4 AM – can’t sleep

Some people like a good breakfast to start the day. I like a good night’s sleep. I think I caught a few winks before midnight but I was up by 2AM and its no good trying to collect the rest of them. Maybe its all the caffeine I’ve had today. I swore off real coffee a year ago but with my father-in-law’s visit and one of my coffee makers broken I’ve only been brewing the real stuff for a couple days now. Add the cup of java I had at our friends house for dinner this evening and I’m wide awake.

Of course, I’ve got lots on my mind at the moment and having it all turn over at the same time makes it hard to sleep too. As I snuck out of my bedroom, trying not to wake Claudia, I saw my son’s door ajar and his light flooding the hallway. He’s a nightowl but he surprised me by heading straight for me. “Where’s the new Harry Potter book?” he asked me.

“I thought you were trying to avoid it?”

“I was,” he replied. He’s been trying to focus all his attention on his Organic Chemistry class. He’s got a test on Tuesday and a diversion into the world of the occult is an unwanted diversion.

I slipped back into my bedroom and picked it up off the dresser and handed it to him. I don’t blame him.

I began reading the books outloud to Claudia a second time starting last December in preparation for Deathly Hallows. Jeanette, from our Sunday School class, delivered the coup de grasse to our front door this afternoon. We had to wait till my father-in-law turned in before digging in. Two chapters down 34 and an epilogue to go.

I read today that 15 % of Americans have read all six books in the series so far. That’s 45 million people. Holy Cow! The flyer in the copy of the latest Potter at the home of our hosts tonight said “3,440 pages read, 784 to go.” How many pages is that times 45 million?

Organic Chemistry vs. Harry Potter….Organic Chemistry vs. Harry Potter……sorry, but that’s no contest.

Its not just the world of the occult that has my mind turning. The world of fantasy called the Duluth Schools has more plot twists than even J.K. Rowling could dream up. I regaled our hosts with some of them last night. I’ll share some of them on the blog as the campaign proceeds.

Of course, my year-and-a-half plunge into the scandal of the Upper Great Lakes Regional Commission continues. My principal source sent me ten pages on a side street leading from it today. I just printed it out to join the seven or eight bank boxes of stuff I already have on the subject. My research is on hold while I play host to our Florida guest who I’ve kept busy helping scrape, prime and paint our windows.

And then that darned tune by Cesar Franck is going through my head. I sing my first ever solo tomorrow at our church service. Much of it hovers near the highest range my voice can reach, up where tenors sing. Its a stately, saccharine tune which constantly threatens to catch me in strangled uncertainty to squeeze out the horrible sounds of a boy with a bad case of puberty.

So that’s too much caffeine, my father-in-law, Harry Potter, a year’s research, and a first ever solo, oh, and a looming race for the Duluth School Board. That’s been on my mind as well.

I suppose that’s why you’ve come to read. The School Board is on your mind as well. Hmmm, Its now 4:30AM. As I’ve been typing this I finished off the chunk of fudge that our hosts gave me after dinner. I’m hoping a sugar crash following a sugar high will overcome the late night coffee. (Oh, I just yawned. That’s a hopeful sign.) I don’t want to sing in front of all my friends strung out on a bad night’s sleep. I’m going back to bed and you’ll just have to come back and see if I return to the subject that really interests you. CU later.

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