January 31, 2014

The 10th pre-dawn post.

And still more than half an hour before sunrise.

It's one of those mornings. I love the pre-dawn hours, but sometimes it's a mad love. I hope you go on to read the 9 posts that I've already done. There is perhaps an insanity/rationality theme. I don't know, but I'm going to step away from the computer to cook up a second pre-breakfast.

ADDED: This is the view from my window right now, completely unretouched (and showing the computer screen in the dark room):

Untitled

20 comments:

rhhardin said...

Predawn.

It's actually the time to gather up the previous day's math problem solutions from the old computers.

Anonymous said...

The more you post the more likely I am to use your Amazon link to buy something. Since I have a 3 bedroom house to furnish that could add up to a tidy sum. So post away and watch your personal fortune grow.

Ex-prosecutor said...

Could we please have a video of Zeus running in the snow from his house to yours to play with Meade? Meeting maybe in your backyard?

rhhardin said...

My spam folder this morning includes "Subject: Eviction Notice."

That's getting close to my suggested all-winning spam subject "Contact Your Parole Officer."

Shouting Thomas said...

The compulsive worker thing is a common problem among lawyers.

As well as the World's Most Dutiful Schoolgirl act.

You could use a bout of heavy drinking and debauchree.

It would provide you with a little relief from the claustrophobic egghead thing. You might notice that a world exists outside your skull that does not respond to reason.

The peculiar notion that people who want grandchildren of their own blood, one of the primal drives of all living creatures, is an affliction called "homophobia" would probably disappear from that trap of a skull if you'd get shitfaced and lose your mind for a while. You might notice that that notion is hilarious.

You've got the usual egghead problem. Elaborate structures fascinate you, but you often miss the obvious. You need to get down and grunt in the mud with the other piggies.

Rx courtesy Dr. Thomas. Soon to be reimbursed by Obamacare.

Rusty said...

Predawn.
Getting ready to go to work or play. Take a minute to stand on the deck and take in the stars. No matter what the weather.
Orion is low on the horizon to the Southeast.

Tank said...

Second pre-breakfast?

LOL.

What are you a Hobbit?

Or perhaps feeling a little eleven o'clockish? (It's always eleven o'clockish somewhere).

Shouting Thomas said...

So, Althouse, I'm looking forward to the day when, after a weeklong unexplained absence from the blog...

You announce breathlessly...

That you've been shitface drunk and stoned, out of commission, and you barely remember where in the fuck you were. But, you've been reborn!

That's a part of your education that you seem to have missed. It's instructive.

Will said...

What a beautiful picture. I have noticed over the years you tend to post early morning sunrise pics about this time of year. Not sure if it's because the earth/sun line up so well relative to the backyard or if Midwest lack of sunlight induces a bit of SAD right at this point of winter. Have you noticed how we are suddenly seeing the sun set later and rise earlier? I have just noticed it in the last week too..

I always love your pics out that window. The one you did in daylight a day or two ago of the screensaver matching the view was awesome. I really love your house and that command-central setup you have in front of the big windows.

I also love your Picnic Point pictures, especially the sunset or storm ones.I only ever come to Madison for Ironman spectating or training... I love to run that lakeside path out to Picnic Point.

It's not insomnia; your body knows Spring is coming, polar vortex or not!!

Shouting Thomas said...

20 years ago, when I worked in IT in support of a corporate law firm, we low life staffers often wondered what in the hell it was that compelled the lawyers to keep pushing paper like mad rats.

"The morons don't have the fucking sense to go home," was a common observation.

"They don't have anything to go home to," was the common response.

The majority of the lawyers once had a different ambition that failed or that they abandoned, an ambition for which they actually felt a passion.

The workaholic, dutiful student thing had become a habit, so they just transferred that habit to the paper pushing. Damned if anybody was going to outwork them, even if they didn't give a shit about the work, beyond collecting a paycheck.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Will. I don't think it's SAD, as I don't fell at all depressed. I just go to bet early, and t sleep as long as I need to and can't force myself to sleep longer, and I love to get up and read and write.

With the limited light in winter, I want to get all of it I can and I'm glad my natural pattern has me not sleeping through any of the sunlit parts of the day.

My classes are late afternoon, so I get home, eat some dinner, read until my eyes feel bad, and I just try to stay awake until 9, which isn't easy!

Wince said...

For commenters, it's like waking to a full inbox and starting the day way behind.

Ann Althouse said...

"Second pre-breakfast?"

So… you wake up at 3:30. Unable to go back to sleep, you get up at 4. You make coffee and a little snack. (I had peanut butter on half an apple.)

At some point, your husband will wake up, and he's all about cooking up a lot of bacon. That's officially breakfast.

But he's not up, and it's 2 and a half hours since the first pre-breakfast, so you make second pre-breakfast. (I made hot chocolate and scrambled eggs.)

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks to Alan and to all who shop using the Althouse Amazon Portal.

Ann Althouse said...

The other thing is that the bacon-cooking method used takes something like an hour.

I'm just getting bacon now, at 9 o'clock, which is nearly 6 hours after I woke up. Hence the pre-breakfast imperative.

Tank said...



Ann Althouse said...
"Second pre-breakfast?"

So… you wake up at 3:30. Unable to go back to sleep, you get up at 4. You make coffee and a little snack. (I had peanut butter on half an apple.)

At some point, your husband will wake up, and he's all about cooking up a lot of bacon. That's officially breakfast.

But he's not up, and it's 2 and a half hours since the first pre-breakfast, so you make second pre-breakfast. (I made hot chocolate and scrambled eggs.)


That's great. You must have a good metabolism.

"...all about cooking up a lot of bacon." God's food. The BEST taste, and gets you to God quicker too. Mrs. Tank has learned to make bacon biscuits from daughter Tank - bacon, club cracker, brown sugar, magic rub - bake for an hour. Looks like something the dog should get (dogs like them too).

MadisonMan said...

I slept in today -- 'til 6:30 -- but left for work at 6 yesterday and the day before, and the rising near-new moon was just beautiful, right next to Venus. I hope you've seen it, although maybe it was behind the hill the Chancellor lives on.

What kind of bacon? I love the Usinger's Applewood we can get at CostCo.

kjbe said...

Beautiful photo. I love that time of day (being up before anyone else), though this time of year, the furnace hasn't kicked it yet and I have a tendency to roll over and rest my eyes. In spring, summer and fall, I'll embrace it and go out for a pre-work run.

One thing that's fun about those pre-work, pre-dawn runs, is sometimes smelling eggs and bacon wafting through the air.

Pianoman said...

that is a gorgeous photo, Professor.

MadisonMan said...

In the summer, at that time of day -- just before dawn -- that is a perfect time to paddleboard.