I was to bed last evening ere it was yet 9:30 p.m. ─ actually, it may have been less than 9:10 p.m. My younger brother had still not arrived home from whatever bar he had bused to in the afternoon, and I had no intention of becoming involved with him and potentially sitting up through the midnight hour.
I prefer getting to bed early.
However, as is too often the case, sleep was difficult. There is always that vague apprehension that my wife will be coming home before I am asleep and thereafter be trafficking in and out of the bedroom, effectively preventing sleep (even though I wear earplugs and a blindfold).
Ne'ertheless, some sleep did finally arrive, even if I was often awake ─ it was fitful sleep at best. When I finally checked the time shortly after 12:30 a.m., it seemed quiet ─ that is, I could not hear the T.V. that my brother had been watching after he had gotten home.
So I rose, and found that he was already shut up in his bedroom, the light still on therein. And yes, I was still alone ─ my wife had not yet gotten home following her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.
However, my youngest stepson ─ the 22-year-old ─ was still up, and would be for a few more hours.
I was soon at work on the post I am constructing at one of my six hosted websites. Then at something like 1:25 a.m., I heard my wife trying to unlock the front door. She seemed to fiddle with it for an exceptionally long time, and I almost went downstairs just to open the door for her.
But she got in. And following some brief discourse with her youngest, she then made her way upstairs. I turned from my computer to look at her, and quickly realized that she was plastered.
She looked abashed, and was actually quite cute in her inebriation.
Right away she began blaming two of her friends for her state ─ her boss had shown up with another Thai restaurant owner who lives in Vancouver, and the two were determined that my wife was going to party with them.
"It's their fault. They poisoned me." she said. And then she proffered her insulated drink tumbler at me and directed that I was to supply her with some hot water while she readied for bed.
After I was downstairs, I could hear her still talking ─ she may have phoned her boss to alert her to the fact that my wife was now safely home.
When the water had boiled, and I had poured her some, I brought the tumbler to her ─ she was already curled up in bed with the bedside lamp still on, but she was not quite asleep. I sill marvel at how cute she was to me in her state ─ like some naughty little girl.
She had me promise that I would not let her sleep beyond 10:00 a.m. this morning, for she had her usual 11:00 a.m. start at the restaurant. I left her the tumbler of hot water, turned off the lamp, and exited the bedroom after shutting the door.
I came back here to my computer, for I still had much work I wanted to try and get done.
A day or two earlier after some exercise, I had performed a two-minute plank just to see how much of a strain it would be. I found it very tolerable, so I wanted to try another for a longer duration. And so I took a break from my website work and went downstairs to the darkened living room ─ my youngest stepson was still up, but he was at his computer in the boys' den area.
I decided to shoot for a five-minute plank.
And I rather easily managed it, stopping at something like five minutes and 12 or more seconds. The worst of the experience was that it was so damned boring.
I feel that I must explain that on four separate days back in the latter October / early November period when I was well into regularly planking, I had managed to last for some seconds over 12 minutes on each occasion.
It was arduous, of course. But it was also incredibly boring holding out for that long. And that was part of why I quit doing planks.
Regardless, I think now that I should at least keep myself familiar with the ability, so on occasion I may crank out five or so minutes just to maintain my involvement with planks.
Anyway, after I returned to work on my website and finally got completed the content that I wanted to add for today, I went downstairs and discovered that the world without was unexpectedly bright instead of the gloomy dark that it had been.
It was snowing, and the ground was already heavily blanketed. This is the first snowfall we have had hereabouts in the Whalley area of Surrey this season ─ I had been wondering if it was possible that we might get through the entire Winter without a trace of any on the ground.
Before the snowing was all over around midday, we probably had at least two inches of the stuff covering the ground.
I was briefly tempted before getting back to bed this early a.m. to go outside and turn on all of the Christmas lights, just so I could have some photos of the house brightly illuminated in the snow.
But I just didn't quite feel up to it. Instead, I came to bed ─ it was around 5:15 a.m. by then.
I never sleep all that well ─ frequent wakeful periods. And so it was that I got myself up well ahead of 9:00 a.m. to find that my younger brother was already downstairs watching T.V.
I waited until almost 10:00 a.m. before leaving my computer (in the small room next to my bedroom) and going downstairs to the kitchen to start boiling water for my day's first hot caffeinated beverage.
And when I had fixed that up, I joined my brother in the living room to put our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box into operation to fetch up some episodes of T.V. series we follow. Actually, I wanted to try a new talk show series.
My brother and I are big fans of The Graham Norton Show, and I have been wondering if there were any other U.K. talk shows that might come close to its quality.
Yesterday I read of one called The Jonathan Ross Show, so I gave that a try this morning, tuning in the first episode of 2019 (i.e., the start of so-called 'Series 14').
I'm now accustomed to Graham Norton, but Jonathan Ross seemed to do a reasonably good job. We'll herewith commence watching episodes from that very point in Series 14.
What I love about these two talk shows is that there is no boring long preamble by the host at the opening of the show where he tries to do a stand-up performance, usually of a political nature. I don't give a damn about how funny the host thinks he is ─ I tune in to watch the guest interviews, not the host doing some comedy shtick.
Likewise, there are no farcical comedy skits of one kind or another.
And finally, on these two U.K. talk shows, it seems to be the rule that all of the guests remain seated on the couch together to interact with one another. Often, they bring out something about each other that the host might not have thought of to do.
By the way, my wife got herself up at 10:00 a.m., I am pleased to say.
I am sure that she never expected to see all that snow out there! When she left here to go outside to drive herself to the restaurant, I took these three candid photos of her busily scraping snow off her car's windows at 10:25 a.m.:
Poor hardworking thing!
The afternoon and evening have had some light rain; and the snow is sopping wet. As long as we do not get a freeze before it all melts, the snow oughtn't to last. However, my brother did claim to have heard that next week we are likely due for a taste of an 'Arctic freeze' that is to be working its way south.
Well, right now it is 6:15 p.m., and before mid-afternoon my brother had left to probably bus away to begin drinking at a bar. Will he be back before mid-evening? I never know, but often on Fridays he does seem to manage it.
If he is not home comfortably before 9:00 p.m., I will be going to bed early to avoid him and the requirement of having to sit up late operating our Android TV Box.
My wife tends to spend her weekends somewhere in Vancouver (such is my sorry marriage), so she is unlikely to be home to spend the night ─ if she even comes home at all this evening.
Whatever may be, I had best get this post proofread and then published to clear up my evening.
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