Sleeping in Late

I slept in late this Saturday. That is not my usual habit. But habits go by the wayside now in retirement. Our cat, Sweetie, was at the bedroom window at 6:45, meowing loudly and plucking at the screen with his claws like a tone-deaf celloist. I tried to ignore him but his persistance grew in intensity. Grumbling aloud, I got out of bed stiff and blurry-eyed and stumbled to the kitchen and out to the screened-in patio, and opened the door to let him in. He rushed past me without acknowledgement or even a thank you, as if he were on a mission of immense importance, as all cats do. I noted sleepily that the door on the screened patio did not have the chain lock engaged. That was unusual but my husband may have let Sweetie out that way earlier. Sweetie likes to go out at 3:30 in the morning. It never ceases to amaze me how he knows what time it is. I also noticed that my husband was not in bed when Sweetie woke me so I walked through the living room to see if he had gotten up early and was playing solitaire on the computer in the back room. Instead I found him sleeping in the back bedroom. That means I must have been snoring. That usually happens when I am really tired. Good thing we have a guest bedroom.

I wandered back to bed, crawled under the down comforter, amd fell asleep. That's something I rarely do. I woke up at 9:30! A day in the life of a retired school teacher seems pretty sweet to me. I love having no dayplanner filled with must-do's. There are no back to school nights or English department meetings or district committees on language arts standards or homework to grade. But I do miss the interaction with young questioning students who engage me in the great debates of the day.