2025, home, Movies, pets, State Fair

Why Bother with a Pillow?

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When I went to bed the night before Opening Day (do I need to say, of State Fair?), I was ready! 

I had the alarm set for 5:40; I wanted to have enough time to do my leg exercises before we left for the fair.  We normally get home around dinner time and I didn’t figure I would do both sets of exercises at night. 

The turtle bag was packed – everything on the packing list crossed off – cash, coupon booklets, tickets, Tylenol, bandaids, wipes, container for cookies, fan, hat:

Packed and ready to go

I went to bed a smidge earlier than normal, but not too much.  I pet the cat and then snuggled down.  That’s when the trouble started.

Apparently several episodes of Death in Paradise was a bit much for evening viewing.  Woke up from a weird intense dream of bodies floating in the Caribbean.  Dozing off again did not come easily and I ended up turning on “To Catch a Thief”.  Then woke up to the dog whining at 1 a.m. – one of the smoke alarms was squeaking.  Took a few minutes to figure out if it was my room or the hallway and then we had to dig out batteries.  Dozing off again did not come easily.  Ended up reciting A is for antelope, B is for baboon, C is for capybara…. got all the way to the end of the alphabet – twice.    Woke up at 2:30 to make a trip to the bathroom.  This time I ended up turning on Murder on the Orient Express.  At 5:15 I rolled over and when I looked at the time, I just gave it up.  Plenty of time to do my exercises, pick up a bit, feed the critters, water the bales. 

I can’t recall the last time I had such a rough night.  Obviously opening day was clearly keeping me a little over-wired!  Luckily it didn’t keep me from enjoying my first day at the fair and I slept exceedingly well that night.  But I do wonder if I need an updated “go back to sleep” routine?

Why couldn’t Goldilocks sleep?

47 thoughts on “Why Bother with a Pillow?”

  1. Well, if I’m Goldilocks, it’s because I spent the entire day down a rabbit hole of lost passwords – and I needed them. I had a list of passwords on a spreadsheet for many years. I woke up yesterday to find it gone. Hundreds of passwords for everything in my life that has needed a password since we started losing them.

    Then, brilliantly, I decided to change my password for my bank account. I ended up getting locked out because I hadn’t used the right old password in order to create a new one.

    I did sleep okay though. I got up this morning, did everything correctly, got the bank password changed, then completed some signing steps for my new mortgage. Today I will go and wire the down payment for my new home. Closing is Thursday.

    I hope I don’t EVER have to go through this again.

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    1. Oh, Krista, that is so hard. I discovered the same thing about Lou’s passwords, and because so much was lost, including an old email account that was needed to reset the passwords, I had to start over in his stead. I thought I would lose my mind to frustration. But now I have a system in place for him. But who knows what he lost in the ethernet world.

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      1. I’m better today. I’m getting things put back together. I’m rebuilding my password spreadsheet and updating the app that is in my phone. Many of those were out of date.

        Right now I’m going to the bank to make a HUUUUGE down payment. Bye-bye savings…

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  2. Rise After a Restful Night’s Sleep, Baboons,

    I see all kinds of problems with Goldilock’s sleep, and her behavior! First of all she is running around unsupervised in the woods which has a family of bears in it. She is supposed to be doing an errand for her mother, but instead she is peaking in the windows of the three bears’ home. She intrudes on their house, eats their food, then wants a nap and crawls into the bed of a stranger. This is all very high risk behavior that probably does interfere with sleep. And then think about the risk of fleas, ticks, and parasites on a wild animal’s fur, AND SHE IS LAYING IN HIS BED. That alone causes sleeplessness for me and it makes me itch.

    This darn kid is just unmanagable….

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      1. I expanded on this but lost it. About my autistic grandson struggling in school with being asked to empathize with characters and seeing all stories as just more fantasy.

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  4. Most of my nights for the past two months have been like the one you had, VS. My anxieties all stem from moving, buying a home, and selling a home. However, last night I slept great, as we got two offers on our ND house yesterday and we close today on our MN house.

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  6. goldilocks slept like a rock
    have you tried relaxing your head on top then your eyebrows cheekbones jaw working your way down ? i seldom make it all rhe way down before im lost in space

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    1. I have tried this… my brain tends to run off in other directions. The list of alphabet animals usually works well. As does reciting the opening monologue from the movie Laura.

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  8. My pillow has become critical. If I don’t have the thickness exactly right, these days about 1.5 inches, I wake up with terrible balance for the first hour or so.
    Clyde

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  9. I slept terrible last night. Too much sleep over the weekend I guess.

    I returned some books to the public library today. Daughter had 4 things to be returned. The lady ahead of me had a wagon, with two cloth bags, and she must have returned 75 books! I waited 5 minutes, and she was returning books before I even got in line. What could she possibly be doing with that many books?? And I waited in line one other day with her — or someone just like her– that returned a whole pile of books. WHAT COULD THEY BE DOING WITH THAT MANY BOOKS???

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    1. Were these kids’ picture books?? If so, she might be a kindergarten teacher. : ) I remember checking out a couple dozen regularly, but I don’t think it ever approached 75…

      If they’re adult books (with chapters), she just tale them to some community where people can’t get out on their own. ?

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    2. My wife had adult patrons who lived up in the woods who check out that many books. Wife getting a bunch for her ? Why the lot just being handed over and the user walking away?

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    3. During Covid, for several months you could check out books (they put them on a cart outside the library) but they weren’t taking them back. I had close to fifty when they started taking them back… my librarian friend told me not to bring them all back at once.

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    1. my mom lives in an elderly peoples unit with 500 apartments . they have library day and soneone takes them back and a new stack either by request or a couple stacks fir folks just to sift through
      maybe 75ish in number

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  11. Congratulations, Renee! Silly question: Are you going to have to change your TB handle?

    Not surprised VS Goldilocks couldn’t sleep after the smoke alarm business. That would have left me wide awake and unable to sleep.

    I slept pretty well last night, but that’s often not the case. The main reason for not sleeping is our kitten, who hits peak playtime mode in the middle of the night. I often wake up to a strange crashing sound somewhere in the house or kitty sitting on my pillow pulling my hair to rouse me.

    I also just wake up and start worrying–there’s never a lack of things to worry about. Word games or listening to ocean sounds sometimes helps.

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