A nap.

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I almost made it to 14:00 when I decided that pulling over and shutting down the machine would be the best of options.  I set the alarm for 16:00, hoping the alarm would rouse me.  Sometime later, and I thought I remembered shutting the alarm off, I woke.  Dark!  Very dark.  It must be quite late.  As is often the case, it took me a bit to truly wake enough to even be able to read the time... and know what my eyes where seeing.  Almost 4:00?  Hmm, that seems... wrong.  Ah, just before 16:00?  Really?  I woke before the alarm?  But why so dark.  Between the sun going down earlier than ever and a true rain system settling in over the valley, the sun was pretty much dead by then, and it seemed more so in my even darker bedroom.  Even with my room very dark, if it is really dark outside that outer darkness still creeps in somehow.

Well, so that day wasn't ruined.  What to do?  Hmm, hungry.  A piece of chicken.  I am saving that, really, for tomorrow, or whenever it is light enough to work in that back room.  Still, one piece... okay, two pieces...  Just, no more.  Ah, the enclosed bench top could be cleared.  So, I dug in.  It wasn't half the job it seemed as if it would be.  I found a few more tools, a few more bits and pieces, bicycle stuff (lock, extra light and reflector, etc.) for my bike, some gun stuff, paint, and just... well, a little bit of everything.  I sorted what was what, and generally at least put them in small piles to be put where they need to go, or wherever they will end up, but as a group.  Some tools aren't going to be put away because the collection or device they go with is currently in (suspended) use in the back room.  Some groups of items are meant for the garage, but I'm in my pj's and I'm not going out in the wet and dark in them.  The paint and bug spray and machete, plus a few other things, found their place right back on top of the 'bench', but in a very orderly and easy to obtain fashion..  Other things were put away, in various specific kitchen drawers (tape drawer, marker drawer, etc).  As I said, it was much less work than it seemed.  Bags, which I collected and will leave there but as a group and in their place, for various projects, fluffed the area, making it look much fuller.  A few tools were larger, and at angles, so also inflated the sense of fullness.  There is a great deal more order now.

Now to figure out what to do with old partial sets of tools?  Is it best to put them in a random bin?  Toss them (as usually it is the common items that are missing, like 3/8, 5/16, sockets), or should I try to rebuild the set with individual buys of the missing parts?  I'll think on that.  I have two complete (standard sized) socket sets, up to 3/4 drive for one set, 1/2 inch for the other.  Still, three 1/2 sets isn't bad either, especially if I have to work on nasty things or in places where loss might be more likely to occur.  I'm... thinking.

No, not bad at all.  The nap helped.  Getting that area somewhat more organized if not quite done feels good.  Even the sound of rain, even at this late date, is soothing and comforting.  It doesn't even have that chill feel that rain can bring, especially this late in the year.  It... feels like early spring, to me.  I will probably use some of what was offered the other day to put together a smaller chili soup/stew concoction, tinker on my game, and just enjoy what I can of the night.  I hope the nap didn't steal my sleep thunder for later.  The goal is to get to bed before midnight again, then try to rise a bit earlier than usual.  I'll pass on the 5:00 riser, but... an 8:00 or 9:00 rise wouldn't be bad, even a 10:00 would be somewhat okay.

With any luck the sun will be up tomorrow, or enough so that I can get to work in that back room.  If not, perhaps I will be of a mood to mess with alternate lighting scenarios.  I really want to get that knocked out and get that light up there in a by-the-book manner, with... what I have to work with anyway.  It isn't just getting a light in, getting the tools finally organized, or completing the job.  It is the job itself.  While thinking about a Christmas present for myself, as if I had been nice not naughty, I began looking at... Tinkertoys, Matchstix, Legos (motorized), and electronic kits.  It hit me, in the middle of my doings, that... I have one of the bigger kits most civilians will ever get, a whole house!  Heh!  So, perhaps I will buy that home electrical book and the NEC manual, to go with a couple of minor electrical formula and advice books I have already purchased.  From there I might be able to formulate how, first, to get my fuse panel indoors, then figure out whether I need to upgrade the panel itself (sure would be nice to have 220 for the garage, and maybe somewhere in the home, but I do need to make sure I have enough fuse/juice capacity for my electro-centric world in any case).  After that I would need to seriously investigate what wiring that is live needs to be updated and what is fine, then how to do that, stripping out the junk, old, unused, unusable.

Of course, the wiring, switch box(es), conduit, connectors, splices, and such... none of that is cheap.  Oh, yeah, I think I can get to it, and probably survive.  I'm almost lucky enough to survive a major hit AND not burn my house down.  The trick, considering it is best to consider ourselves unlucky however, is not to depend upon luck.  Luck is the ace in the hole, and if you say that too fast without the "in the", well, you get what you get.  Just saying.  Yeah, the mind is wandering.  But after a few more successes, I am thinking more is possible.  A lot more.  And maybe more quickly than I had initially supposed.  Another reason to get on moving the switch box and doing wiring?  In the hopes something comes through in order that I might be able to begin buying batteries and components to set up my own solar power station.  With skills in hand, and a knowledge of my own electrical system, cutting out the installation would save me a very substantial sum, allowing for doubling, maybe more, the system.  Just...  Like I said, I already HAVE the tinker kit.  If... none of the components for upgrade, let alone maintenance, came with the toy.

Later.