Not Ready For Action

I am beat, absolutely bushed. IT's already 4:30 PM here in Waterloo, Ontario. My day started at 9:00 AM although I did manage to beg for another half our of sleep from Dan. We were expected at the church by 11:00 AM. Dan wanted to have breakfast and he wanted to be sure I was up and about. I understand his concern; I had been up until about 3:30 AM the night before and there was certainly no guarantee that I would get going all on my own.

If you do the math on sleep and wake-up, you will find that I got about 6 1/2 hours of sleep last night, about half of my daily average. All day today I have been sluggish, slow to go and quick to stop. Even my typing right now is slower than normal. As a healthier man, or perhaps just a younger man, I could easily handle a busy day after a short night. No more. Now I need that 12 hours or so of rest each night if I plan on functioning effectively the next day.

The day itself was busy enough that a nap was a near impossibility. I did manage to sneak away from the luncheon; fortunately it was being hosted at the hotel where we are staying right now. I headed up to my room to use the washroom and thought to myself "Sure, just climb into bed and have a nap." Unfortunately the lack of sleep has affected my strength and when the time came, my arms were too weak to lift me up to the high mattress, the pillow top kind that is high enough where I can only get in if I work hard at it. I am too tired to work hard, so I just went back to the reception.

Now that it is over, Dan is here in the room too. He will help me get into bed, something others have had to help me with when traveling. It's part of the deal these days; I simply cannot do everything for myself any longer. There are a few things like that when I travel, like wanting a push rather than pushing myself, or asking others to carry my luggage. I am getting weaker; it is becoming more obvious and is impacting me more significantly.

Fortunately through all of this I have my friends, those who stand beside me, walk beside me, push me in front of them, as I make my way through this journey. I just can't do some of this stuff alone anymore. I'll go to bed early tonight. I suspect I will sleep about 16 hours or so. Then tomorrow will come and I will be ready for action once again.