Hibernation Time Again

I have now reached the time of year when I start to seriously wonder if I am part bear (or some other hibernating animal). No matter how early I try to go to bed, I end up sleeping incredibly late, and if I sit still for more than a few minutes, I start dozing off. I'd be perfectly content spending the entire day snuggled under a blanket and daydreaming as I drift in and out of actual sleep. It doesn't help that all this sleep isn't necessarily restful sleep. It's been cold outside, which means my bedroom has actually been uncomfortably warm. That's because the thermostat is in a cold spot in the house, but my bedroom is on the first vent from the heater, so the air blowing into my room is hotter and more forceful than the air that makes it into the room where the thermostat is. Even at the lowest possible setting, if the heater comes on, my room gets way too hot. When it's less cold out and the heater doesn't come on, my room stays cooler. Then there's the fact that the blower motor sounds like a 747 preparing for takeoff when it kicks on. So on nights when it's cold enough for the heater to come on, I don't get much sleep between the loud fan and having to wake up and kick covers off every so often. It's not supposed to drop below freezing tonight, so without the danger of frozen pipes I may be tempted to turn the heat off entirely, snuggle under a pile of blankets and see if I sleep better. However, that then might make it incredibly difficult to get out of bed in the morning if the house is cold and I am warm and snug.

Once I know what kind of income I can expect this year, one of the first things I may do to upgrade my house is replace the heater and air conditioner with something more efficient and quieter. And maybe with a programmable thermostat.

Anyway, as I discovered last year when I declared January my writing month, it can be really hard to write at this time of year, especially when I'm in revision mode where the daydreaming isn't quite as helpful. It would be, I admit, a lot more helpful if I were better at channeling the daydreaming so that it was actually about the book I'm working on. Instead, my brain seems determined to finish that dream I had New Year's Eve night. It can't seem to handle an unfinished story. I finally gave up last night and let my brain play, so I think that mental story is now more or less finished, and I might be able to make it focus on the story I'm writing. If I can stay awake, that is. It's time to go jog in place as I make tea.