Next weekend is a three-day weekend. I am holding on to that fact right now, even as I sit here, barely able to keep my eyes open and knowing that no amount of coffee is going to wake me up any further this morning. Yesterday afternoon during my lunch hour I went to Curves and staggered in, bleary-eyed, hoping it would at least wake me up a bit more. It worked – but only briefly. By 3 o’clock in the afternoon I was searching for toothpicks with which to prop open my eyelid, and by the time I got home I was more than ready for a nap. Today wasn’t much better.

I am blaming this latest bout of restless insomnia on the rather abrupt change in weather. After the short and fairly soggy spring we had, we seem to have jumped directly into summer without much of a transition at all. It’s supposed to be in the low 90’s all week. And even with the windows open it feels somehow stuffy and oppressive in our room at night – as if summer is lurking like some huge and malevolent creature just beyond our sight.

I know the real reason why it has gotten so warm so quickly, and it has everything to do with Murphy’s Law. We’re discussing large amounts of do-it-yourself labor for our backyard. Naturally this requires Mother Nature to bring on the energy-sucking heat wave. I have a sneaky feeling that we may be scuttling around in our backyard digging trenches for the raised flower bed wall, pulling weeds, and setting flagstones for pathwork with only the full moon, or perhaps the rising sun as light. And all the while wondering aloud why we didn’t get this sudden urge to landscape back when it was still cool enough outside to make heavy lifting and digging more enjoyable.