Perchance To Dream
Sleep. It seems to have become a luxury.
I am taking a combination of tablets for high blood pressure that have a known side effect of inducing fatigue. Sometimes I almost doze off at work, and when I get home at about 7pm the first thing I want to do is collapse on the sofa and shut my eyes.
But Rosemarie is usually genuinely thrilled to see me come home and I try to make the time special and enjoyable. There is no point in talking about her day because I usually know more about what she has been doing than she does, but soft low declarations of love and gentle humour go a long way towards making this time special.
Sometimes of course it goes spectacularly wrong. A lot of the time communication is impossible and how I react to Rosemarie's attempt to recount something to me is crucial. Eventually something will happen at some stage in the evening that produces upset and anger. After a long day at work I am not in the best place to deal with this.
Usually this does not last too long and by the time I am preparing a light supper we are friends again. We talk carefully and watch some television then Rosemarie is usually pretty tired and shortly after 10 is ready for bed. Sometimes I put on one of Rosemarie's favourite DVDs or recorded programmes and I can get some chores done, but I rarely get more than half an hour or so. By the time we have done tablets and night time stuff and Rosemarie is in bed it is about half ten to eleven.
This is when I get to pay bills, do filing, ironing and general tidying up and any other chores I have. I am also trying to keep other parts of my life going and I do work on some of the websites I maintain for myself and some friends, and continue developing my Photoshop skills and work on some of the many photos in my library. This can easily take until midnight or later. By the time I get to sleep it is usually about one o'clock.
Sometimes Rosemarie sleeps through the night but frequently she wakes about 5.30 and needs to use the toilet. She needs my help for this so I get up and take her. She tends to sleep fitfully after that, often getting into a pattern where she sits up in bed about every two minutes, then flops back. This makes it very difficult to get to sleep afterwards and my alarm goes off at 6.30. So most nights I get about five hours sleep if I am lucky.
It makes me feel tired just writing that.
I am taking a combination of tablets for high blood pressure that have a known side effect of inducing fatigue. Sometimes I almost doze off at work, and when I get home at about 7pm the first thing I want to do is collapse on the sofa and shut my eyes.
But Rosemarie is usually genuinely thrilled to see me come home and I try to make the time special and enjoyable. There is no point in talking about her day because I usually know more about what she has been doing than she does, but soft low declarations of love and gentle humour go a long way towards making this time special.
Sometimes of course it goes spectacularly wrong. A lot of the time communication is impossible and how I react to Rosemarie's attempt to recount something to me is crucial. Eventually something will happen at some stage in the evening that produces upset and anger. After a long day at work I am not in the best place to deal with this.
Usually this does not last too long and by the time I am preparing a light supper we are friends again. We talk carefully and watch some television then Rosemarie is usually pretty tired and shortly after 10 is ready for bed. Sometimes I put on one of Rosemarie's favourite DVDs or recorded programmes and I can get some chores done, but I rarely get more than half an hour or so. By the time we have done tablets and night time stuff and Rosemarie is in bed it is about half ten to eleven.
This is when I get to pay bills, do filing, ironing and general tidying up and any other chores I have. I am also trying to keep other parts of my life going and I do work on some of the websites I maintain for myself and some friends, and continue developing my Photoshop skills and work on some of the many photos in my library. This can easily take until midnight or later. By the time I get to sleep it is usually about one o'clock.
Sometimes Rosemarie sleeps through the night but frequently she wakes about 5.30 and needs to use the toilet. She needs my help for this so I get up and take her. She tends to sleep fitfully after that, often getting into a pattern where she sits up in bed about every two minutes, then flops back. This makes it very difficult to get to sleep afterwards and my alarm goes off at 6.30. So most nights I get about five hours sleep if I am lucky.
It makes me feel tired just writing that.
posted by Other Kosh at 10:10 pm
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