The Middle of the Night

I woke up at 2:30 this morning, and within ten minutes, it was clear to me that I wasn't getting back to sleep. This happens to me from time to time. Usually, it's nice to have a quiet dark house. I have enough reading to catch up on and enough hobbies to occupy my time that it usually isn't a problem.

But today, I just wanted to watch TV. Here's what I did between the time I woke up and the time I went to work.

2:30 - 3:30: Watched the last hour of OLN's Tour de Georgia broadcast.

OLN condensed a six-day stage race down to a two or three hour broadcast. I had already watched the first few stages, and I accidentally came ac cross an article that spoiled who won for me, but I watched anyway.

This was a good race. It had just about all of the big-name Americans in cycling. I need to try to get to that event next year.

3:30 - 3:35: Five minutes of Lassie in black and white.

I used to watch Lassie reruns in the middle of the night for a couple of reasons. First, there is absolutely nothing else on during that time of the night. Second, the shows are unintentionally hilarious.

My favorite episode had Lassie stuck behind an electric fence. "Don't try to jump, girl," said the over-acting little kid. "You'll be a dead dog for sure!"

After five minutes, it dawned on me that I had a better option.

3:35 - 5:35: Last couple of episodes of Arrested Development.

I borrowed the first season on DVD, having never caught an episode. I've been watching an episode or two every night that I wake up at an ungodly hour and can't go back to sleep.

and The Office are the two funniest new shows that I can remember in a long, long time. Unfortunately, they both have ratings just north of 2:00 AM Lassie reruns. I hope the networks keep these shows running. I have to think that once people get used to the fact that there isn't a laugh track, they will keep watching.

I haven't seen any of season two. I'm watching for those to start again in reruns. Let me know if you notice it on your TV guide.

5:35 - 7:00: On the Internet.

I got on the Internet because at the end of the cycling broadcast, Phil Liggit implored me to go to oln.com and let them know whether I would like to see live Tour de Georgia coverage next year.

But first, I logged on to my Internet host to check site statistics. I'm still getting a ton of hits to that old, boring entry. I'm also getting hits from Google image searches, but the stats don't tell me what images people are searching to get to me. Oh well.

By the way, traffic is way high. Don't forget to click an advertiser's link on your way out.

After that, I started poking around, jumping from site to site in search of something to amuse me. I found petitiononline.com for the first time, and killed a good while looking at what sort of things people will petition. I think my favorite was the one to get Bruce fired.

After that, I did a rough draft of this post, and finally got up and got my ass in gear.

I forgot to go visit oln.com.