Sleepless in Connecticut

Wow, that was original, wasn't it? An echo of an old movie, echoed in my beautiful wife's earlier sign-off...

Yeah, so the absolute worst thing about working away from home is the inability to sleep without Sherri by my side...or underneath me...or on top of me, as the case may be depending upon where we are in the nightly tango (tangle?) that is our way of sleeping together. Oh, except boys don't like to cuddle, so forget I just said all that...

I'm grateful that cellphones have become so inexpensive to use, and thanks to the benefit of that modern technology we remain connected on the facets of everyday life. I can't quite imagine what it would have been like in the time from not so long ago to forever back in human history where that was simply not possible, and for the married man who had travelled 6,000 miles, coming home must surely have felt something like trying to re-become a person he once was, while returning to a person (and a life) he once knew.

My biggest challenge on this brief trip to the east coast has been the result of the three hour time differential. Between that and the aforementioned lack of my cuddle partner, I've been falling asleep between 3:00 and 4:00 AM, then waking up around 7:00 to go to work. Woo-hoo!! I don't think tired begins to describe the way I feel. I'm glad the "daily commute" involves no driving, only stumbling down the hotel hall, headed for the pre-work meeting in my boss' room with a mug of hot tea in my hand.

Even in the midst of my exhaustion, this is a wonderful life to live. Our friend John (who is also Sherri's business partner, of sorts) was good enough to come across town last night to pick me up and take me to an A.A. meeting close to where he lives, after which he gave me a tour of his home, and then we just kicked it for a bit and shot the breeze with his wife Sheryl before he drove me back.

(Now...A.A. isn't the 12-Step fellowship I'm most comfortable in, but it'll do as a substitute... {/inside joke} )

It is nothing short of amazing to me that Sherri and I have friends that live all over the world. Freed from the depths of the misery, terror, and pain of our addiction, we walk among a community of friends that quite literally spans the globe.

As someone I am very fond of would say, "It's a fucking miracle", and I will print that here even though C.A. would not let that particular word past the editor of its quarterly newsletter in an article she was requested to write for it.

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Today we entered the room of an elderly woman (and her cats) who is living here at this hotel. As we removed her 10 year old tv to replace it with a new 42" flat-screen hdtv, I commented that I imagined it looked a lot different than the first one she ever saw. As I left the room she began to tell a story about that first set to another member of the crew who was in the room completing the installation. He later made a comment which revealed he considered her tale a lot of boring chatter to endure.

Which left me to wonder if all our marvelous technology has done humanity any good at all.