When captured by the enemy, soldiers are advised to sleep and eat whenever they can because they never know when either (or both) might be denied them.
While I would never compare my job to being a prisoner of war, the above advice has come in handy from time to time with my work (See? Graphic designers have it rough, people!). Well, not the food part, but definitely the sleep deprivation. I don't sleep that much to begin with, but when you're on-call for 31 hours straight and are guaranteed to be called to the job site several times... well, even a little sleep is hard to come by. So I grab an hour here and 20 minutes there, and try to be sane and somewhat comprehensible when reporting for duty.
But the real trick is getting rested enough that you feel comfortable driving. It's one thing to be sleep-walking on the job... it's quite another to be sleep-driving in a car.
Especially when you're in rural Georgia where wild deer love prancing around the roadways.
Last night on the way to Waffle House for a midnight dinner, a deer was standing in the middle of a dark country road with a 55 MPH speed limit. Even though I was driving just under 50 MPH because it was so dark, this still necessitated my slamming on the brakes to avoid getting a venison hood ornament. The deer, however, wasn't impressed and wandered off at a leisurely pace (Darwinism takes a vacation!).
On the way back, I had slowed to 45 MPH "just in case" and nearly hit TWO deer crossing that same road. Quick braking and a hard swerve avoided tragedy, but left me with an adrenaline rush which made getting any kind of sleep impossible for the next several hours.
But don't worry. When my job finally ended this afternoon, I managed to get three whole hours sleep before hacking together this blog entry, so I guess I'm back to normal again. Or as normal as a person can be who is an insomniac that craves human blood.
I should totally be a vampire.
Or, more appropriately, a zombie vampire!
A zombie vampire that eats deer who stand in the road!
Guess I should pack my suitcase now, seeing as how I'm leaving early tomorrow morning and all...
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You’re eating Bambi’s ass. BTW.
Zombies just love a good rump roast.
With a side of brains, of course.
Scary! Those things can really do some serious damage. So, how was the Waffle House at midnight on some deserted road in rural Georgia? You’re far braver than I am. And, besides, they don’t like my type down that way.
Reading this post reminds me of that Simpson’s episode where they are driving and utter, in unison, “Doh!.. a deer… a female deer.” as they slam the car into the deer display.
Fortunately, you didn’t recreate that scene.
Even the smallish deer will f&*$k up your car. I should know…I totaled my dad’s VW Rabbit in high school hitting a deer going 55 mph.
Glad you were at least able to get a little sleep.
So much for free time yesterday, right?
I love this picture. I think you should incorporate venison rump roast eating into the “ask Dave” app.
Waffle House! Rural! Deer! You could be in my neck o’ the woods, but no… fly right over me (AR) you did. BTW, that DaveToon might be my favorite. There may have been a guffaw and a bit of coffee spewing involved when I saw it.
That Bambi pic doesn’t look right at all.