Waking Up at Times Beginning With A "4"

For most of 50 years, I held very firm to the belief that the ONLY time I should ever see a time beginning with a “4” in the morning was when I needed to get up and go to the airport to catch an early flight. Otherwise, any time like 4:30am was just downright uncivil and hostile. I should be asleep at that time. I should NEVER be awake at times beginning with a 4.

And yet… here I am writing this post at 4:55am. 🤷‍♂️

What happened? Well, our dog got older! (And I might have, too.😉)

For some context, I have always been an early riser. Ever since I was a child.

But for the first 35 years of my life “early” was defined as 6:00am.

That was when I woke up. Never at times beginning with a 5, either. 6:00am or later.

I am also one of those people who snaps wide awake and is fully alert and ready to go. No “wake up time” needed. It’s like a light switch where I am no longer asleep - I am now fully awake. And… fully talkative 😀, to the immense annoyance of every roommate I have ever had, including my wife.  (The success of our marriage for 26 years so far is perhaps in part because I learned NOT to talk to her when she wakes up! 🤣)

And then our first daughter was born… and in a bit of karmic retribution, she had the same “instant on and fully talkative” characteristics as me, but she ratcheted the wake up time back to 5:30am! 😀

Suddenly, I was seeing times that began with a 5!

Seven years later, our second daughter was born and she continued the progression by getting up even earlier, closer to 5:00am!

And so it was for many years until they hit teenage years and flipped to wanting to sleep in later. (They are now 20 and 13.)

By that time, however, I was stuck with a body that had now adjusted to waking up in times beginning with a “5”.

Still, times with a “4” were only ever to be for airport trips!

Then, starting about five years ago or so, our dear dog started to wake up increasingly early and want to go outside. At times like 4:30am!

At 15 years old, she’s still in great physical condition, prancing around sometimes like she is MUCH younger. But… when a girl’s gotta go… someone has to let her outside… and due to the aforementioned “instant on” capabilities, that someone is… me. 

We’ve tried all sorts of things to see if we could get her to just wait until maybe a time starting with a “5”. We kept her up much later. We changed feeding schedules. We let her out very late in the evening. (Okay, which for us.. “very late” means 10pm 🤣)

Nothing worked. She still gets up sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 am.

So here I am! Wide awake, alert, enthusiastic… at a time beginning with a 4!