This is the time of year where it gets really hard to continue getting up early each weekday morning to go running. Since early November, it's been pitch dark each morning when I head outside. But, I still drag myself out there, wearing my reflective vest. The vest was a gift from Kim a couple years ago. As a side note, I take it as a positive sign that she doesn't want me to get struck and killed by a car while out for my morning run.
After 3 solid months of getting up and going outside in the pitch dark, I really look forward to Saturdays and Sundays when I can wait til the sun's risen before starting out. Even on those weekend mornings, though, I rarely stay in bed past 6:30AM. I'm usually awake by 5AM. If I'm lucky, I can get myself back to sleep for a little while. But, I don't often have much luck in that area.
This morning was going to be different. I didn't go to bed til after 10:30PM. Jay had friends over, Nick was out, and the movie we were watching ("Crazy, Stupid, Love") was good enough to keep me awake for a change. So, when I climbed into bed, I told myself that I was going to stay there til 7:15AM. That way, the sun would actually be up before I was.
So, why am I sitting here typing this at 6:30AM? Well, a little before 6AM, I found myself lying awake in bed asking "Am I hearing something?" I could distinctly hear a shrill beep-beep-beep-beep. I didn't think I'd ever heard it before. The intervals between the beeps were too short to be a smoke alarm, calling out that it's battery was dying. It was too high-pitched to be the alarm on the refrigerator door saying "I'm not closed all the way."
As I lay there, I couldn't figure out what the noise was. I looked at Kim. She seemed completely undisturbed. As the heat kicked on, the beeping noise faded. That made me wonder if I hadn't heard it in the first place. But, as soon as the heat went off, there it was again.
I'd had enough. I crawled out of bed and walked into the upstairs hall. I stood there for a couple seconds. It seemed to me that the noise was coming from downstairs in the kitchen. So, down the stairs I went. No more than halfway down, I could tell that I was moving away from the noise. So, I turned around. I stood in the hall again and concentrated on the beeping noise. "I've got it," I said to myself. "It's coming from Jay's room."
Sure enough, it was Jay's alarm clock. I'd forgotten that he was sleeping in the basement with friends and he'd forgotten to turn off his alarm. So, there it was, flashing "5:54AM" at me as it continued to beep away. I stared at it for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to turn it off so that the beeping would stop. I'm proud to say that the first button I pressed made the alarm stop.
So, anyway, now it's 7:19AM. The bad news is that I've been out of bed for well over an hour. The good news is that it's light outside. Off I go.