Night shifts

This is the thus far unused 'party house' for the road workers to use at night for their breaks. It's just across the park from us. Hopefully we won't be the crazies stuck in the middle between party central and the road bangers. 

Night works on the road building across the way started last night, and even though I thought I might have to be on the look out for super-duper ear plugs to drown the shitful noise, I am pleased to report that so far so good. Yeh there was a bit of banging and scraping, but less noise in my head than if I was in the dentist chair, and the party house arrangement that was installed last week in the park, was not filled with beer swilling yobbos or even rowdy blokes making a cuppa. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, but in the mean time I am pleased.

I do wonder how people manage it though. How do night shift workers manage?

I am definitely a morning person, always have been. Oh sure every other weekend in my thirties I gave being the dancing queen, night owl my best shot only to be found face down flaked out on the couch all of Sunday, until it was collection time. It's possible that this is where my cheese toast for dinner on Sundays originated and quite possibly it was because my girl could manage that herself. Yeh so maybe I could drink and dance all night, but really I was only pretending, cos the sleep required to combat the headache was elusive and the candle being burnt at both ends just left me rooted and haggered and too often a bit light headed and always fuzzy.

I don't do well with not enough sleep, and it seems to me that I haven't routinely had enough sleep since about 1980, what with babies and work and illness and partying like a try hard party animal.

And what with the typical insomnia associated with the poison drugs I was concerned about the compounding impact of the night works. 3 nights a week on average I don't sleep and I will admit that can, and Stevie would say, as he ducks for cover, definitely DOES, make me ever so slightly crochety and sometimes a little irritable and sometimes the rampaging bull puts in an unwelcome appearance and it all gets a bit ugly.

SO I wonder how folk who work all night manage. It's all very well saying that they put up some block out curtains and just pop into bed when they get home, but the curtains wouldn't shut out the day time noise of traffic and children and neighbours arguing and all the usual banging about. And how do they make all those shitful calls to government agencies and telcos and banks and stuff that are only open during the day? And then there is the tappity tappity tap tap of the metre reader for the electricity and the deliveries of stuff bought online cos the shops are closed when they are not working and then there are the sellers of religion and gypsy house cleaners and other door knockers, who are marginally annoying if you are awake and vertical but must make folk murderous if they have just laid their weary heads down to rest.  

And what about things like seeing a doctor or a solicitor for the divorce from the person who works during the day who is sick and tired of coming home to some brothely mess of weird shit cooked and left to coagulate all day in the sink or on the stove top cos the night worker faded after food. And think about the family 'events' that would come and go unattended - well maybe this could be an advantage depending on the family of course.

Well done to the nurses, emergency doctors and ambos and firies and police officers who work all night. I just don't know how they do it, but I am sure glad they do.

The road workers I am less grateful for but at least thus far they are not driving me mad, cos we know that is not a long road.