THREW Mikes EyEz

Original Writings, Images, Video and Artworks of Mike Hartley

Tag Archives: night shift


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Tuesday Treadmill

The last several days have been packed so tight that I’ve been slacking on my hobbies. Yes, I’ve been posting but it’s been rushed and some shots from the vault. Being so busy in retirement has been the thing that has surprised me the most. I shouldn’t be with children and grandchildren close by and our interest in seeing them.

A teal pickup truck parked in front of a sign for Matt's Fish Camp, featuring a yellow and white surfboard in the truck bed.
I like finding random unique vehicles. Photo by Mike Hartley

The first day of pre-school for one of my grandchildren today. We went up and watched the baby while they took him and picked him up. What a joy to see. The excitement and anticipation he had was wonderful. They prepared him well. The parents did well also but I’m sure it was as emotional for them as it was for us.

Now I’m back in the saddle of the office chair. Kind of wishing I had this view below but maybe before the end of the year we will return to the beach.

A seaside boardwalk area featuring a white building with large windows, signage for food vendors, and a decorative clock, surrounded by sandy terrain and grass.
Bethany Beach Delaware. Photo by Mike Hartley

If I had any brains, I’d hop in the car around 4am and catch sunrise on the beach tomorrow morning. I wish I had the energy to listen to that 18-year-old voice in my head that gives me great ideas.

But this body and mind are very short on rest. The trouble with that is when it gets that way it has trouble resting. That long stretch of overnight shift has taken its toll. I remember being so tired some nights that I think I tricked my brain so many times into staying awake when I start to get tired now I can’t.

There were times when I’d get home after a 12-hour shift and a 3 hour round trip drive and I’d be too wired to go to sleep immediately. I’d have to get to the point of exhaustion to pass out. There are many times now that I’ll be in a pretty good sleep and snap awake.

That is why I get up a lot now after a few hours of sleep. Because when I wake up its awake immediately. And I know the chances are almost 100% I’ll stare at the ceiling for a few hours till I drift off again. So, I get up and work for a few hours and then try again.

Such is life. As some would say, mistakes were made. Would I do it again. Probably not and that is a warning to some of you doing that now. It was much easier as a young man to pull that off but doing that when you’re beyond 50, I wouldn’t recommend it for any substantial length of time.

Well, it’s time to move on to the next task which is the treadmill. Have a good evening, all.

Random Thoughts of The Day

  • Losing senses is a very difficult thing. I remember my mother losing her sense of taste after a stroke. Two people close to me struggle with hearing issues. I can see what a toll that takes.
  • There are no replacing smiles from children because you know they are genuine.
  • Rules to live by are good to have.
  • We have gone from a president in 1973 who says, “I am not a crook” and not believing him to one in 2026 who revels in being a crook right in front of our eyes and gloats in it that we do nothing. That is how stupid we have become.


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Night owls

Another friggin book question again from the daily prompt. – If you could rewrite any book’s ending, which one would you choose?

So, if I could REWRITE today’s question it would be. – Do you think you could be nocturnal?

The reason I posed this question is because I have been nocturnal for a decade or two of my life, maybe more. It started with working night shifts. But it has extended beyond that to even my retirement days. There are nights I’m up most of the evening and early mornings.

Lots of them actually. I’ve never been a person who has slept normal hours anyway. When I was working, I slept maybe 4-5 hours a day. Once a week I didn’t sleep. That was my transition day where I woke early Sunday morning, spent the day with the family, went to work at 6pm and worked till 6am Monday morning. So I’d be up 24-27 hours straight flipping from the weekend where I was up during the day and then back to nights on the weekdays.

But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t awake during the days. Services you depend on aren’t open at nights so things like doctor’s appointments or shopping or much of anything had to be done during the day.

I was watching my grandson the other day, and he said he doesn’t like the dark because it’s scary. For me I see wonder. I’m very comfortable with darkness. I got used to dark at a young age working with photography. They didn’t call it a darkroom for nothing. That is where you handled film. In complete darkness. And making prints was done under this red light that only a touch from complete darkness.

The contrast of nights and days isn’t just light. There is a whole group of people who make your life possible by working nights. They take your trash away; deliver supplies to the vendors you use. They repair the streets and fix other infrastructure needs. Some show up when you have an emergency and the ambulance takes you to the hospital where people working overnight take care of you.

Security guards and police keep your business and some homes safe at night. Lots of people work overnight in warehouses shipping your products for delivery the next day.

All those upgrades to computer systems happen in the evenings. Planes still fly at night and have to take off and land. You need pilots and air traffic controllers. When something isn’t working in your hotel room you call the front desk and expect someone to be there no matter the hour.

When you go to the grocery store, who do you think restocks the shelves at night. Not a robot. If you go to Vegas, you might notice that noise from the casino doesn’t stop at night. It might even be the place in the world that stays up the latest.

There is a whole society of night shift people out there. You just don’t see us because we are out and about while you’re catching ZZZ’s. I read one stat that said 3.5% of the working people report for work between 6pm and midnight. And that sounds about the right percentage I was thinking about.

So, here’s a toast to my fellow nocturnal night owls. Without us, a lot of stuff doesn’t happen.

Sunset over a shimmering body of water with silhouettes of palm trees and a seaside pavilion in the foreground.
When your day ends, ours begins. Photo by Mike Hartley


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Sunday dread

I woke this morning remembering how unsettling Sundays used to be. Like most people, it signified the end of the weekend. Only that in my case right after Sunday dinner, my workweek started. Which meant being up for 24-27 hours straight.

Sunday I would fit in the last of the family activities and home/yard chores into the morning and afternoon. Dinner and then work overnight till 6 or 7 am Monday. That was the beginning of my workweek.

For the last decade, I would pull an all-nighter after being up all day to flip back into night shift mode for the rest of the week. Then on Thursday at 7 am when my workweek would end I’d sleep for 3-4 hours in the morning after work. Stay up till 11 pm, sleep, and wake up the next morning, to get back into a day mode for the weekend with family and friends.

Because I quickly discovered nobody would be around to interact with me if I stayed on a night shift schedule throughout the weekend.

When I started that schedule, I was a bit younger, but in the last years, it took a heavy toll. But I knew I had to hold on to get where we wanted to be.

So here I am retired now and Sundays have returned to a normal schedule. When I get tired this evening I can go to sleep instead of war trying to flip my body and brain into some twisted switch to nocturnal existence.

Life is good again.

Hold on. Photo by Mike Hartley