Hibernation In Progress

I hear the muffled sound of a very loud, and irritating horn-beeping in the distance – bonk, bonk, bonk – I attempt to slide my eyes to an open position, but the deafening bonking noise that will not seem to stop, makes me squint and frown all at the same time, and all I can see is darkness. But wait. It’s not a horn. It’s my alarm clock – but why is it going off at 4am? Because I get up at 7:30 every morning and it should not be black as the night at 7:30am.

I am one of the few that LOVES when Daylight Saving Time is over. Let me repeat, I LOVE IT.  I’ve already told you all of the reasons why before – PJ’s at 5:30 in the afternoon is acceptable, no week-day socializing after-dark is expected, and burrowing-up in my recliner and doing absolutely nothing outside after 6pm is not frowned upon as lazy or non-active. BUT, the biggest gift of all is that whole sixty minutes we re-gain that can be spent gloriously sleeping!

However, there is about three weeks before it happens in the fall that the mornings become atrociously dark and therefore difficult to rise-and-shine with my regular motivation. Seriously, who in the heck can get out of bed (because you obviously should still be SLEEPING) when you can’t see your hand in front of your face?

I’m an old fashioned bear: it must be daylight when I am asked to function and be nice, and it must be dark when I am expected to lie down and be quiet. And as the week progresses, each day that passes, the shine is wearing off the sociable-side of my personality, and I find more excuses than not, to just lie there and not get-up when the alarm goes off.

But last night, we finally got that hour back that was stolen last spring.  I woke-up to daylight instead of darkness this morning and with an energy I hadn’t felt in weeks. The Halloween flags and mailbox covers came down, the pumpkins and scarecrow couple lost their post in the swing out front, and all were replaced with welcoming turkey flags and cornucopia covers. My beautiful beaded-pumpkin-table-runner has been laid out on the dining room table, and all the salt & pepper shakers are now seasonally adjusted as well.

The holiday train is at the top of the track and about to begin it’s out-of-control journey with its lightening-like-speed, another thirty days will be gone before we know it, and we’ll all be talking about pies, baking turkey’s and giving thanks.

But until then, we will be waking to daylight, leaving work at possible sunset or nightfall, cranking-up heaters, putting a match to the pilot lights, chopping and gathering wood for the fireplaces, bagging-up our summer clothes and washing-up our warmer winter clothing. 

We’ll all be taking a body break soon – catching-up on our reading, snuggling in blankets, dragging out hot chocolate and vegetable soup recipes, and taking a due rest. We’re off to winter folks, wrap-up and hang on!