More daylight, more aches and pains

I'm slowly working my way out of the winter mode. Pretty soon, when the clock strikes 8 p.m., I can't be wrapped up in my fleece blanket on the couch drifting off into my nightly hibernation. Instead, I'll be outside working. This past winter, I decided to quit fighting my body's desire to shut down every night around 7:30 p.m. Somewhere I'd read that we're mammals and, just like all other mammals, it's natural for us to hibernate during the winter months.

So, I just decided to go with the flow. And, I do believe I've clocked more hours of sleep this past year than I'd ever managed to enjoy in the past ten. Used to be when I was teaching, insomnia worked a number on me about four or five nights a week. I was lucky to get maybe five or six hours----if I went to bed and fell asleep by 8:30 and nobody disturbed me. That was when getting up at 2:30 or 3 a.m. seven days a week to do the daily lesson plans was the norm.

Since retiring, I've allowed myself to "sleep in" until 5, maybe 5:04 a.m. Rarely, in the past four years, I've stretched my beauty rest to 5:45. Unlike the teaching days, however, I'm usually drifting off in "Never Never Land" by about 8:30 or 9 p.m. Occasionally, I do wake up about 1:30 a.m., and when the mind gets reeling with too many thoughts, I'll crack open a book and read for a while. Right now, I'm enjoying Mike Wallace's book, and last night I read about his interviews with Louis Farrakhan. Retirement offers me that luxury.

Anyway, this daylight savings time means maintaining some major adjustments on the body clock. That includes sleep and physical activity. I got a taste of that, finally, the other day when the sun stayed out all day long, and so did I. By about 4 p.m., my legs and arms started to complain about having to do TOO MUCH WORK. They ached and moaned, but I just kept on raking out flower beds, figuring this one sunny day might be the last one for the next few weeks.

Yesterday, my muscles started whining every time I moved. They hurt because they got worked too hard the day before. I also noticed that the very minute I sat down last night, my brain wanted to shut down to get some much-needed sleep. It's a combination of age and this winter hibernation thing. With the prolonged, rotten, wet weather we've had, my body has enjoyed a hiatus from all work-related projects much too long.

I've noticed, over the past few years, since I'm not sitting in a classroom anymore, that this transition phase from standard time to daylight savings time seems to get more difficult than ever. We're all so excited to have that extra time to stay outside and do things. But, our bodies haven't gotten the message, and, with developing senioritis, they seem to react slower and slower about accepting the message.

So, my achin' body isn't very happy, but my mind says "Bring it on!" It's time to make hay while the sun shines. And, in North Idaho, sunshine has been a luxury of late. I'm gonna just ignore my aching body and get on with the outside fun of spring yardwork, biking, hiking, etc.

One month from now, maybe this ol' body will give up the complaining and just get on with it.