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my monday 12:30 am Here I am wide awake staring at the computer with the X-Files on the television in the background. For some reason they air two episodes on Sunday night. There is the normal time slot earlier in the evening and then the local channel airs an older one at a later time on the same night. Sometimes I watch both of them, other times I watch neither of them. It all depends on my mood. Being home at this time of the day seems strange. Five nights of the week, I am at work instead of wandering softly from room to room of my house. It is my weekend and it feels good to be home relaxing. Sleep does not come easily and when it finally does happen the lights are usually left on. Since I work third shift, sleeping when it is dark is foreign to me. When I lie there in the dark, all that I can do is think how novel that seems to me. My eyes scan the room looking at the shapes and shadows that surround me. Then I tell myself that it is okay to go to sleep, because I'm not at work. Yes, I have completely warped the natural order of things just to pay the bills, but I don't mind. I crossed over into the land of the night six months ago and I couldn't say when I'll return to what the world considers normal. The only alternative radio station in Milwaukee went belly up just a few days ago. When I say alternative, I mean the usual programming format of not quite pop and certainly not classic rock type of music. The same artists were played over and over, but it was a nice choice compared to what is left now. Here is what their web site had to say about the new format that they adopted. So check out the NEW 106.9 FM and the jammin' hits from the 60s, 70s & 80s featuring artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Chic, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Smokey Robinson, The Commodores and Stevie Wonder. Okay, I guess I wasn't aware that there was such a demand for this kind of music station. I must be missing out on something. I also have to believe that one radio station already covers this format here in Milwaukee. Why we would need two of them I can't be sure. The life expectancy of a radio station has to be measured in months. Although from what I can remember, the alternative one may have lasted as long as two years. Then when they do die, it is as though they never existed in the first place. No explanations are given and the new station goes about its business as though it will be around forever. Much later in the day after having fallen asleep at three in the morning. I neglected to mention what I meant by twenty-three thousand yesterday. The odometer in my car reached that point when I went into work Saturday night and it was a personal milestone for me, because I had lost my last car before that could happen. All of the previous cars that I owned had passed that mark long before I drove them, so these lower numbers are a novelty for me. I managed to tape the second half of the Lewis and Clark film by Ken Burns Sunday night and watched that as I ate breakfast. The good mood that I had from Sunday night had carried over into Monday despite the mottled sky outside my window. The day was mine to do whatever I pleased and a haircut was the first thing on my mind. A two month gap since my last cutting had left me feeling shaggy and unkempt. Once the haircut was done with satisfactory results, I was at a loss of what to do for the rest of the day. Shopping was a possibilty, but it seems that is all that I do on my weekends. I make money five nights a week and then spend it the other two days. More than likely this doesn't make me any different than the rest of the American population. After three hours of wandering from store to store, I returned home with new clothes and books. By pure accident I stumbled upon the companion book to the Lewis and Clark film and also purchased an Oliver Sacks book that sounded good.
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