Musings, Jokes, and Dreams to Wake Me Up 6

I have a certain routine that I like to keep, but that hinges on me waking up within a certain timeframe. I like to be up and getting ready between 7:30 A.M. and 8:30 A.M. Sometimes, I don’t wake up within that timeframe and it winds up being afterwards, but it isn’t as if I can’t still do many of the things that I want to do throughout the day. But everything gets pushed back, or I often wind up with less time for certain things, etc. I don’t NEED to be up this early and I CAN wake up an hour later, but when I do it too often, my other projects get less time.

I go into detail about the long explanation here:

The short version of the story, I have to create something that I NEED to do each morning. So, this is the solution. I am starting my routine, taking a quick one or two minutes to write any musings, jokes, or dreams on my mind, timestamping myself, and then going on with my day. At the beginning of each week, I’ll post last week’s thoughts… with timestamps. There is no hiding from my successes and failures. I’d prefer to be succeeding more often.

10/5/26 8:18 A.M.

I had burnt my finger about two weeks ago. It was the worst burn I’d ever gotten. Hilariously, it wasn’t from any situation that sounds dangerous or exciting. The sticky sugar from the top of my turnover got stuck on my finger and was burning me while glued to me. But the burn mark is still there!

This was my left pinky finger, the same one that got stung by a wasp two months ago. It’s been a rough year for my left pinky finger. He has gone through hell these last few months. I hope nothing else happens to him before the year is over. He needs a rest. He needs ring finger, middle finger, and index finger to comfort him… and for thumb to be his personal bodyguard. 

10/6/26 8:02 A.M.

Why is it that when I put sunscreen on my body, my body instantly gets hotter? Is this sunscreen MADE OF SUN?

Has anyone else experienced this? You put the sunscreen on and it’s as if it radiates heat into your body? Then, it feels like it can’t escape from under your skin. Is that what shields the sun away, this hot stuff under your skin meets the rays of sun at the surface of your skin and is like, “Nope, get outta here. I’m already working here! This is my block!” And then you’re hot from the inside but you don’t get burnt. Is that it? Is that the science of it? Because that feels like a science-y explanation. 

10/7/26 8:15 A.M.

Do you ever feel like, of the main six or eight or ten colors, however you look at it, of those main colors… isn’t orange somehow the forgotten one? Isn’t it somehow the least used? Yellow gets credit for being the brightest, orange isn’t as bright as yellow. Red is the most intense, orange isn’t as intense. It’s close on both accounts. Every other color has their own thing. 

And because of that, orange sort of just floats along without a defining characteristic. I think because of that, when I see a pop of orange it’s always like, BOING! Pops out like a spring. It hits you HARD. It stands out so much and really delivers quite the feeling. I really enjoy seeing it suddenly. Maybe it’s for the better? 

10/8/26 7:53 A.M.

I remember the showers at a gym that I used to go to had the best smelling body soap and shampoo I’d ever had the pleasure of smelling. I even asked an employee if they knew what they were, and they didn’t. Unfortunately, I never learned this information.

I suppose I could go back to that gym for the best-smelling shower ever, but that seems like an expensive shower membership. I’m going to pay every month just to shower here in this wonderful, heavenly experience? OK. Maybe. 

10/9/26 7:50 A.M.

My knees must think I regard them as the lowest on the body part totem pole. They must think I hate them, always banging them into things. “None of the other body parts endure this kind of constant assault! You’re much kinder to the other body parts!”

Calm down, guys. Do you know many of your fellow body parts don’t get to see the sun on a beautiful summer day? Some of them will never see the sun, because I don’t want judgmental looks, and because I don’t want to get arrested. But I let you guys soak in the sun all the time. Be grateful you aren’t constantly confined to a fabric prison! Be grateful for your freedom! 

10/10/26 7:44 A.M.

Imagine coming back in another life as a pillow. You’d have no idea who you’d be living with, and furthermore, you wouldn’t know what their intention with you would be.

Would they use you as the typical head pillow? Or would you be a between-the-legs-back-support pillow? That location could be hell. Then again, depending on the person and your preference, maybe you’d be in heaven. But still, eight hours of that? Can a pillow come up for air? Now I feel badly for my pillows. Next time, I won’t fluff them so hard.

10/11/26 9:54 A.M.

I hadn’t slept in in so long, and I decided today that I was going to. It felt so good. I did sleep in more than I intended… but I suppose that comes with the territory. 

It is Sunday. So it makes me feel less lazy by a little bit. Pets might not be fully aware of that stigma, and they still look at you with those slightly-judging eyes, don’t they? 

10/12/26 8:38 A.M.

OK, another day getting up later than I aim for. Not by much, but I don’t want to make this a habit. I’ll have to try to get back to my routine tomorrow.

It rained a little bit here these past couple days. Can I blame it on the rain? No. But we try to blame a lot of things on the rain, don’t we? And the rain’s over here like, “I’m just trying to provide water for your lands, and allow you to keep having a healthy planet. And this is the thanks I get? You blame me for being late?” Yes, yes we do. Because we humans won’t take responsibility for ourselves. So it’s on you, Rain. 

10/13/26 8:15 A.M.

I do love the feeling you get when Halloween comes around. The whole month or so of lead up is so fun. It makes me wish it came around more often, but then, it likely wouldn’t feel as special.

But then again, two Halloweens a year certainly wouldn’t make it lose its special feelings, right? What if we just started to celebrate October’s half birthday? April 30th (sorry no April 31st) would work! We don’t have to go all in. We could go half in! Half a costume, half-dressed as the wolf man, hit half the houses for candy, only get half drunk at a party, half decorate the house, check out half the other houses in the neighborhood, scare someone half to death… wait, no, that’s already the expression. 

OK, scare someone a quarter of the way to death. There you go.

10/14/26 8:08 A.M.

As someone who trims his beard hair in the shower so that it won’t fly everywhere around the bathroom, I’d like it to be common practice to have mirrors in the shower. I know I put my own small mirror up, but I’ve done that before, and it didn’t hold and fell in the middle of the night and I thought someone was breaking into the place.

No, I want it to be as common as a mirror with a medicine cabinet over the sink. I want another one, made of tile, on the tile shower wall. How could that not be beneficial? I’m sure people would find plenty of other uses, practical or… otherwise. But yeah, you can’t see your face in the shower. Wouldn’t you want to? And why should I have to get my own cheap, stick-on mirror? I want it to already be there. Am I asking for too much? 

10/15/26 8:19 A.M.

Clouds 1 through 8 get a bad rap. The general consensus is that clouds 1 through 5 are shit, and clouds 6 through 8 are just alright. But everyone wants them to be cloud 9. They’ll never be cloud 9. That doesn’t mean they’re not still good in their own right. Give them a chance.

If you’re on cloud 7, might I suggest the vegetable dumplings and spring rolls? Pair it with their house made raspberry lemonade, mm! You’ll be, well, on cloud 7. Remember?

10/16/26 8:09 A.M.

I’m already dealing with a burn mark on my left pinky from a pastry attack, the same pinky that has been stung by a wasp. And now my left thumb got burnt from my weight gloves when I was working out. Something happened with the positioning of it and it was constantly rubbing against my thumb and burnt the skin right off!

The fingers on my left hand are having a rough year. Next thing you know, I’m going to flip someone off with my left hand and a hawk is going to fly by and slash my finger with its talons. 

10/17/26 8:10 A.M.

It’s not that there are necessarily more viruses present in the cold months, right? It’s just that it’s colder and our immune systems can be more compromised in the cold, and then more prone to catching the illnesses, right? So winter time may or may not have more bugs floating around, but it’s when your body gets colder it’s weaker and more susceptible. Your body has to fight to warm you up and resources are allocated to that, as opposed to fighting off germs.

So, here in the northern hemisphere, we always think of winter as the time when it’s easier to get sick. So does that mean in, say, Australia, they’re all worried about getting a summer sickness? That’s got to be the case, right?  

10/18/26 8:13 A.M.

“Try to remember” is a funny phrase. I try to remember everything, but I don’t know how I’m trying to do any of it. I think people tell me things, and then I just hope I’ll remember them.

The stuff I do remember, did I do anything special? Or did my memory just work in that instance? And when I don’t remember… memory was on a coffee break? I don’t know what to do any different, other than listen “harder” when I’m told something. Squint my eyes and ears and really focus and hope that the thing I’m being told gets wedged into my brain and can’t escape.