Yesterday was a “stay in your jammies” kind of day.

I knew we were having crummy weather with no chance for a walk, so I didn’t even set the alarm clock Saturday night, which is very unusual for me.  I thought I’d see what time I’d wake up on my own, plus we got that extra hour of sleep.  I was reading an interesting article on sleep deprivation the other day and was amazed at how many hours of sleep your body REALLY needs, as opposed to how many hours of sleep you THINK you need.  In fact, the author provided a calculator to check out the hours of sleep you require, and I think you will be surprised:  http://sleepyti.me/

The article suggested that adults ages 18 to 64 are supposed to be getting nine hours of sleep per night, and, if you’re getting only seven hours of sleep, it can cause serious sleep deprivation.  That really surprised me.

Well, no sleep deprivation issues for me, yesterday anyway, because I nearly slept the clock around!  It must have been my comfy PJs that I was wearing – they’re the cat’s pajamas!

Thankfully, that extra hour of sleep gave us plenty of time to turn back all the clocks.  It is a year since the guts sprang out of the kitchen schoolhouse clock, rendering it silent instead of striking out the hour and half-hour with Westminster chimes.  I was merely replacing the C battery when I went to adjust the hands back an hour, and the chimes mechanism broke.  This year the wind-up alarm clock I use in case the battery goes on the regular alarm clock, went kaput.  It has never worked properly since Day One, and you needed to wind it up twice a day or it conked out and stopped working.  Well, once again it had stopped, so yesterday, I wound it up like usual, but this time it died.  It just stopped ticking (obviously it is not a Timex).  My grandmother had a Big Ben wind-up alarm clock on the nightstand next to her bed for decades.  Whenever we visited, I always slept with her and I can remember her winding it every night before she turned in.  That clock was so loud … tick-tock, tick-tock all night and it drove me crazy, even though I’ve always been a sound sleeper.  I left this wind-up clock in another room because it, too, was loud.  But, this clock was an off-brand and I was so fed up with it, that I tossed it into the garbage, only to have it start ticking again.  Hmmm – well, hopefully it doesn’t resume ticking and the garbage man thinks there is a bomb inside the garbage bag and the police show up at the door.

So, I ask you – why is nothing easy anymore?

This morning, I was all geared up for a long walk thanks to the time change, but … I stepped outside for my walk and noticed the huge black clouds that loomed overhead.   The clouds were so low, it felt like I could reach up and touch them.  I hesitated on my departure, thinking it looked like a serious storm was brewing, more than just a splash-and-dash event needing an umbrella.  Of course it was the first day after the time change and I had my sights set on getting five miles walked every morning going forward, weather permitting.  I went back into the house, piddled around with a few things and went back out a half-hour later.  Well, the sky had lightened up a tad, so off I went.  By the time I got to Council Point Park, the sky was blue, so I was glad I didn’t stay inside the house.

It was cold on the trail and the breeze was blowing along, especially in the wide-open spaces – brrr!  I was thankful I added some extra layers and have decided that we have probably seen the last of those mild days we so enjoyed throughout most of October.

The trees are really beautiful at the Park and I should have taken some more pictures of them in their glory, because once a big wind comes along, those pretty leaves will be scattered everywhere, like those that I, and the other walkers, scuffed through as we walked along this morning.  The leaves from maples mingling with pear and apple tree leaves, as well as various bushes that appear along the perimeter path already are littering the trail.

And, there was something new skittering across that asphalt path – burrs.  They were everywhere, because no doubt the wind caused them to break off the tall and now-lifeless weeds that line the edge of the Ecorse Creek.  In fact, I remember taking pictures and writing about the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly earlier this year, as its delicate feet alighted ever so gently on a large burr:  https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/07/24/summer-is-fluttering-on-by/

Well, those dead burrs are everywhere now and I saw them on the path, then later as I was walking home, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something brown attached to my sock on the right outside ankle.  I had a little panic attack thinking it was some type of critter that hitched a ride home with me, then I realized it was just a brown burr.  In the meantime, my imagination was playing tricks on me and I was fearing the worst.  Whew!

[Image of boots in the leaves by freestocks.org and Pexel]