This Week In Sleep
Sunday night, I was so exhausted, that I went to bed at 1am for the first time in months. I slept in until about 10am, stayed in bed until 12, and felt refreshed. Good start to the week.
At 3:55pm, I mount up on my bike, and make the short trip to work. I'm a little late. Right before I got to the corner, I noticed a bit of traffic in the bike lane, so I decided to cut across the CPK "ASAP" to make the right turn. Now, I've done this dozens of times, and everytime I cross to the sidewalk, I am aware of the uneven lip where they built a new driveway for said pizza kitchen. I always take it very carefully, making sure to get the angle closer to 90 degrees, than parallel. For whatever reason, that day I didn't quite hit the angle.
Next thing I know, my bike is not under me anymore, but on the ground. I am flying chest-first towards the sidewalk. I have not fallen off my bike in over a decade, maybe longer--it was so long ago, I don't even remember it happening. So I have no idea how good I am at falling.
My right knee and left hand got the brunt of the fall, which was more like a chest skid across the cement. I immediately turned to a sitting position, and made sure there were no cars about to hit me. Somehow, I came out of this virtually unscathed. I had little scuffs on my palms, and a little black dirt in a small blood-red pit in my left palm. My knee felt swollen and wet, but was only bruised. I got up, brushed myself off, didn't find ANY dirt or tears on my shirt or pants, got my bike up, it was fine, and continued to work, a little shaken.
I felt pretty confident when I got to work. No real pain, just a little sweaty from the adrenaline. And the pebble in my palm, of course. I washed my hands, felt a little sting, but decided to get to business.
Five minutes later, I consulted with my co-worker, and he said I should get it patched up at the Nurses office, since I didn't have a bandage myself. It's free. I thought it would be fun, so I went. And it was fun, in a sort of dorky "mommy kiss my booboo better" sort of way.
Back in the office, I started to feel a little woozy, but I attributed it to my mild trauma and adrenaline rush. By the end of the night, I have decided that I'm coming down with something. Maybe a cold, maybe a fever. I bike home in an unexpected and therefore fairly unprotected rain shower. I go to bed at 4am.
Then, at approximately 8:37:28 (give or take a second) in the morning, I hear this.
Now, sometimes the dumb neighbors get picked up by their dumb friends in big dumb pickup trucks in the dumb morning. And instead of being polite and knocking on their friend's dumb door, or calling on thier dumb cell phone, they honk. Often multiple times. This bothers me, but I've come to accept the dumbness and can usually mostly sleep through it.
But this, this was different.
*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* *SNORT*
This is a broken horn. why isn't anyone fixing it? Maybe they are? Maybe they aren't home. Maybe...it's MY car. Nonsense. My battery couldn't maintain that loud of a honk for that long without wavering in pitch...
Uh oh. So I get up, half-sleepingly put on a trenchcoat to cover my bedclothes, hobble down the stairs, put on sandals and peep my head out the door. It's someone else's car and there are two guys working on it with the hood up. Good. I go back inside. Maybe they'll pull the battery leads and try to figure it out in peace.
Oh man. I am so sleepy right now. I can barely think. I can barely stand. I have a sore throat and a snuffly nose. My eyes are staring at vibrating focusless walls. I know I can't go back to sleep until this is over. *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* I go outside and walk towards them, maintaining some distance from the racket.
"Hi," they say to me.
"Hi..."
"He's got a broken horn."
"--yeah."
I am utterly stunned. I cannot say anything else. I rotate and slink back into my apartment. There's nothing (legal) I can do to get them to stop, or that I have the mental capacity to implement. I take some pills. I go to the bathroom. I check my email. I stay up for half-an-hour; it's over, they won. I will have a miserable day.
Then they drive away, with horn babbling randomly down the street. Time to sleep.
I called in sick to work today for the first time in months. There was no way. Just no way.
At 3:55pm, I mount up on my bike, and make the short trip to work. I'm a little late. Right before I got to the corner, I noticed a bit of traffic in the bike lane, so I decided to cut across the CPK "ASAP" to make the right turn. Now, I've done this dozens of times, and everytime I cross to the sidewalk, I am aware of the uneven lip where they built a new driveway for said pizza kitchen. I always take it very carefully, making sure to get the angle closer to 90 degrees, than parallel. For whatever reason, that day I didn't quite hit the angle.
Next thing I know, my bike is not under me anymore, but on the ground. I am flying chest-first towards the sidewalk. I have not fallen off my bike in over a decade, maybe longer--it was so long ago, I don't even remember it happening. So I have no idea how good I am at falling.
My right knee and left hand got the brunt of the fall, which was more like a chest skid across the cement. I immediately turned to a sitting position, and made sure there were no cars about to hit me. Somehow, I came out of this virtually unscathed. I had little scuffs on my palms, and a little black dirt in a small blood-red pit in my left palm. My knee felt swollen and wet, but was only bruised. I got up, brushed myself off, didn't find ANY dirt or tears on my shirt or pants, got my bike up, it was fine, and continued to work, a little shaken.
I felt pretty confident when I got to work. No real pain, just a little sweaty from the adrenaline. And the pebble in my palm, of course. I washed my hands, felt a little sting, but decided to get to business.
Five minutes later, I consulted with my co-worker, and he said I should get it patched up at the Nurses office, since I didn't have a bandage myself. It's free. I thought it would be fun, so I went. And it was fun, in a sort of dorky "mommy kiss my booboo better" sort of way.
Back in the office, I started to feel a little woozy, but I attributed it to my mild trauma and adrenaline rush. By the end of the night, I have decided that I'm coming down with something. Maybe a cold, maybe a fever. I bike home in an unexpected and therefore fairly unprotected rain shower. I go to bed at 4am.
Then, at approximately 8:37:28 (give or take a second) in the morning, I hear this.
Now, sometimes the dumb neighbors get picked up by their dumb friends in big dumb pickup trucks in the dumb morning. And instead of being polite and knocking on their friend's dumb door, or calling on thier dumb cell phone, they honk. Often multiple times. This bothers me, but I've come to accept the dumbness and can usually mostly sleep through it.
But this, this was different.
*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* *SNORT*
This is a broken horn. why isn't anyone fixing it? Maybe they are? Maybe they aren't home. Maybe...it's MY car. Nonsense. My battery couldn't maintain that loud of a honk for that long without wavering in pitch...
Uh oh. So I get up, half-sleepingly put on a trenchcoat to cover my bedclothes, hobble down the stairs, put on sandals and peep my head out the door. It's someone else's car and there are two guys working on it with the hood up. Good. I go back inside. Maybe they'll pull the battery leads and try to figure it out in peace.
Oh man. I am so sleepy right now. I can barely think. I can barely stand. I have a sore throat and a snuffly nose. My eyes are staring at vibrating focusless walls. I know I can't go back to sleep until this is over. *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* I go outside and walk towards them, maintaining some distance from the racket.
"Hi," they say to me.
"Hi..."
"He's got a broken horn."
"--yeah."
I am utterly stunned. I cannot say anything else. I rotate and slink back into my apartment. There's nothing (legal) I can do to get them to stop, or that I have the mental capacity to implement. I take some pills. I go to the bathroom. I check my email. I stay up for half-an-hour; it's over, they won. I will have a miserable day.
Then they drive away, with horn babbling randomly down the street. Time to sleep.
I called in sick to work today for the first time in months. There was no way. Just no way.
posted by dandan at 2/27/2007 06:28:00 PM
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