Today was a great day for a trip.

Going

We left bright-and-early, with plenty of light in the sky but plenty of sleep in my eyes. For whatever reason, I haven’t been sleeping – and not because I haven’t been able to. I’ve decided to make myself busy (with this, with grading, with whatever). Then, I go to sleep, and then, I wake up when I need to.

Under such a strategy, I’ve averaged 3.5 hours of sleep over the past two nights (with a consistent 3.5 hours each night, too), and I’ve felt none the worse for it. Oh, the sweet relaxation of finishing a semester?? I’m not sure.

Oh, the sweet relaxation of finishing a semester?? I’m not sure.

To be fair, I slept some in the car today. Perhaps 2 hours total, snatched in bits and pieces – about 45 minutes there, and two 30-minutes back. I, however, ascribe this less to true sleepiness and more to the monotony of rolling through a tree-lined highway, and to the fact that I’ve already read the books I brought to read. Nothing can put me to sleep like Plato’s Republic, but these familiar reads did the trick, too (albeit with less suffering on the part of yours). Also, I do seem to sleep in cars when, were I not in a car, I would remain awake.

Returning

The sleep of returning is wrapped up in the discussion above. To summarize: I slept some, but I missed little.

We took a scenic route on the latter part of the journey, which was quite scenic and quite traffic free. Although slower, my verdict is that what we lost in time we made up for in fun. I have not been 30 miles clear of the old Mason-and-Dixon since March of last year – an effect of the pandemic and its remote everything. I was more than happy to follow these restrictions, but it was fun to be back. New York City was much taller than I remember and, I think, much taller than it was, thanks to its residential skyscraper boom.

Back to the journey back: the sights were fun, the weather was great, and the traffic was minimal. The only complaint: one member of my party’s attempt at a vegetarian dinner ended with a hamburger roll, a leaf of lettuce, three pieces of a pepper, and some slices of tomato.

This might sometimes be enough for a snack but, lacking protein, made for an unfulfilling (and unfilling) dinner. Fortunately, crumb cakes and cupcakes are also vegetarian, and we bought one of each. Also fortunately, a lunch of pork buns (but not pork – actually chicken, taro, something else) and a rice cake apiece made dinner the third meal of the day for all, rather than the second or a first.

Another interesting note on dinner: The employees were not wearing masks, though they did have a plastic guard between us and the cash register. Glad to be vaxxed!

Goodnight

Well, I had better to bed. Perhaps the sleepiness is catching up to me; more importantly, though, 17 hours awake is about enough for about anyone to begin to tire. Perhaps I’ll be able to gauge my exhaustion today from the time of my wake-up tomorrow but, more likely than not, I won’t.

Addendum

I now admit that I may be a bit sleepier than usual. Before retiring, I elected to help myself to a drink. Of course, I did not want to soil a water glass with a single use, so I decided to waterfall it. Some water fell into my mouth, but too much fell onto my chin and shirt. Goodnight.