Insomniac

No, this post isn't about "Insomniac," the delightful drunken TV-fest formerly hosted by delightful drunken comedian Dave Attell. This post is about me.

I've always been a pretty heavy sleeper. Once, when I was a kid, our smoke detector started beeping in the middle of the night (low battery), and I didn't even wake up.

But when I do wake up, I often have a lot of trouble falling back asleep. I'm ok, as long as I don't have time to think about anything. A quick trip to the bathroom isn't usually enough to keep me awake... but if I happen to pick up a magazine while I'm in there, look out. Once my mind starts going, I start obsessing about things, and the next thing you know, I'm awake for the long haul.

Nevermind the fact that it's 6:00 am and I didn't get to sleep until after 2:30 am. I'm up.

This morning, the culprits were:

1. High school football season (we had our first show on Friday night, and we were phenomenally shortstaffed. And we'll be even more short-staffed again this week.)
2. The wedding. We're going to a bridal show today and we need to get a lot of details worked out.
3. A nasty tummy-ache.
4. Ernesto.

So, at about 6:20, I trundled out to the living room, turned on the TV, and fired up the computer. Being a Florida resident... and being a glutton for punishment... I switched over to the Weather Channel. Within two minutes I learned that Tropical Storm Ernesto is now Hurricane Ernesto, and that we're now smack dab in the middle of the "cone of uncertainty."

I prefer the map used by Weather Underground than the one on the NOAA website. The NOAA has Ernesto making landfall on Thursday, just north of Tampa. That's about two hours north of here. And as I know from talking with co-workers, that's the same place that Charley was expected to hit two years ago. Instead, at the last minute, Charley changed his mind and hit here instead. Oh, and he turned into a Category 4 storm right before making landfall. Punta Gorda, just to the north of us, was practically leveled by the storm. There are still hundreds of people living in the FEMA Village there. And the high school there won't be completely reopened for three more years.

See what I mean about obsessing when I can't sleep? Maybe I should go buy more batteries.