Saturday morning joural

Piles of papers and books. Baskets of miscellaneous stuff.

That's what I'm focusing on this Saturday morning.

All this week I've gotten up at 5:45.  Today I slept in:  set the alarm for 6:15.   I love this getting up early.  It had been so hard for me for a couple of reasons.  First, it's just hard to get out of bed.  I wanted to be up early, but I didn't want to make an effort to do it.  It's like my kid wanting to know how to play piano, but not being willing to actually go through the effort of lessons and practice.

But then there's the spousal unit.  He doesn't have to - or want to - get up really early.  I didn't want to set the alarm and wake him up unnecessarily.  Sometimes I would pray that God would wake me up when He wanted me to get up, but that didn't always work.  I'd wake up, maybe, but tell God to go away, that I was just kidding. Not a good way to start the day.

Then I discovered the alarm on my cell phone.  It's quieter than the clock alarm, and easier to deal with when it goes off.  I just pick it up, slip out of bed, and leave the room.  It wakes him up a little, but not enough to be troublesome.  He can go back to sleep.  I can be up!  Reading, writing, sorting papers, walking the dog.

Today the dog was anxious to go out.  It was still completely dark outside when we left for our walk. The darkness of early morning is so different from the darkness of night.  We walked quickly - it's finally cold! - and he romped in the leaves.  We saw two people on our walk:  the newspaper delivery lady, and an ancient-looking man out picking up his paper.  I get the feeling he was waiting for her to show up.  He didn't notice me, and I didn't speak.  It was so beautifully quiet; all I heard was the slight hum of the Turnpike and the rustling of the leaves when the dog jumped in a pile.

Do you look forward to the morning paper?   Or do you skip it and get your news elsewhere?  

Look, here is my first "Mr. Linky" for your blogging pleasure. Tell me what you're doing today.