I am my father ...

[rayinpenn]

Years ago when I visited the old man in Florida I noticed he had the habit of getting up at 530AM. I was always more of roster then an owl you know "Early to bed, Early to rise..." But 5:00AM? Yikes...
I can remember my mother coming in to my brothers and my room singing that dam song. To the tune of reveille - "you got to get up, you got to get up, you got to get up in the morning...da da da da daaa.." Man I hated that song...

Well I got up yesterday at 5:30, today at five, walked the pooch... Dam I am my father...
Yeah I've taken to napping too..
In truth I love the morning..


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[dirt_dobber]

Hilarious post and nice way to start my day reading this - brought back some great memories. I got up today at 3:15 a.m. - once I am awake I go ahead and get up. Usually only a 30 min nap every other day or so. I love the quiet time of the morning and the rest of the world waking up. The first hint of dawn in a few hours.

 

[target2019]

I found that when I was not working, I was getting up at 5 or so, and really enjoying the dog walk, etc.

On the job again, and I think of reasons to stay in bed...

 

[Major Tom]

It's 5:05am local time here, and I've been up for about 20 minutes, despite the fact that I have no pressing reason to be.

Yikes indeed!

 

[Totoro]

When the sun is intense I get up at sunrise. Summertime New Zealand that's around 6am.

When it's not I just keep sleeping and dozing, usually for 9 to 12 hours.

 

[Fermion]

Have been waking up at 4am for the past few weeks but probably due to nerves and stress over getting the house empty for the buyer.

Isn't it funny that when you were working it was hard to get up at 7am but now you get up at 4am or 5am when you could sleep until noon.

 

[aja8888]

I'm still up around 6:30 am with a doze to 7:00 am. Must be a hold over from years of "you know what". DW, on the other hand, is a 5:30 am riser.

I am a night owl, though and never in bed before 11:30 pm.

 

[DrRoy]

I like getting up early. It makes the day better for me.

 

[eytonxav]

Most days I get up a little before 6:00, but occasionally it could be 4:30 to as late as 7:00. As to my parents, I don't know what time they used to get up because I was always asleep and the last one to get up.

 

[harley]

Not me. I sleep when I'm sleepy, and wake when I feel like it. I often take naps in the late afternoon/early evening and stay up until 2 or 3 or later. I do get up at around 8 or so to feed the dogs and let them out. That's my only consistency, but if I'm still tired I just go back to bed for an hour or so. Sometimes I'm in bed by midnight, sometimes I see the sky brightening when I go to bed. Overall, I get about 7 hours of sleep per day.

 

[FI by 2024]

I can remember my mother coming in to my brothers and my room singing that dam song. To the tune of reveille - "you got to get up, you got to get up, you got to get up in the morning...da da da da daaa.." Man I hated that song...

Are we related? My father sang the same dang song! ::shudder:: he had slightly different words: "it's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the morning DA DA DA DA DA DDDDAAAAA DA"

Nobody I've ever mentioned that to had heard of that tradition. It was a terrible way to wake up. So obnoxious.

 

[aaronc879]

This time of year I almost always sleep with the sun. I go to bed shortly after sunset at around 9 and then wake up shortly after 5 when the sun is shining in. If it's a rainy morning then the light might not get me up until 7.

 

[W2R]

I love the morning but have to set an alarm to make sure I am up by 9 AM and don't miss the entire morning. If I don't set an alarm, I stay up too late, sleep too late, and end up with a 25 hour day with bedtime an hour later each night. That's no fun.

Really, I prefer getting up at 8 AM instead of 9 AM, so I need to transition back to that. 7 AM is good too, but 8 AM seems about perfect.

Until I retired, I thought I was a morning person. I was always seated at my desk at work before 6 AM. After I retired, for the first time I didn't have any obligations forcing me to get up early any more. So now I'm not sure. I still like the mornings a lot but maybe not enough to get up super early.

Nothing more delicious than napping for 20 minutes around 5 PM.

 

[FUEGO]

I snoozed till almost 10 this morning. Decided at 9:57 am I'd get up so no one would think me lazy. People might think I was unemployed instead of ER'd.

 

[rodi]

I won't know what my natural sleep patterns are till I get the kids launched. I still have to get them up and out to school. So during the school week I get up at 5am or 5:50am - depending on whether I'm driving them or they're taking the bus to school. I use the early hours to walk the dog on the beach... this time of year the sun is already up and the surfers out. During the winter it's dark at the beach.

I tend to be a morning person... If I 'sleep in' it's like 7am. But then again, I'm always asleep by 10pm... Definitely not a night owl.

I plan on co-opting the song for annoying my kids. Extra er.org bonus for the morning. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

 

[ABQ2015]

Fortunately for me, my mother was a night owl. Even worked the night shift.

 

[Richard4444]

My father woke me for school with that same song (Some day they're gonna shoot the bugler .... some day they're gonna find him dead...).

5 a.m. is now normal wake up time for me

Rich

 

[Nemo2]

One of my friends, with whom I shared a place in Australia, (lo, these five plus decades ago), used to [-]sing[/-] bellow "Good morning, good morning....it's great to stay out late, good morning, good morning".

 

[Walt34]

DW is one of the early risers, for me 8:00 is early, sleeping until 10:00 is not unusual.

 

[Calico]

One of my friends, with whom I shared a place in Australia, (lo, these five plus decades ago), used to [-]sing[/-] bellow "Good morning, good morning....it's great to stay out late, good morning, good morning".

My father used to bellow "Rise and shine" every morning to get us out of bed. Occasionally he threw in a "Time to swab the decks!" if he was in a particularly good mood.

He claimed this is how he was awakened while in the navy during WWII. I pointed out over and over (always in vain) that none of his three daughters had enlisted in the navy, as far as I was aware.

I am 100% night owl, and can't wait to retire, when I will be able to stay up very late, and sleep late too.

 

[Gumby]

My father used to bellow "Rise and shine" every morning to get us out of bed. Occasionally he threw in a "Time to swab the decks!" if he was in a particularly good mood.

He claimed this is how he was awakened while in the navy during WWII. I pointed out over and over (always in vain) that none of his three daughters had enlisted in the navy, as far as I was aware.

I am 100% night owl, and can't wait to retire, when I will be able to stay up very late, and sleep late too.

If I recall correctly, it was "Reveille, reveille! Up all bunks! All hands, heave out and trice up!" followed almost immediately by "Sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft. Sweep down all lower decks, ladder and passageways."

 

[audreyh1]

My father used to bellow "Rise and shine" every morning to get us out of bed. Occasionally he threw in a "Time to swab the decks!" if he was in a particularly good mood.

He claimed this is how he was awakened while in the navy during WWII. I pointed out over and over (always in vain) that none of his three daughters had enlisted in the navy, as far as I was aware.

I am 100% night owl, and can't wait to retire, when I will be able to stay up very late, and sleep late too.

When they said "rise and shine" did it mean - get up and shine your shoes?

 

[robnplunder]

My dad are I are night and day on everything. A few years ago while looking at past photos, I noticed how close I resembled my dad. Family resemblance was uncanny. Am glad that's the only close resemblance.

 

[imoldernu]

From as far back as I can remember... late 1930's until my marriage in '58, dad worked the late shift as a textile "loomfixer", so he was going to bed as I was getting up for school.

Now, it's one of the old age syndromes of irregular sleep times. Bedtime between 6:30 PM and 1 AM, but always up at 5:15 AM, to greet the sun. Daytime sleep/naps, just as irregular. When into an interesting project, of bingewatching an old TV series, sometimes go for 36 to 40 hours without sleep.

Fortunately none of this irregularity seems to have long term bad effects. Some three or four years ago, asked for some help from the doctor, who prescribed an anti epileptic low dose drug, based on some earlier experience I had with it.

Me... "What if I get addicted?"... She, smiling... "Seriously... how old are you?

And so this was the solution, for a while, until I realized I really didn't need a solution. Now... when the 24 hour thingy happens, I take a 1/2 tablet. Total maybe 6 tablets in the past few months.

Sleep is always accompanied with a TV program, classical music, or once in a while, a sleep CD or white sound. Doesn't much matter.

Have stopped thinking about REM sleep, or strange dreams... Have pretty much gotten dreams under conscious control, where I can interact, and make things happen.

If, over the past several years, my posts indicated peaceful, stable sleep patterns... Well... I lied. Fact is though a little bit strange, not a problem... It's just part of the later years, and a way to make the most of the time remaining.

 

[6miths]

I've always been a night owl which influenced my choice of job and then the job reinforced the behaviour. When working I used to be able to go with very little or no sleep for a day or two and then catch up by sleeping for 16 hours. Years of getting up at 6 am never really stuck and now when left to my own I am up late and awake at 9 or so.