It was with near exasperation that I perceived my younger brother arriving home last evening at 8:28 or 8:29 p.m. ─ just barely ahead of the unspoken 8:30 p.m. deadline that I have in place for him.
For what seemed the second consecutive evening, I was going to have to sit up late with him (although that first night was by sheer choice, for I had tried unsuccessfully for an hour to fall asleep after going to bed at 9 p.m.).
Well, I tried to be cooperative and start watching some T.V. with him via our Android TV Box that only I am sufficiently capable of operating. I tuned in an episode of Z Nation, and soon his besotted antics began ─ he would sit with his eyes closed for extended periods.
Numerous times when his head would then droop, I would start lowering the T.V. volume as the first step in backing out of the episode so that I could switch off the Android TV Box and turn the T.V. over to its basic cable programming, and then betake myself upstairs to eventually have an early evening.
But something would rouse him ─ a sudden noise in the episode, usually. And he would raise his head and open his eyes for a while more.
This continued a number of times; and even when his head would not droop, he would have it raised with eyes closed and facing more toward the ceiling than toward the TV. ─ no doubt a desperate effort to keep his head from sinking as his consciousness ebbed.
Finally, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the episode ─ perhaps closer to five minutes ─ his head remained drooped for an extended period of time and I at last cancelled out of the episode and got the T.V. switched over to basic cable.
He again roused, but I was done. I calmly rose and came here upstairs to my computer. He knew that he had been found out, likely falsely believing that he had fooled me to at least that far into the evening.
Had he said aught by way of objection, I was inclined to challenge him to name what show had been playing, for I rather doubted that he knew anymore.
What is colossally annoying about all of this is that I am now going to have to re-watch the entirety of what I had already seen of that episode just so that my brother ─ when he is soberer ─ will retain continuity of the series.
And we are nearly finished with the series.
Thus, I have no desire whatsoever to resume watching it for quite some while now, because the episode is far too fresh for me. I need time for my familiarity with it to wear down.
I remained up for maybe 45 minutes here at my computer before finally getting to bed ─ it was perhaps 10:15 p.m. by then. Even so, sleep was not particularly easy to sink into.
After I did get to sleep, I was again awake perhaps in the neighbourhood of 1:45 a.m., and I decided to rise then to deal with a few things here at my computer.
As detailed extensively in my previous two posts, I have relinquished five of my six hosted websites ─ the five that I had on a 'baby' HostGator account. I still have one online with JustHost, but it will not remain so any longer than October 3, for that is approximately when my monthly hosting subscription will expire and I will not be renewing it.
As a result, I am no longer in thrall to them, sitting up overnight for four hours at a time as I add content into whatever is the latest post that I might be working on.
But I still do have a few different affiliate advertising accounts that I do not wish to lose, and this blog is inadequate to sustain the viability of those accounts. I need to get something else set up and going. Something ─ another Blogger / Blogspot website ─ that is not a mere blog.
I have a murky idea of what I may undertake, and so it was that last night I sat up for maybe four hours anyway, researching this new project. I did so even though my eyes were already tired from inadequate sleep.
I have paid a toll today, for after getting to bed before daybreak, I was once more awake and up by 8:30 a.m. so that I could have a bath; and at 10 a.m., I joined my brother downstairs to watch a few of our shows together until 1 p.m. when he sought some bed rest ere leaving afoot to catch a bus and hook up with two drinking buddies ─ at the Green Timbers Pub, I believe.
One or both of those drinking buddies will also be busing, the one having had his driver's licence suspended within the past three or so years and not wanting to enjoy that experience again.
The selected pub's location is always one that is not favouring any one of the drinkers insofar as convenience to anyone's residence, for it would be unfair to be within easy distance of someone's home when the other drinker(s) would have to be grossly disadvantaged where transit is concerned.
I was not present when my brother left ─ I was seated in a lawn- or deckchair in the backyard facing into the Sun for the third consecutive afternoon on a cloud-free day. As I managed the previous two days, I did so for just over an hour ─ this time, just over 65 minutes.
My time today commenced at 1:59 p.m., and all I wore were a pair of cutoffs.
I had thought this morning that the day was overcast, but my brother confirmed that what was being experienced was a recurrence of the smoke of two or three weeks back ─ various U.S. forest fires are polluting this region of Canada with high smoke that fades our blue sky to the faintest milky, diluted blue, and lends a rosy hue to the sunlight.
My brother will definitely be unable to arrive back home again by that 8:30 p.m. deadline ─ I don't really expect him any sooner than 9:30 p.m. at earliest; so I will certainly be having an early evening today. I had a brief nap in the latter afternoon, but still my eyes are burning from recent cumulative inadequate sleep. I think this evening, I ought to have little trouble sinking into slumber that I hope will endure for several hours.
And my wife let me know with a phone call just ahead of that short afternoon nap that she would not be home until tomorrow (and not today as she had identified she would when she left here last afternoon to go to work), so she shan't be present to contribute any kind of deterrence to my sleep.
It is after 7 p.m., and I have some exercise I must clear away before I have a light supper. Since I do not wish to prolong this post unnecessarily, I am going to conclude it here and now.
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