My wife and I have a running debate about sleeping with a fan on. Guess which side I’m on.
Exploring Our Interconnectedness
I mentioned that my folks are in town. I don’t get to spend as much time with them as I’d like.
Partly it is because of the distance. They live up in Virginia.
But my work has always played a big factor. Vacation time is always limited, and I never seem to get a chance to do everything I want.
Even when they come to see us I have to work. I guess someone forgot to tell the ships to stop running so I could have a better personal life!
I had to go out to a ship last night. It should have been a fairly easy deal. Just an hour or two of work and then back home to the family.
Except the ship was late. Very late.
It was late enough that I had time to catch about an hour’s snooze while I waited. I’m sure that is one of the safer things I do in this job. Sleep in my car on the docks in the middle of the night.
Of course it was smoking hot here in Savannah, even well after sundown. With the humidity up on into the Tropical Jungle scale. But I still managed to nod off for a bit.
I woke up when the ship got to the dock but it still took a while before I could get aboard to do my thing. While I was waiting I got to thinking about how many people are somehow involved in a container ship’s cargo operation.
The list really is pretty long. You’ve got the ship’s crew, longshoremen, stevedores, machine operators, mechanics and repairmen. Depending on the operation that could bring us to the hundreds already. And it doesn’t count all the individual shippers and receivers of the cargo, the folks working in the warehouses on either end of the shipment, the various customs and enforcement officials at either end, and all the functionaries who make sure the paperwork gets processed correctly.
Oh, and then there’s a handful of miscellaneous consultants like myself who make their living helping the process run more smoothly.
Global trade really does involve a lot of folks, all of them interconnected by a common goal. And that’s just in one industry. Imagine how totally interconnected we all really are when you stop and think about all the things we do, consume, and produce.
Yet even when I was thinking last night during my wait about such a large and diverse a group of people spread all over the world like that I couldn’t help but think that God was looking down on the whole thing, keeping a watchful eye on it all. Check out this passage from one of the Psalms:
Let everyone in the world fear the LORD,
and let everyone stand in awe of him.For when he spoke, the world began!
It appeared at his command.The LORD shatters the plans of the nations
and thwarts all their schemes.But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever;
his intentions can never be shaken.What joy for the nation whose God is the LORD,
whose people he has chosen for his own.The LORD looks down from heaven
and sees the whole human race.From his throne he observes
all who live on the earth.He made their hearts,
so he understands everything they do.The best-equipped army cannot save a king,
nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory–
for all its strength, it cannot save you.But the LORD watches over those who fear him,
those who rely on his unfailing love.He rescues them from death
and keeps them alive in times of famine.
Just a little something to ponder as you are out and about this weekend.
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Built-in Safety Valve Keeps Wife From Self-Destructing
I don’t get enough sleep and neither does Gorgeous.
And if I’m going to be willing to face my O-R then we gotta admit it is a problem entirely of our own making.
We all know there are significant health advantages that go along with getting enough sleep. Google the phrase health advantages of sufficient sleep and you’ll get over 5.4 million sites chock full of those very benefits.
Here are Some Examples
- Clearer thinking
- Improve Tolerance to Hot Weather
- Improved Learning Ability
- Better Memory
- Reduce Blood Pressure
- Lower Risk of Heart Disease
- Helps prevent Diabetes
- Fights Depression
Yet in spite of these known benefits most of us still don’t get enough sleep. There’s just too much to do and not enough hours in the day, right?
That’s what most of us think. And most of us would keep going without any break if we could. I know I struggle with feeling like sleep is a waste of time. Why is the system set up so that we need to sleep in the first place?
I really don’t know. But I suspect that if the system wasn’t set up to force us to sleep sometime most of us would simply self destruct.
Did you know that God set up the whole system so that we’d get enough rest in the first place? The Bible says
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
But what if you don’t buy into the whole God thing?
It turns out it doesn’t matter where sleep is concerned. You are going to sleep eventually.
And you might even find that God slows you down before you self destruct. He has a track record of doing that.
Back in Ancient times God devastated the nation of Israel and had most of them carried off into captivity in part to give the land itself a rest. He had told them to give their fields an off year once every seven years and not to plant crops for a whole year. They never actually followed the by-year instruction. So this is what the Bible says about the time they were in captivity
The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.
God goes through some gyrations to give the land a rest and he does the same thing for us. Gorgeous is struggling with a cold right now. She spent yesterday resting on the couch. And I think it drove her a little bit nuts.
But the alternative of self-destructing would be far worse.
I don’t want what she’s got. But if I don’t start sleeping a little more God may just decide to slow me down and force me to get a little rest anyway.
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How to Get Rid of Stress
I’m a little stressed.
I’m getting on a plane in a touch over 24 hours and I have about three days worth of things to do before I can go. I’ve been scrambling furiously to catch up, but I didn’t budget my time all that well. Now I am paying the price for my mistake by shorting sleep and taking on way too much stress. I’m trying to make up the difference with massive coffee consumption.
Paul wrote some good advice to people like me in a letter we have in the Bible that he wrote to some friends. I like the way The Message puts it
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
I have to ask myself if I really believe that. Do I really believe that God will take care of my business if I allow myself to stop worrying and ask for His help?
I mean my religious, Christian side would give that advice to anyone else I found in my spot, right? So if I know how to get rid of worry, why do I still keep it all?
Because if I truly believed what Paul had to say I wouldn’t feel this overpowering need to be in control of everything all the time and then get stressed out when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to.
Maybe it would help to listen to some of what Jesus said when he gave his famous Sermon on the Mount.
“So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life–whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.
“And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!
“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
You know, my faith may be pretty stinking puny, and I probably stress because I am not really willing to let go of my control and trust what God says. But I do feel better for having read those words this morning.
For now, it’s time to go to work.
Here’s to hoping your day just got a little less stressful too.
Enjoy!
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Late Night Driving with a Clear Conscience
I got home from work fairly late last night. I finished up with the ship and walked down the gangway sometime around 1:30 AM this morning. Not a big deal, really. All part of the job and everything went smoothly for once.
I was driving home with the tunes blaring to help keep me alert. You need to be when you are driving around town at those hours to keep a safe distance from all the cars that weave back and forth or drift out of their lanes.
It is amazing to me the difference in drivers sometimes. I use the cruise control whenever I can when I’m on the highways and the by-pass and I pretty much set it to the same speed all the time. Sometimes I’ll be one of the slowest cars out there with everyone whizzing by. Other times everyone is going 15 MPH slower than I am on the same road. My speed didn’t change. Savannah is weird that way. And last night it seemed I was in a rocket ship because everyone was going slooooowwww.
I’ll tell Gorgeous sometimes if we’re heading home a little late from something, “Watch out for that one. He’s drunk.” She doesn’t understand how I can say that with such certainty. But there was a time in my life…
Anyway, I tuned into my neighborhood sometime around the 2 AM hour and it looked like there must have been a bad accident, flashing lights everywhere. Lots of blue lights mixed in with the amber from a tow truck.
My first thought was “Oowie! That doesn’t look good.” Then I did a quick mental check to see I knew of an easy way around by an alternate route because it had been a long day, I really just wanted to get to bed. And in my experience Savannah’s Finest isn’t particularly concerned with traffic flow around accident scenes. They’ll block major roads way longer than they need to in the interest of safety.
But hey, they’re allowed. They’ve got guns.
Well I saw they let a car go around what must have been the wreck so I decided to just suck it up and wait it out. It turns out that was a good call because I’d run smack into a DUI checkpoint, not an accident. And on a Thursday night even. Go figure.
I’m a little slow on the uptake, but I figured it out when I saw a line of police officers beside the road, each one talking to a driver. So after presenting my license and proof of insurance (and saying a quiet thank you for our secretary who’d just given us our new insurance cards) I was on my way home.
As the officer was handing my documents back he yelled to his team, “We’ve got another one trying to cut through!” I wondered to myself it that was someone trying to avoid talking to the police, or someone just trying to get past a traffic tie-up.
The whole thing got me thinking how nice it is not to be concerned about an encounter with the police. They say people who often drive drunk get to be experts at spotting cop cars. It is probably because of the rush of adrenalin that hits their system when they see one, knowing what could happen.
Paul explained this principle
For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well.
And it is true. When our conscience is clear and we know we’ve done nothing wrong we worry a whole lot less. I was completely unafraid of talking with a representative of the Savannah-Chatham Police Force, even when it was approaching the two o’clock hour. That lack of fear hasn’t always been the case…
Given a choice, I prefer no fear. Besides my bed at home sleeps better than any accommodations Chatham County would provide at that hour!
Enjoy! And stay safe this weekend.
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Sleep Deprivation Experiment #748 Complete
Well we successfully made it through this week’s sleep deprivation experiment. I managed to get through it without driving off the road, making any technical blunders, or getting short with anyone. (Although I did have one minor issue with my camera at 3 AM on Sunday morning.)
This time we added a twist to the experiment. I really didn’t have to work all that many hours this weekend. They just all happened to be at night. And I learned something.
I must be getting older. (Oh, there’s a shocker!)
It used to be my motto was “Anytime – Anywhere.”
Now obviously that motto wasn’t original with me. Google the two words and you get nearly 50 million hits. Some of them I’m sure you don’t want to click, if you know what I mean.
But when I was younger that pretty much summed up where I could sleep if I decided to. Sleep was never a challenge for me. My dad would probably tell you that I acquired that skill at an early age. I remember a little friction many of my teenaged mornings when he insisted I get up before I was awake.
My time in the Navy only reinforced that special ability. Spend 6 months with your bed about 10 feet directly underneath JBD number 4 and you’ll be able to sleep through a hurricane. (Check out How Aircraft Carriers Work if you want to know what a JBD is.) Heck, I even slept strapped in an ejection seat. More than once! (Makes you feel safe, doesn’t it, knowing folks on the pointy end of the spear might be asleep on the job!)
Of course I still remember the noise sequence of a typical launch.
First there is the relatively quite jet engine noise of the plane taxiing into place. Then there’s the whine of the hydraulic motors lifting the JBD behind the plane which ends in two dull thuds followed by four loud clicks of the locking pins being driven home. Next you have a rush of the seawater surging through the cooling pipes. Shortly after that the whole room will start to shake as the plane runs up to full power, but can’t yet go anywhere. Then after a few seconds, the shooter will fire the catapult and the engine noise rushes away forward. The sea water stops. The four pins click and unlock. The hydraulics whine as they lower the JBD. Finally there’s the two dull thuds as the JBD comes back to rest on the deck.
The whole process takes about 2 minutes and then starts again.
I remember all that from 1992!
But my point is that I never had any trouble sleeping through that insane racket. Yet this weekend, in a very quiet house, with the boys not bothering me at all (they were very good), I couldn’t sleep more than a couple hours during the day. And this even though I was totally exhausted!
Why does getting older have to mean having trouble sleeping? I’m not digging this aging process!!
Hope you have a great day and sleep well tonight.
Enjoy!
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Highway at Night
It’s time for another sleep deprivation experiement.
The time is now slightly after 2300 hours, or slightly before departure for work in Jacksonville, FL (approximatley 2.0 Hours driving time).
I’ll check in somtime in the morning. Gotta love being first on call when wierd stuff happens.
If you are going to be on I-95 in the next several hours, don’t forget to wave. I’ll be the one with the coffee IV drip…
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Time is Relentless
Why did God set up the day with only 24 hours in it?
As if that would be anywhere near enough time to get done all the things I want to do on top of all the things I have to do.
No matter what we do, the clock keeps ticking. Time is one of the places where everyone is equal. And while we may each be allotted a different number of days on this planet, every one of us is given the same 24 hours each day.
Right now my schedule has gotten a bit nuts. This past weekend I did nearly a month’s worth of work in three days. I am still digging out from under the paper work. I have a meeting in less than an hour with a guy and I am not completely prepared for it. Gorgeous is heading out of town this morning and won’t be back until after I leave on Saturday for a few days.
I want to keep my blog here up to date. The neighbors would appreciate it if I cut the grass before I leave. My car needs washing and Gorgeous’ needs some maintenance. I want to do some computer work to support a couple of projects Gorgeous has going.
And somewhere along the way I should actually go to the Y. (Apparently I can’t get into shape just by cutting them my membership check each month. I have to physically go there and exercise. I don’t remember reading that in the fine print!)
Oh, yes. And my body still won’t let me skip the whole sleep thing.
And we don’t even have kids! I truly can’t imagine what life would be like if that dynamic was added in.
So we are all restricted to 24 hours in any given day. It doesn’t seem right.
But maybe God knew that we needed limitations. Maybe if he gave us even more hours, we’d keep going until we exploded. Perhaps the whole sleep thing was built in to force us to take some down time to recharge so that we could keep going through an entire life.
All I know is I am late for a meeting (again) and I have to get moving. I am looking forward to the day that I step into eternity and have all the time I need to do the things I want.
Not that I want to get there today, mind you.
Enjoy!
Friday Free-For-All Change is in the Air
You may have noticed some changes around here. We’ll work on going through what’s been updated here after a while.
Gorgeous is out in St. Luis with her companies national training conference for the latter part of this week and into the weekend, which has given me an opportunity to stay up waaay too late and do some research on various things.
I am looking at taking the blogging thing to the next level. It would mean moving away from a (free) Blogger platform to something which would have to be paid for. Since Gorgeous keeps us honest with the budget, I will have to come up with a way to pay for my hobby. Wise woman, that Gorgeous.
That is why I’ve put some ads on the site. I’ll experiment some and see how it goes. I checked my account and I’ve made exactly one penny since last night. 😮 At that rate, I’ll be able to afford to upgrade in about, oh, 10-15 years!
That’s OK. I’m learning a bunch about this whole blogging thing and it seems to be a good fit for me. Tomorrow after I get a good night’s sleep, We’ll get back to our regular postings.
The boys are getting a bit obnoxious because I’ve let myself get sucked into the computer screen here basically since Gorgeous got on that plane. I get the feeling that they may be anxious for her to get home. What do you think?
Takeaways from a Long Day’s Work
Well I did the math after I woke up this afternoon. In a little over 50 hours I managed to get exactly 2 hours of sleep plus two cat-naps in the car of about a half our each. On paper going in it didn’t look like it would be that bad. But then, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, as they say…
Of course by the time I got home this morning, Gorgeous was getting ready to head off to Atlanta for some meetings and an overnight. I tried to stay up and chat with her but apparently I was babbling a little incoherently because she eventually stopped me with, “Chris. You really need to get some sleep now.†Ah, the wisdom of the fairer sex.
I did learn some good lessons from the whole experience, though
- It is amazing what the human body can put up with
I’m a sucker for survival stories. Get caught in a blizzard on Mt. Everest? Lost in the Sahara desert? Find yourself behind enemy lines? Or maybe you got trapped out in the wilderness by yourself and had to cut off your own arm to survive? I could sit and listen for hours. It is fascinating what people do to survive. What is the difference that causes to someone who makes it through when others don’t?
My little work induces exercise on staying away is incredibly tiny compared to those stories. But going through things like that, even on a smaller scale, helps give you a measure of what you can do. It helps build your belief so that when you face the next challenge in your life, you have some perspective and are more able to conquer it.
- One difficult person can really complicate things
Where to begin on this one? Well, on merchant ships, the Chief Officer is normally responsible for the cargo. Since most of my work involves issues with cargo, he’s the guy I usually have to deal with. And we see all kinds. They come from all over the world. The overwhelming majority are highly competent professionals who have a heavy responsibility and are used to getting things done.
But not last night. Last night I had to work with what a pastor friend of mine calls an “EGR†for “Extra Grace Required.†One of the fist things I noticed when I met him was that he absolutely stank of alcohol. Now I was willing to cut him some slack on that account because alcohol and seafaring has a long tradition behind it and the ship had been at anchor for a couple days before it came in. It is not uncommon for mariners to hit the bottle from time to time.
But it sure added to my frustration as he continued to make a sting of decisions that made all of our jobs harder. He was belligerent too, pretty much yelling and screaming at most of the crew, including the captain. At one point he even started in on me as if I was responsible for things taking so long. The bottom line is this guy basically single handedly turned a 24 hour job into a 36 hour job.
Then finally at the end of the operation he created a situation where I couldn’t realistically even do what we were hired to do.
I was not happy.
But it made me think. How many times do I complicate things for the people around me? Hopefully I’m never as bad as that guy was! But it is amazing how just one person who’s not pulling in the same direction of the rest of the team can wreak absolute havoc and keep the objectives from being met.
- Pets are good value
I get the feeling that the boys knew I was zonked because Low Rider curled up beside me on the bed while I slept today and didn’t bug me at all. That’s unusual for him. Big cuteness points. Then, after I got up, Fat Boy came in for some lap time. Since it’s spring time, he’ shedding like crazy so I started brushing him. He started purring really loud and I could tell he was loving it. But I actually laughed out loud when he started drooling all over my shorts.
Somehow a good bout of uncontrollable drool seems to always signify contentment.
I think I’m going to take a nap, maybe even drool on my pillow…
