Sleep around these parts has been a four-letter word recently. Given that it’s a five-letter word, you can tell how tired we’ve been.
This isn’t to bemoan the state of being sleep-deprived. Everyone, it seems, is sleep-deprived these days. If you believe the news. Which is another topic entirely… where were we? Ah, yes: sleep.
The greatest casualty thus far in mounting the NLASTBISOTSPOTUSA—known more commonly as the Southern Expedition—has been sleep. Already a casualty from at least early spring, the nights leading up the great send-off our staff was averaging three hours of sleep a night.
After the truck was loaded and away, with but two and a half hours of sleep, it was time to head South. The time: 2:00 a.m. The gamble of a ~15 hour drive on so little sleep was factored in, but with a little good luck, it was thought things would be ok.
Unfortunately, fittingly, the send-off from Buffalo was a heavily snowy one. The trip from downtown to Hamburg via highway took well over 40 minutes. The slowdown continued beyond the New York border. Tennessee brought heavy fog, and traffic crawled. Instead of maybe ~15 hours, it became an 18+ hour drive. Apologies to all those we nearly side-swiped on the way down. When the brain is thinking of driving, and suddenly finds itself looking at another lane, there is little one can do except swap drivers. Also, next time: more sleep.
Money can be earned, dry goods and foodstuffs replenished, but sleep is one commodity that cannot be remade. One night of catch up is fine, but five to six hours per night for eight months will begin to catch up during a large project. This is a large project.
Despite this problem, progress is being made. We expect positive returns soon enough.
We’d drink more coffee, but now that they say it may cause hallucinations we’re not sure. Who needs more of those?