Cyber Pen Pals - That's What My Blog Is All About

The days are shorter and the nights are cooler. That makes for great sleeping weather so for the past few days, I've actually slept until awakened by my alarm. Of course, I'm writing this at 3:50 am, so quite obviously my alarm is set just a bit earlier than that of most of my readers. I am VERY much an early morning person. 

Dawn is coming later now that we're nearing the end of the year. Here's
a lovely shot of dawn over the Mississippi River near Le Claire, south
of the Twin Cities. So beautiful! 

There are plenty of times, however, when I would rather re-set my alarm and go back to sleep for another hour or two. I know I'd regret it though. I know I'd miss my morning swim, that I'd be off-schedule for the day, and that everything would just feel wrong throughout the day. It's not worth it to me. I make sure I get around 5-1/2 to 6 hours of sleep most nights, and that's enough. I also indulge and allow myself to sleep in most Sundays, sometimes getting as much as twelve hours of sleep overnight. That's a luxury, but again ... not one I want to do always. If I slept in all of the time, I'd feel I was missing out on too much life. 

When I sleep too much, I feel off kilter, like these rather amazing
and fun houses on Ganghwa Island, Korea. Aren't they fun? I
don't know that I'd want to live inside them, though. I'd always
feel a bit off, even though the interiors may be level floors with
straight and upright walls. 

It's silly, I know, to feel that I have to be awake to experience what life has to offer me. I sit in front of my computer, write my blog, catch up with my emails, stay in touch with friends, read fan fiction, look at things to buy, and generally allow my mind to wander far past the four walls of my computer room. I allow my mind to do waking dreams, in essence. I imagine the area where friends live, the projects, people or pets they are involved with, and the varied interest that they share. It's not actually going to visit my friends, but it's the next best thing. It's cyber-pen pals through their posts, stories, photos and updates. 

The great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 hit on March 27th. It was
magnitude 9.2 on the Richter Scale and was followed by several
tsunamis. Here's a photo of 4th street, the main street of
Anchorage, after the quake. Lives lost - 139. It was front
page news throughout the US, and devastating for one of
our newest states (Alaska became a state in 1959). 

Did any of you have pen pals as you grew up? I had a few, although I wasn't really good at writing regularly and none of them lasted more than a few exchanges of letters. I didn't have a typewriter, and certainly didn't have a computer - a dream far in the future. I couldn't manage to stay in touch for long because life got in the way. I do remember I had a pen pal in Anchorage, Alaska during the 1964 earthquake that March. Although my friend survived, they were impacted, of course, and when the school year ended two months later, we stopped writing to each other. 

I don't get a lot of chance to do things that are just for myself. Writing
in my daily blog is one of those rare times. I have the chance to wake
up my brain in my own time, but have a specific schedule and time
frame to stick to. It makes me write quickly and much more flow
of consciousness than I would otherwise. 

Somehow I do manage to blog every day. Well, to be honest, it's not EVERY day. I don't blog on Sundays, I don't blog when I'm out of town or when I'm entertaining Sharon for her annual visit to the State Fair. As I look back, however, I'm now fast approaching 3000 blog posts, so I guess I've made daily blogging a habit for myself. It's my way of waking my brain, writing just a little bit, and shaking the fuzzies out of my thoughts. If you're a reader, I appreciate you. You're a cyber pen-pal of mine and a friend. Maybe we can meet some day, if we haven't already. I'd really like that! 

Thanks for being a reader of my blog. I really appreciate having
you to reach out to every morning. It means a lot to me. 

Have a wonderful Friday. I'm off to the pool, of course. It's not that I enjoy exercising every day so much, it's that I really do love swimming. The results from my daily swim are pretty good too - better physical condition, and the ability to cruise through my backlogged library of audio books while swimming. A total win-win. I'll be back tomorrow, so be good and enjoy your day.