A Good Night's Sleep

There is not much in this world better than a good night's sleep. When I've had my solid eight, I can deal with global warming, nuclear holocaust, alien invasions and even the more serious disasters like the Bush Administration and the reemergence of Newt Gingrich on the political scene. Being completely rested allows me to appreciate all the gifts that nature has to give with family, friends and dogs topping the list and cigars rounding out the top ten. When sleep eludes me, an untied shoelace can be a source of major aggravation. "What the hell, how did that happen? Now I have to bend over and redo the damn thing like I've got time for that with all the other crap happening right now." I mention this because I want my legions of readers, all four of you, to know that, yes, I am an addict and if anyone tries an intervention I will stay up all night and you will be very sorry in the morning.

Tylenol PM is my drug of choice. Colored light blue to match my eyes, these heavenly sleep inducers may not quite have been made by nature, but you know, as the Dali Lama once said about something or other, "who cares?" They sit atop a little glass shelf - I like to think of it as a shrine - next to our bathroom mirror and each night, when I am awakened by the howling of our
neighbor's, the Baskervilles, dog, I tip toe quietly to our smallest room and extract one of the magic pills from its container. I then break it in two and place the smaller half back on the shelf for later in the night when, if all goes as usual, I will be reawakened by the howling of my bladder. I wash the other half down my gullet with a swig of water as that's the only available liquid in our bathroom. Any kind of booze would be preferable, but Woowoo Charly says the bottles would be unsightly on the cabinet shelves and, besides that I like to drink a glass of water every day whether I need it or not; small sips being the best way to achieve that goal. I then scurry back to the bed and resume my reveries, the good night's sleep being the best of those.

After which there are the dreams. I won't wax on them at the moment, but I will say this: Bush and Newt play no part.

Good morning world! Bring on the day!