Eat bowl of cereal (high-fiber cereal with fat-free and lactose-free milk) while perusing the web on the PC, including The Dope.
Drink one or two cups of coffee.
Lay down on couch w/ cellphone.
Go to the bathroom (major transaction). This occurs like clockwork at around 6 AM.
Shower, brush & floss teeth, etc.
Get dressed.
Drive to work, which takes around 38 minutes.
At least that’s the routine since I started a new job a couple years ago. At my previous job, I would use an electric shaver to shave while drinking the coffee and perusing the web on the PC. Hated that. When I started my new job, I said F-it, and I now only shave every couple of weeks.
In my early 20s, I was a truck driver and away from home three or four nights a week. Wet shaving was a pain, so I invested in an electric shaver. You had to plug them in back then, so it meant being tethered to the bathroom sink for the duration. They didn’t do a great job either, so I had to do it twice a day if I wanted to go out.
The simple solution was to stop shaving, and I’ve had facial hair ever since.
Let’s backtrack. I aspire to get to bed by 1.30. It rarely happens - more likely 2.00 or 2.30.
I aspire to get up by 8.30. I have heard stories that there are times in the morning that begin with a “S” but I don’t believe it. If I fail badly at the 8.30 thing the wife will gleefully wake me when she gets back from swimming - around 9.10. I usually avoid that.
Coffee, granola, yogurt, toast, whatever has just passed its use by date. In small quantities. Most days it’s straight into cycling gear. Someone said “Major transaction” upthread. That has to happen before a three hour bike ride ( most days). Then I make lunch. Never with enough time to shower first. Such is life.
I cannot sleep for more than 3 hours in a row. So I get up and take a quick tour of the house maybe a pee, but that isn’t what wakes me up. When I go back to bed I will sleep another 3 hours. That is my night. Two 3 hour sleeps spaced apart.
When I retired I imagined that I could sleep whenever I wanted for as long as I wanted, I could sleep all day! That is a big Nope.
I feel your pain. Between benign prostate hyperplasia and a closed loop insulin infusion system that almost works, I sleep in 1 hour increments. Max out at 5-6 hours per night. I believe this accounts for my lethargy and cranky disposition. Although those may just be my natural personality.
Get up, go to the bathroom, turn on the news radio station (there’s a little clock radio in the bathroom), and check my email and messages while doing morning ablutions and taking meds. Then, head downstairs, make coffee and breakfast.
Same here…but recently I discovered that, if I ignore the urge to pee upon waking, I can fall back asleep for another 45 minutes or so (and then get up and pee and get going with the day) – whereas, if I get up and pee when I first awake, the act of going to the bathroom wakes me up too much, and I rarely can fall back asleep again for those precious extra 45 minutes.
I hear ya. Retired but busier than ever. It’s rare that I don’t have somthing going on. Today it was mowing grass. And I sort of have a bumb knee from a bicycle fall 10 days ago. I hit hard. Bruised ribs too. That’s not fun.
I still get up at 4am. I love it when I can stay asleep untill 5 am.
Yeah, I’ve been retired for years and I just sort of thought I could get up, make myself a cup of coffee, and sit on the deck watching the sunrise. Nope. Let the dogs out of their crate and outside, feed the dogs (two separate diets), unload the dishwasher, fill the coffee-maker, wash the dogs’ dishes, clean the robot vac of overnight dust and fur, start the day’s laundry, dress, etc. It’s actually pretty comparable to getting up and getting kids out the door to school. The only blessing is that I don’t eat an early breakfast and I don’t shower in the morning.
My wife gets up about 9:00 AM. She’s a good planner.
I usually come full awake around 5:30. There’s some hazy period before that of almost awake, but not sure of the length.
Normally head to the head, then my dog follows me downstairs. Wife remains slumbering for a few more hours.
Then I work on my journal for a while, then the Dope, then other interesting web stuff (reddit, etc.) while working through a few cups of coffee.
Then cook breakfast, usually some version of eggs/tortilla/salsa, and out the door with the aforementioned dog for her morning walk.
Until last month, the very first step was peeling the CPAP gear off my face, and heading for the bathroom – secure in the knowledge the machine would notice I wasn’t attached anymore and shut itself off. Modern machines can detect when the user is “connected” and start/stop themselves accordingly.
But… My new one has telemetry and tattles to the CPAP Industrial Complex about my sleep habits. And apparently it interprets the sudden removal of the user as a Major Mask Leak and sends an alarm. I didn’t realize this until I started getting phone calls from “sleep coaches” offering to help train me in such complex processes as using velcro straps.
So now I have to fumble around in the dark for the shut-off button to avoid the tattle-tale and phone calls.
I had no idea that Sleep Coaches were a thing. I wonder what else we have coaches for now?
I sleep like a log. I go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 6 without an alarm clock. Sometimes half an hour earlier. It’s been like this since I was 6 or younger.
I go for a walk around my neighborhood (about 3 miles). It’s a power walk, so it takes me between 30 and 45 minutes. It’s a relatively busy environment. Buses and trams run up and down the boulevard regularly. Many of the people I come across with on the sidewalk are neighbors taking their dogs for a morning walk. It’s amazing how many fellow citizens go to work or start their workday at 6.
My wife wakes up at 7. We spend an hour together in the kitchen, preparing breakfast, eating, and talking while we’re listening to jazz. She leaves for the office at 8:30 and I take a second walk around the neighborhood. This time it only takes 30 minutes.
I begin my workday after having a quick shower. Every other day I wash my equipment (by hand) too.
