The Great Satan

!Hola!  I've recently returned from a trip to the sunny land of Mexico.  Thus explaining my inability to add to my lovely blog.  I spent the week helping a church in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, build pews.  It was hot.  It was hard work.  It was good.  (Halo temporarily forms above my head but then fizzes out like a neon sign on its last leg)  This trip allowed me to spend ten glorious days away from one of the great evils of our time.  I'm not talking about a somewhat voluntary media blackout where I didn't watch a TV.  Nor do I speak of the absence of a internet connection.  Those things, at times, can produce positive results.  The thing of which I speak is so innocuous as to go unnoticed by most, and probably never viewed in such a horrible light.  But its mere beastly existence is detestable to me.  It is...(three hard, descending chords on a piano).....the alarm clock.
That's right, for almost a week and a half I was not cruelly awakened by this master of dismay.  It sat idle and I woke in peace.  And I think that's really the issue. 
People, myself definitely included, hate to be awakened unnaturally.  That is, anytime someone must wake up before their body has given them that natural nudge, they are vexed.  Irritated.  Inflamed.  Also, they tend to despise whoever caused this unwanted plunge into consciousness.  Parents waking up their children are never met with appreciation.  I even came up with elaborate schemes to sabotage such attempts, if nothing more than to delay the inevitable for 60 seconds.   The neighbor next door who decides lawn care is required before 8 am?  I'm grumbling under my breath just thinking about it.   And let's not even dwell on the poor soul who must make the wake-up call at a hotel.  My tone with them is usually pretty harsh until the truth finally begins to sink in that I put them up to it.   Ever called someone in the morning thinking they'll be up only to get the delayed, dazed and groggy..."hello?"  My first instinct is to just hang up I'm so horrified by the realization that I'm that guy.   And anyone who's been on the other end of the call invariably assures said caller that its ok only to hang up the phone and muse,"What was he thinking?", and possible name calling.
I think that's really why alarm clocks are so prevalent.   No one wants to be responsible for such an act as yanking another human from slumber.  So we make the machines do it.   And you can't be mad at the machine, for it's only doing what you told it.  Heck even the wake call is now automated many places.  But I found this week that the absence of an artificial, evil little sleep stealer can have an amazingly positive effect on one's (mine) attitude, energy level, and overall enjoyment of life.  I was still waking up by 7 am.  But I felt rested, and not bitter about waking.  Contrast that with a typical morning that starts with the plaintive tones of a clock radio; happy is not a word that usually comes into play. 
As soon as I figure out a way to get to work on time with out it, I'm done....or more likely I'll just continue being bitter...and sleepy.