When I was in the prime of my youth, I could sleep anywhere and at anytime. When I was in my childhood years I used to go out with my father into the fields riding in an open cab bulldozer, it had a hard bench seat and was loud as hell. Hours of pushing dirt and making brush piles I found that I could fall asleep to the noise.
Enter into my 20's, I worked at a gas station on night shift, and on particularly slow nights I could fall asleep but wake up to the slightest sound if a customer drove up. I didn't care for that job and I got a new job removing trees, it was long hours and no time for a quick nap on most days, every once and a while we would have to travel long distances to get to our site and it was then that I could pass out for a few minutes.
Later in my late 20's to early 30's I worked pipeline, here was a job that when you worked, you worked hard but you also had a lot of time waiting for clearances so that you could work, it was then that we all could close our eyes for a while, in a dirty stinky truck with four other guys who all snored like fattened pigs. Somehow we all managed to pass out despite this fact.
It was around this time that I started up my own tree removal business, and I bought an old tree truck with no room and a bench seat, on my breaks I would nod off for ten to fifteen minutes at a time and then get back to work, most of the time I wouldn't nap at all but instead just relax.
Mid thirties to early forties, I have a wife and three dogs, and there is absolutely no way for me to fall asleep at night with the dogs snoring, panting, and licking. They lay on the bed with us, my wife loves having them sleep there, so I deal with it, I like them up there as well but the noises these three little animals make is astounding.
I have been able to sleep with four other grown men in a truck all snoring like mad but I cannot sleep with three little dogs that lick excessively and snore like crazy? I have resorted to using a fan that goes on every single night and it drowns out some of the noises, so I can at least get a nights rest. Naps are infrequent and barely happen nowadays, So I rely on my evenings for my recharge until morning, and I'm worried that if my little fan breaks down, I'm going to be in trouble.
It's interesting how life works, and the little nuances that happen, I never thought this type thing would ever be an issue, but, life goes on and you figure out a way to keep up with it.
Scott Goerz
