Rough Start

Dearest Rachel –

It occurs to me that, if you were still around, and I was doing the same thing that I’m doing now (which, I’ll be honest, seems unlikely, as why would I need to change for you?), I don’t think I’d be talking as much about my workout regimen, as it wouldn’t exactly interest you – unless, of course, you and I were still going to the Ridge Center, where you would be swimming at the same time I would be working out (we’d probably having “a bit of fun” together afterwards, for that matter). But that’s not the same as a topic of discussion.

The thing is, I tell you about this, not because it would interest you so much, as the fact that it’s something that dominates my days, and particularly my mornings, when I’m of a mind to write to you. By the end of the day, I’m just wanting to crawl into bed; the idea of writing you at that point, when I’ve pretty much run out of steam, would strike me as ludicrous, assuming it even crossed my mind.

Today was a rougher start than most. I was up late with Daniel watching the debate (and I really don’t know what to say about it; my usual news sources suggest it was no contest, but I couldn’t really tell from what I could see of it. Then again, I wasn’t so much watching as listening to it, so I missed out on a lot of visual cues. I also tuned in late, so I may have missed some of the best zingers and haymakers. Personally, I don’t think I’m good at telling who “won” an argument whenever I’m watching one), and as a result found myself short on sleep when my eyes popped open a little after five. But as much as I might have wanted to roll over and return to sleep, it felt too late to do that, given all the things I’ve incorporated into my daily routine.

I know that for all intents and purposes, I’m considered a “morning person”; certainly when the alternative is being a “night person,” I can’t argue with the assessment. However, I think that’s mostly by default; if I have to be one or the other, it’s kind of obvious which one I am. The thing is, I think of real morning people as being ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’ from the moment they hop out of bed, and that by no means describes me most mornings.

Least of all today, as it’s getting decidedly chillier. I don’t know if it’s just to be expected as the days wear on into fall, or if the weather actually reads the calendar and concludes that it might as well act like it’s October or something, but this morning almost felt like I should have had the heater on in the room overnight. I say almost; if I had, it would probably be intolerably hot (or worse, this nice, pleasant, toasty warmth that makes one so comfortable in bed that one could sleep the day away, given one’s druthers). At least the chill prompts one to get up and get into the bathroom, where the tile and the heat fan warm one up, but force one to be ambulatory in order to enjoy their benefits.

As a result, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the house and make my way to the gym until 6:30, nearly an hour and a half after first opening my eyes. You’d think that, having been awake and up for so long, and with nothing else to do with myself at that hour, I’d be able to motivate myself to get over there sooner. If nothing else, working up a sweat would definitely warm me up, and the trip home would be a refreshing means to cool myself down afterward. But that first trip up there, in the dark and the chill (I hesitate to just come out and say “cold,” because it’s still only a couple weeks into autumn; it’s going to get so much colder yet. If I think this is bad, I haven’t seen – or felt – anything yet)… well, that was a rough start to the day, honey, and I thought I’d tell you that.

***

Additionally, I was actually hoping to tell you about other stuff that I’m working on, and the progress I’ve made on it, but at this point, I haven’t actually made the progress I thought I would. I’d started on a new avenue with AI art, in particular, last Friday, but when I left the computer to run through the calculations overnight (actually over the weekend, since, you know, Friday), I discovered that I hadn’t adjusted the factory power settings on the computer. As a result, the machine automatically shut down after three hours of getting no direct input from me, despite being in the middle of its computations. And in my efforts to restart the process, I’ve been getting one error or another with each attempt. I think I may have solved everything as of this morning, but I probably won’t know if I’ve got it running properly until this Friday – and I’ll do what I can to fill you in about it as soon as I’m sure that it’s working the way I want it to.

But for now, the only thing that’s going on in my life is trying to keep up with my exercise regimen, and while once I’m started, I’m okay, that whole “getting started” thing is so much more of a challenge than I’d hoped it would be. Then again, considering I never got sufficiently motivated back in the day, perhaps this wouldn’t come as any surprise to you. In either case, if you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, honey, I’d still appreciate it, as I’m pretty sure I could still use it.