COMPLETE NON-TURBANCE

The alarm clock awoke me, rending apart a rather engaging dream. Quite likely I didn't have enough sleep. I was loathe to get up and whack the machine into submission. There are mornings when I don't have to worry about it, though, as something else will wake me.
These things always end up the same. A cup of coffee.

We rely on caffeine. Civilization would be nearly impossible without it.

My apartment mate requires it far less. There were many years when she didn't need it at all, and even now there are times when she comes bouncing out of her room fully alert without a drop of coffee or tea for several hours. Usually that's because she got a good night's sleep, having gone to bed early and not reading till the wee hours.


I cannot do that. Life just doesn't begin till that first cup.

I was a zombie before I discovered dirty boiling water.


The coffee habit began at roughly the same time as the pipe smoking. Adolescence, high school, a permanent rejection of boy scout life, and the realization that chili paste or hot sauce made everything edible. Plus bafflement about gender roles, of course.
Teenage life would be incomplete without at least some of that.

It is quite likely that the emphasis on school sports is at least partly prompted as a counter-balance to the beastly passions of teenage boys. Run the little monsters ragged, is probably the thought, and they won't have the energy to engage in brawling or drunkenness. And cold showers. Nobody wants to disturb the force when they're shivering and miserable.

That probably accounts for those people who start their days with a run or picking up dog droppings. They need something to counter the tendency to do nasty stuff.
They wake up with daemons.

Some of us are more thoughtful creatures.


Caffeine, plus highly refined sugar, and nicotine.
Accompanied by doom scrolling.
Engage brain.



We roar into the sky over The South Downs in our Lancasters, ready to dodge the Hun. Jerry's across the Channel, and there's a full load to be dropped on industrial terrains over there on the continent. We've been fully briefed and given a map.

And we need another jolt of caffeine.



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