The extra tea on the way home tonight (now officially last night) is working, preventing sleepiness at beverage-plus-3-hours and counting. Of course, the tea chaser a few hours after coffee had been ingested at the beginning of the 4.5-hour ride may have been overkill.
It's a classic Commuter Daddy conundrum on the drive home during my regular New York trips. Somewhere between hither and yon, the droopy eyelids set in. Must fight through. Must get home. A head shake here; a foot flex there; add another head shake... Must clear cobwebs.
Eating chewy candy helps, but that's no way to stay in shape. Plus, I swore off candy-fueled drives this year (see item #3). Sugarless gum holds my interest for only so long. Sipping caffeinated drinks is the only working, calorie-free solution.
The latter helps short-term alertness because the act of drinking itself helps stave off the sleepies. Later, the caffeine kicks in, keeping me focused on the commute until I pull into my driveway. It then takes me a bit to wind down once I park myself in my easy chair, but at least I have arrived in that seat safely.
So I chase that caffeine with an adult beverage. Usually it's a beer. Tonight, three fingers of Glenmorangie were in order. Even that is not working, though. I'm wired.
I caught up on "Lost" and took in the latest episode of "The Web.Files Buzz." I flipped through Google Reader. I checked on the sleep-talking, blanket-shedding children and returned to my chair to see what I had missed on the Facebook news stream. Nothing was making my eyelids resume their drooping.
So now I blog while everyone sleeps, taking some advantage of a rare moment of solitude on the home front.
I'm not complaining. I'm certain to pine for such a quiet moment later today or over the weekend. But in about 5 hours when Ruby needs to be walked and the boys want to say hello after I've been away for three days, I am going to be asking myself some questions about extra caffeine and my commute.
The good news is the writing is helping. I'm slowly losing focus. I feel my head getting heavier. Yawn. At caffeinated-beverage-plus-4-hours, it just might be time to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
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2 comments:
Chasing the caffeine with beer seems a little counterproductive :-) When I was in college I drove my friends camaro from Oklahoma City to Dallas the day after final exams. I fell asleep at the wheel and flipped the car 2 or three times in the median at 75 mph. I vowed never to drive tired again.
Probably about as counterproductive as chasing alcohol with caffeine... you just become a more wide-awake drunk.
I have been known on occasion to pull over and nap at a rest area -- and then fuel up with caffeine. Probably should do that more often.
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