too surprising, given my tendency toward allergic reactions. I have been mostly trying to ignore it, given that every single allergy medicine does two things (1) stop working if you use it too often and (2) fuck you up somehow. So, I ask myself, can I possibly get anything done if I don't take something? If I'm not sneezing constantly and dripping copious amounts of mucous on everything, like some kind of particularly off-putting movie monster, then I prefer to just struggle through. Last Wednesday, though, was movie monster day so I dipped into my arsenal of pills. Yay! My face stopped swelling! Boo! I ended up with insomnia, completely unable to sleep until 5:30 am. And then, not sleep well. At least I work second shift, right? So I don't have to be up until late morning.

Except that Thursday morning, at 8:10 am, I was then awoken by the unwelcome sound of a woodchipper being fed the tremendous pile of dead trees and branches they pile up across the street. It shook through the walls. It vibrated the floor. It screamed through my bones. I put in ear plugs. I moved into a different, further room. I put my head right next to the high velocity fan over which I can't ever hear the TV.

There was no salvation.

It only lasted 40 minutes, and then they were gone and the world was quiet again.

Not that that helped me any, because I still had insomnia and couldn't return to sleep easily. It isn't like this is the first time, either. And every single time, it is always after a night I spent struggling to get any sleep at all. Why? Why? Why do work crews do this? Why must they do the noisiest activity of their day first thing? Why can't they at least wait until nine? And how is it that they manage to do this only when I haven't slept?

Grrrrr. Visions of Fargo danced in my head.

5 comments:

FridaWrites said...

Yes, the amount of neighborhood noise is always inversely proportional to the amount of sleep one's had. :) Early morning trash trucks emptying for a large apt. complex and lawnmowers that went on forever were the bane of my sleep- deprived existence in college. And some people's clanky windchimes.

yanub said...

As my daughter says, morning people are evil.

We have relatively new neighbors who are also night people. They sit on their porch into the wee hours and chat in low voices respectful of the night. I like that, actually. It's soothing to me to hear human voices engaged in peaceful conversation.

yanub said...

As my daughter says, morning people are evil.

We have relatively new neighbors who are also night people. They sit on their porch into the wee hours and chat in low voices respectful of the night. I like that, actually. It's soothing to me to hear human voices engaged in peaceful conversation.

Full Tilt said...

I hope you were finally able to catch up on your sleep...Can you speak to those with the woodchipper and ask for a later start time?

yanub said...

FT, I do need to do that still. Thanks for the reminder.