Waking Up on the Wrong Side

of the sun.

Swing shift sucks.

Three more weeks of this.

Married to one of Santa's elves I am.

Do you ever think about all the work that goes into making that pile of presents under the tree possible?

Sure it is common to hear the complaints of the terrible shopping experiences, the long shopping lists, the last minute wrapping, the late night bike assembly and so on and so on.

But what of all the work that went into getting those gifts to the place where the buyer buys? All the assembly line workers, the packagers, the warehouse and shipping dock workers, the truckers, the mail delivery persons, the person taking your order over the phone?

Many many many of these 'Santa elves' work 50 to 60 and more hours per week between Thanksgiving and Christmas taking a while lot of crud off the stressed out customers and still have to shop for their kid's Christmas at Goodwill since they are likely to take home a pink slip on Christmas eve.

Pardon if I sound maudlin. I've been awake for three hours and not had my coffee yet. Ed and I got in a pattern of him bringing me home a cup of hot fresh brewed coffee each night and that was working OK when he was getting home between 9 and 10. But this is the third or forth time in a week that he's not been here by midnight. Drinking my coffee between midnight and 3am is not such a good iddea. Is no wonder I'm still awake at noon or even 2 to say good bye as he leaves again.