Wednesday. To bed last night at ten, up this morning at nine. My, my. Real sleep. The head needs serious realigning in the mornings anymore: take the meds, comb the hair, brush the teeth, comb the hair some more, go out for coffee and the paper. Life doesn't really start in any positive sense until these things are accomplished and I hope it doesn't get too much worse as the years pass by. You do hear stories though.

It's overcast with spots of sun. Overcast when I went out for coffee and the papers, but some occasional clearing of the clouds at the moment. Thoughts of skipping Seattle later today for the family party. Many of the cousins and their kids and grand kids are not coming. A number are going down to L.A. for Christmas, so the L.A. contingent won't be in evidence. I suspect we might not go. I'll know soon enough.

Then again one of the reasons in coming up is to go to the party. Most of the trip has been completed. Yes, the primary reason is to see my sister and her family, we are civilized folks after all, and do what we can to follow the more useful conventions, but for some reason driving for three hours to a party that starts at seven seems strenuous. Rationalizations are setting in. Everyone else who will show up are in the middle of their own strenuous holiday scramble, I'd think, so close to Christmas, so why should we opt out. Here in Portland or there in Seattle.

Later. OK, we've crapped out. I'm thinking of turning in early, having spent some time practicing on my brother-in-law's Strat. Nothing much, just quickly going through the chords and the riffs, limbering up the fingers, reinforcing the new and tenuous neuron pathways, keeping the finger callouses in place. We'll give ourselves a pat on the back and a gold medal for perseverance and then we'll drop it. Got in some guitar practice. Enough just to say it. (Hup! Hup!)

Later still. About an hour's nap. Eleven hours sleep last night and then ten hour's later another hour's nap. At least it feels good. Maybe the holidays are indeed more holidaze (and confused) than we understand. Than I understand. The bachelor has no idea, has no experience with the real world. Keeping it all together is a breeze, maybe, something we know, but not consciously. Then again, maybe it's just our brain is fried.