Murphy comes a-visiting

Some organisation or other conducted a survey recently into just where in the bedroom people kept their alarm clocks.  Just why on earth anyone would want to research that is quite beyond me, but I have come to the conclusion that universities especially will conduct research into anything if some mug or other is willing to cough up the spondoolicks.  Anyway, whatever the background reason for the research/survey, the result did rate a mention in the fish-wrap.  It might even have been as recently as last week that we learned that one in three people place their alarm clocks so that they have to get out of bed to switch them off.  I can't say that I was surprised to learn that, but neither was I unsurprised.  Frankly, I found it all a bit of a yawn.

(Sorry about that.)

I used to do the very same thing when I was working and needed to be out of bed at the crack of sparrow-fart, or even what seemed to be still the middle of the night for at least six months of the year.  My aim was to be out of the house at or very soon after six o'clock so I could be at my desk just after eight.  I didn't actually have to be at work until nine - or even later.  I was, after all, the Boss - or the nearest the staff had to a boss as I was responsible only to the board which was comprised entirely of non-executive directors.  I had figured that if I caught a train sufficiently early in the morning, I would be sure always of getting a seat, and there was less chance of the train running late.  It also meant that I could leave the office early with a clear conscience, thereby ensuring that I got a seat for the return journey and also got home early enough to actually have an evening to enjoy.

All that, though, is entirely off the point, which is that I still use an alarm clock, although now it is a radio alarm with a snooze button and it is situated so that I can easily press that snooze button.  I'm not really sure just why I continue to use an alarm, although I try telling myself it's so that I am up in time to let the dog out before there is a puddle in the kitchen.  And there are days - at least one every week - when I do need to be up and about because of things to do, places to be, and people to see.

But - and this is where Murphy comes in with his flaming law - during the last week or so I have taken to waking up at least half an hour before the alarm goes off, except on the days when I need to be up.  And those are the days when I have great difficulty in not pressing the snooze button!