Man! I hate when that happens!

"Early to bed, early to rise" is not a saying steeped in wisdom. It is a curse!

I went to bed early last night for no good reason other than there was nothing to watch on TV and I was bored with surfing the net and seeing much of the same-old same-old. I did a crossword, read a couple of chapters in a Jim Butcher novel (Academ's Fury...it's Book Two in the series) and turned off the light just shy of 10 PM. Then, damn it, I woke at 3 AM for no particular reason and just could not fall back to sleep.

At 4 AM, using his ECP (Exceptional Cat Perception), Chester started to yowl at the door so I gave up and got up, got dressed and headed down stairs. Fed the cats their breakfast (tuna!--maybe Chester read the can) and heated up a mug of coffee. Then the lights went out--literally--three times in half an hour. Power loss was just long enough to cause the electrical clocks on the microwave and stove to start blinking and require resetting each time.

Once everything got back to order, I built up the fire in the fireplace and restocked the wood supply next to the hearth. Then I settled down to look at the web. The problem with getting up so early is that there's no one else up and all the posts are from before you went to bed. Except for those folks out in Alaska who have just gone to sleep when you woke up at 4 AM EST.

Checked Rev. Paul's site and Brigid had a new post at her's all about Revenge. Then I went over to the Yukon Quest site to see what was going on.

Michelle Phillips scratched at Dawson City. A little over 400 miles into the race, she was down to just 8 dogs and had the toughest part of the trail yet to go. Once they leave the Yukon River at Circle City, things get, shall we say, bumpy--and very, very steep.

Hugh Neff is the current leader. He left Dawson City at 3:35 AM local time a good three-and-a-half hours ahead of Hans Gatt. (Dawson City is a 36 hour mandatory rest so it's pretty easy to see who is ahead of whom at this point. Still, lots of time left and distance to go.)

It's now approaching 9 AM and I've had two mugs of coffee (approximately four cups total) and I'm ready to either get really active or take a nap. The problem with either of those two options is...well, four cups of coffee. Can't get too far from the toilet. (Coffee's fluids, like beer, are only rented.) Can't get to sleep. (Decaf is for sissies. Black. Strong. Unadulterated. The only way to drink coffee.)