I can’t remember the last time I had a
bed time. Still, it was the consensus of the group that certain rules and
procedures need to be followed if we are going to last a year in the store. I
have yet to find a conch for speakers to hold during our meetings. For some
reason, seashells are kind of difficult to come by in a landlocked state. Who
knew?
Still, everyone has agreed on a set
bed time. Truth be told, once you cannot watch The Colbert Report or Craig Ferguson, there is not a lot of reasons
to stay up uncomfortably late. The other side of this coin is with aluminum
foil covering most the windows, we have little sunlight in our lives. We are
still making adaptations for that.
Therefore, we have all established
that it is Lights Out at 10:00. Generally speaking, people start winding down
around 9:30 and begin to go to their respective corners. It is a nice quiet
time. Some of us are still old enough to get the joke, “Good night, John Boy.”
And that gets called out about once a week.
But people go lights out at 10:00 pm
and we do between a 6:00 and 6:30 am reveille. I really thought Kasondra would
be the one to lead this charge but Lance’s gung-ho spirit is typically the one
that gets it going. Rather than go from person to person, he likes to call out
over the intercom system to get everyone out of bed.
I know that a bedtime may seem kind of
childish to an outside observer but there is actually pretty good reasoning
behind it. Whenever Reason’s would do their wellness screening for employees,
it seems like one of the comments that most people got on their form answers
was that they needed to get more sleep.
A solid eight hours of sleep keeps you
healthy and alert. It improves your immune system – which I feel is pretty darn
solid considering there is a killer virus floating around out there. And
statistics have shown that a drowsy driver can be even more dangerous behind
the wheel than a drunk driver. I just keep thinking back to Hicks in Aliens. “I want you two patrolling the
perimeter. And stay frosty. We can’t afford to let one of those bastards in
here.”
I need everyone frosty. Mad Eye Moody
preached, “Constant vigilance!” (Maybe two movie references in a single blog
entry are too much…) Still, that is the situation we are dealing with. And you
have to stay at the top of your game at all times, especially in this hellscape
that we have been thrust into.
So if you are out there, if you are a
survivor, and if you are reading this, then get your beauty sleep. It is more
important than you realize. You can’t run on fumes forever. That gas tank does
run out. So get somewhere safe and recharge those batteries. The life you save
may be your own…
More soon.
