Rodney M Bliss

Going On Vacation To Get Some Sleep

Last night I slept on the ground. Well, technically, I slept on a 4″ thick sleeping pad in side my tent. We are in Southern Utah, getting ready to visit Zion’s National Park and Kannaraville. We’ll be walking through water up slot canyons, some of which are only a few feet wide and a hundred feet high or more.

But, that sleeping pad and the accompanying sleeping bag were wonderful. Much better than the Marriott Residence Inn in Port St Lucie. In fact, it was even better than my king sized bed at home. That’s because I can finally get some sleep.

This week has been crazy busy at work. Monday morning I got a 1:00am flight to Florida. Then, it was client meetings or travel during the day and 5 hour maintenance windows at night. If I slept at all it was a short nap. Last week wasn’t any better. Between my daily work, the scheduled maintenance work, and dealing with outages, sleep seems to be the thing that got pushed aside. Every night this week I’ve been working late, with the exception of last night.

There’s no cell coverage where I’m at. Work cannot call me. My call centers could burn down and I won’t know it until we get back into cell phone range Saturday night. When I went to bed last night, it was with the knowledge that I would get to sleep uninterrupted. It’s amazing how much being on-call affects your sleep.

Last week, as we investigated an outage call, I texted my network engineer. She had done a lot of the work, and I wanted her to be aware of a potential issue. She called me a few minutes later.

Sorry, Jackie. I didn’t think a text would wake you.

I’m a very light sleeper. Now what do you need?

If you need me, don’t text me. My phone is near enough to my bed to wake me if something breaks in the middle of the night I will hear someone calling. But, I won’t hear the text messages. At least not loud enough to wake me. The phone, though. Yeah, I hear it.

But, not last night. Last night was the sound of boys in nearby tents being too loud. And there’s the never ending car traffic for any camp we drive to. But, no phone. Not even the threat of one. After the last two weeks, it practically feels like going to vacation to be able to sleep all night uninterupted.

On second thought, I guess a trip to Zions National Park should feel like a vacation.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. 

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