What our prayers sound like to God

As usual, I'm up early and writing and surfing and my cat Winnie (Whinny is more like it!) will not leave me alone. For the last hour she's been making irritating yowly sounds at me because I won't feed her yet. I keep on telling her, "Honey, you'll get what you get when you get it", (thanks C!) but that sort of tough love hasn't been cutting it.

The end of Daylight Savings Time has been hard on her too!

Anyone have suggestions on how to soothe an obsessive-compulsive, overeating fat-cat?

Constructive solutions

Ever since we in the US quit daylight savings time, I've been literally
waking up in the middle of the night. I can fall asleep anytime between 9
and 10:30pm and just like clock work, I'll start to feel restless around
3:15am. Don't get me wrong, I'm not forsaking the diurnal for the
nocturnal...rather, this seems to be a whole new circadian rhythm...one in
which I find I'm absolutely done with my day at 2:00pm (even though my
shift at MegaBucks Industries lasts 'till 4:30pm).

When first I wake, I listen to a little NPR and pet whatever cat has
managed to crawl under the covers. No later than 4:15am, I'm downstairs, out of bed either surfing the internet or writing...sometimes both. It's a cruel joke by the time that 6:30am rolls around and I have to get ready for my paying job. The obligatory sh_t, shower, and shave drag me out of a really productive flow. Consequently, by the time we leave for work around 7:30am, I'm tired and cranky and my creative energy is severely blunted.

So, I'm trying to be more practical and use this forum as a way to discover
solutions to my belly-aches (How Novel!)

»Change my hours at work
An interesting idea but ultimately unworkable because I commute with my partner who does not wish to come in earlier. Plus, even if I came in at 6:30am, I'd still need to stay late.

»Work part time
I actually have considered this. Pluses: Not as much time spent at the day
job. Minuses: concomitant reduction in benefits accruals (i.e. years of
service, pension, health care vesting, etc.)

»Find a new job within the same company
Again, another good idea. Jobs like mine are hard to come by. I'm pretty lucky to have worked my way into it. I don't know that I have enough good karma to make lightening strike twice.

»Re-invent my job
This is absolutely, positively doable and incidentally the best recourse I could pursue. At this point in time, this is my highest and best use of my time...

Next, I come up with my plan to transform into a butterfly... and I KNOW it has to include the principles I've outlined here (esoteric consulting on the side), here (more writing), and here (an understanding that I need to be of value to my employer).

Fight or Flight...

Try as I might to deny it, I have an overwhelming desire to move to another country. I read stories like this from the BBC and I feel sick. The country I call my home is doing this to other people. It's just a nightmare, guaranteed by virtue of the election to last four more years.

Many people have said they're going to try to relocate to Canada...but I fear that isn't far enough away.

Part of me thinks I'm being absolutely ridiculous...what am I getting getting upset about? It's only 4 more years.

The other part of me fears that this period of tyranny isn't going to blow over, rather it's going to get worse. I keep thinking of all those post-war films about Nazi Germany I've watched where good people decided to hang out and help stuff get better. They stayed and stayed and stayed, believing their presence could make a difference until it was too late.

The rational, sensible part of me rears it's head again. Equating the United States with Nazi Germany? That's crazy!

Is it?

I hope to God so.

Winning hearts and minds...we heard that so often during the campaign. Now that the Bush league has succeeded in winning enough hearts and minds to have a virtual lock on all that happens in this country, what happens next?

If they can't win the former Kerry hearts and minds do they start rounding us up?

Yes, I've had a little bit to drink this evening and perhaps it's that whiskey egg nog that's got the best of me here but...doesn't anybody think it strange that there is a large plurality (even in the red states) that is out of lock step with the administration? What happens to us? We still live here. We still pay taxes. But now, I feel like we have no say 'cause the winner took it all. Winner take all sucks.

Time to go to bed.