Good morning -- jcarolek

This morning I awoke easily, refreshed, as usual from my few hours of dedicated sleep. And I thought about a time when I was NOT so refreshed and did NOT awaken so easily. Certainly, when I was a teenager, I received more creative threats from Mom than I care to repeat, on the subject of getting up in the morning.... (of course, there were also the creative threats about my messy room, or should I say, my messy "side of the room" since my sister was a meticulously neat roommate, but I will save that for another post.)

My brothers always had their alarms set and they would begin blaring at ungodly hours, because THEY could and did sleep through that din.... not I. I was awakened by their alarm clocks, and would try to escape the interruption by burrowing deeper under the covers and returning to my sleepy comfort. I would finally concede to another day when Mom informed me that there was literally no time left....if I did not shower and get out the door in the next ten minutes, I would be tardy. And tardy was something I NEVER wanted to be. Why I was more concerned with what the school thought of me than what my own family thought of me, I have no idea, but school WAS my motivator to get out of bed.

All of this changed the year (I think it was my junior year of high school) when I adopted a little toy fox terrier, that someone tossed out of their car one afternoon. The funny looking dog came running right up to me and acted as if he had been sent to me, for a purpose! I called him Fred McMurray, and Murray for short. And he slept on my bed at night. That was such a comforting thing.....right up until the break of dawn. At HIS wake-up time, Murray decided I too MUST awaken and awaken I did. For, he would start with the face licking (YUCK) and, if I did not respond quickly to that, he would literally drag the covers off me, transforming my warm and comfy cacoon into a far less comfortable state of "exposure to the elements!"

So, Murray was responsible for my more timely risings in those final years at home and I never had trouble awakening and getting started on my day after he had me properly trained! Today I live in a world where I never set an alarm. Rarely do I need to worry about awakening on time because my sleep clock has me on a steady four-hour sleep schedule. No matter when I fall asleep, I can be virtually guaranteed I will awaken within four hours. And once awake, well, I have a zillion things to do and cannot waste time lazing in bed.............

So, I guess I can blame or thank Murray for more than thirty years of timely starts to my days....you might not be able to teach old dogs new tricks, but that old dog taught me a few!