Rainy Days and Early Mondays

4:30AM.

I had to wake up at 4:30AM this morning.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't gone to bed at 10, then tossed and turned for two hours while I tried to explain to my body it was sleeping at the wrong time for the sake of my paycheck.

Mother Nature did not help. I poked my head into the darkness and got wet, thanks to a steady shower. Thankfully, it had gentled into a soft sprinkle by the time I went to work.

I wouldn't mind working at 6AM so much if it didn't mess with my sleep cycle...and if it didn't require going to bed so early. That's what bothers me. I don't mind getting up. I'd like mornings, and I'd rather work earlier than later. It's the "going to bed" I have problems with. Not to mention the "working 6-2 today, 4-8 tomorrow." I really, really want a consistent schedule.

(Actually, I'm off tomorrow, but the last time I worked this early, I worked until 9 the night before. I came home and went to bed in darkness, then went to work in darkness! Very unnerving. And then I worked late the next day!)

Almost nothing happened up through my first break, other than a couple of obnoxious old men buying their newspapers. Nothing happened until the store started to get busy, and once again, it began to occur to the managers that we are STILL low on help. We ended up calling managers and bakery people to help up front.

The rain continued through the day. Around quarter after 1, the Acme actually lost it's lights! They flickered, then the entire store was suddenly plunged into darkness for about five minutes. The only lights came from the computer screens, the monitors, and the windows along the front of the store. They did come back on, but it was so spooky. Thank goodness the computers didn't go down as well. I've seen us lose the computers during nasty weather, but never the lights! The lights flickered again about fifteen minutes later, but didn't go out this time. Thank goodness I was almost done by that point and my relief was a college girl who is almost never late.

It was still raining when I went home, but the showers were light enough that I was able to ride. I puttered around a little before finally deciding I wouldn't be of much use if I didn't take a nap. I woke up at 5:30, by which time it was pouring. For all my fussing about the extra-early hours, it's just as well I did work that early. I'm usually at the Acme around 5:30, and I certainly would have needed a ride home!

I watched The Magnificent Seven tonight while working on a Portuguese corn bread. The simple story - a Mexican town hires seven gunfighters to defend them from a bandit and his gang, and the gunfighters get attached to the townspeople - has been stolen from, imitated, and spoofed so often, I really rented this to see an excellent cast in action. Yul Brunner and Steve MacQueen were the gunfighters who rounded up the rest; Eli Wallach was wonderful as the bandit.