When I met with my therapist last week one of the things we talked about was waking up after 2 or 3 hours and not being able to get back to sleep because I couldn't turn my mind off.

She spoke of recent studies that have shown America seems to be practically alone in its obsession with getting a "full night's sleep." 8 hours of sleep in a single, continuous slog doesn't seem to be the norm. Now, I'm not troubled that it is 0400 and I'm writing this instead of lying in bed trying to get my mind to turn off. Also, I was itching pretty badly and couldn't sleep anyway. Plus, I'm getting some regular writing done, too. I'm not saying the block has been defeated, but it's armor does have quite a few dents.

Yesterday, took the wife to Miracle Ear and she's damned near totally deaf in her left ear. Her comfortable hearing range in that ear is 95 dB. Her right ear isn't much better; it needs 85 dB. As a result, we're spending nearly $6,000 of our remaining balance from the inheritance to bring her back into the land of "normal" hearing.