Too Tired to Wash?

Dearest Rachel –

I’m not gonna lie, honey; when I heard that we would need to be on the bus as early as we would this morning, I considered taking a shower last night, instead. The trouble is that, by the time I was finished telling you about all the things that we had seen and done yesterday, it was pushing 10 o’clock. And while that’s a reasonable hour, early enough to justify staying up a little while longer, I was no longer feeling it by that time of night. I decided to simply set my alarm early, and hope for the best.

But would I still be too tired in the morning?

Theoretically, I shouldn’t be. If I fall asleep at 10, and I have my alarm set to wake me up at 5, that’s approximately seven hours of sleep. Admittedly, it’s not the full eight hours we’re recommended to get every night, but since when do any of us ever get that, anyway? The difficulty lies in the fact that, after all those stairs yesterday (my phone tells me I climbed 23 floors yesterday), my feet are actually sore for the first time since buying these shoes that are supposed to support my feet for long distance running and walking. Suddenly, the prospect of standing in the shower has a lot less appeal.

And then, there is the fact that Daniel fell asleep while I was writing to you – somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half before I wrapped everything up. Normally, you’d think that would be a good thing, since usually he stays up until the wee hours of the morning when we’re at home. The problem lies in the fact that he then proceeded to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, and put on one of those religious services he tends to watch while I’m at home.

I’m going to try not to mention names, because in the final analysis, none of them matter: not the preacher, not the people he speaks of, anybody. But I’ll try and some of this up for you. The man seems to think of himself as a prophet of God, and to prove it, he will often run a current new story, followed by a read ration of some ‘prophecy’ he’d made in the past, just to prove that he predicted this. A little bit egotistical, if you ask me, given that his prophecies are not supposed to be coming from him, but rather from God. Still, I grant that there’s something to be said for proving he’d said this or that before, and it came to pass. Even so, I’m not sure it should be considered such a big deal – even The Simpsons is credited with that level of prophetic ability.

What gets under my skin is the fact that he’s made predictions that haven’t – and won’t – come true, particularly in the timeframe that Daniel has given to me in the past. He’s one of those people who believes the election two years ago, was stolen, for instance. While I won’t necessarily argue that point with either him or Daniel, he went so far as to claim that half of Congress – and all of the White House – would be hauled off in chains before the midterms, for their participation in such a great fraud as the theft of the election. Of course, none of that happened. Which should be enough for Daniel to lose faith in him, as a true ‘prophet of God’ is supposed to be accurate 100% of the time.

For whatever reason, that didn’t happen. And now, I’m forced to listen to him, conduct a service at three in the morning, when I’ve only got two hours in which to sleep. So, not only am I tired of listening to him, I’m tired from listening to him.

I’m sure that Daniel thinks I was sleeping through all that, and I’ll grant you that I tried desperately to do so. But the man also seems to fancy himself as a musician, and delivers much of his sermons and prophecies to music. To me, it sound like a gospel revival preacher trying to do a beatnik open-mic night recital to the repetitive tune (and lyrics) of your typical top-forty standard of today. His delivery isn’t monotonous, as such, but his improvisational stylings are tuneless and without melody. If the repetitive bits had some kind of ‘hook’ to them, that would be tolerable, but no.

So, between the music and the lyrics, I find nothing to recommend it. I don’t recall if he was into this guy long before your accident, but if so, you can understand why I’m not keen on hearing this at three in the morning, especially on a day that’s starting as early as this one is going to.

So, with that said, keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.