The Wee Small Hours

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There is no hope for a civilization which starts each day to the sound of an alarm clock. ~Author Unknown

This portion stolen from: http://provomayor.blogspot.com/

At 5:05 AM on Wednesday August 25th, 2010, a semi truck was driving north on South State Street approaching 300 South at 700 East to make a left hand turn. In the process of making the left turn, the vehicle left the roadway and struck a pole used to support a power pole.

The semi truck struck with such force that the guide line pulled down several power poles causing an immediate loss of electrical power to approximately 4,000 homes in South East Provo. The semi truck, carrying frozen dinners, rolled off of the roadway and onto it's side.

Provo Fire and Rescue along with Provo Police responded to find the driver had received a slight injury to his lower leg. The driver was taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released.

Provo Power respond to re-establish electrical power. At this time, a majority of the power has been restored to the area and Provo Power is still working to re-install power poles and lines at the intersection of 300 South and 700 East. The clean up process is expected to take several days to complete.

So ours was one of the approximate 4,000 homes in South East Provo that lost power on the morning of August 25. Of course it was 5:00 in the morning so it’s not like any of us realized that the house was dark because the power was out – being 5am the house was already pretty dark before the power went out.

But the weird thing is that I actually woke up at about 5:10 that morning. And believe me when I tell you that it is really weird for me to wake up at 5:10am. It’s really weird for me to voluntarily wake up pretty much any time before 8am. Oh, who am I kidding…even 10am is too early to get up sometimes.

But on Wednesday morning at 5:10am I found myself awake (how did I know it was 5:10am if the power was out you ask? I checked the clock on my charged cell phone). It might have been because it was kind of warm in my room (no fan, no AC). Or it may have been because it was really dark in the house (I have a kind of obnoxious streetlight outside my bedroom window that never allows my room to be pitch-black even when the blinds are shut).

But whatever the reason, my eyes popped open of their own accord in my darker than usual room.

I find that to be very ironic… and really annoying.

I love to sleep - I really do. I think this is because sleep is hard for me to find sometimes so when I actually do fall asleep I want it to last as long as possible. This means that getting up once I’ve found sleep is just a chore, a burden, a torture. In order to get up on time I usually have my clock radio set to go off, playing something loud and obnoxious a good 40 minutes or so before I really have to get up. And then if I really, really have to get up, I set my phone alarm too so it will go off at 10 minute intervals. But even after all that I can usually sleep through everything, then end up getting up at least 10 minutes past the optimum time so my mornings often end up being a bit rushed. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, but what can I say? It’s the truth.

But in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning, even after a truck carrying frozen dinners hit a pole and cut the power to 4,000 homes leaving me without my usual morning wake-up cacophony, I finally managed to wake up early without any apparent outside stimulation – I just woke up.

What is up with that?