We don’t have an alarm clock. We have a cat. Named Coco. A boy named Coco.
Every day, without fail, he wakes us a 6:00 a.m. Every.frickin.day! No sleeping late in our household. EVER.
With a yowl that could wake the dead, our alarm clock goes off daily with surprising accuracy.
“I guess that’s my call – the call of the wild,” groaned Charlie. He rolled over, sat up and looked at the alarm clock. It’s six.dark.ten. Yes, 6:10 a.m. and Coco has sounded the alarm.
Oh! Oh! Oh! I have to tell you! The other morning, at the very same moment our alarm (Coco) went off, the songbirds started singing outside our bedroom window. At.the.very.same.moment. I kid you not.
Charlie had gotten out of bed and was heading to the kitchen to feed Coco and I’d rolled over and found my happy place. You know, that moment in bed when every part of your body has found the perfect alignment with your mattress and pillow. And you just don’t want to move and ruin the moment. You just want to close your eyes and go back to sleep, in that perfect cocoon of relaxation, for just another half hour. Or 10 minutes. Just 10 more minutes, please?
But, noooooo; nature has decided you need to get up a the crack of dawn and enjoy the sunrise.
And, guess what? Every morning, after Coco is sure we are out of bed and not sneaking back into bed, he goes back to bed. Yep; he curls up somewhere and goes back to sleep. Here’s proof:
Coco, asleep under the kitchen table – the morning light streaming in through an East-facing window.
Coco, asleep in the kitchen towel drawer after he’s had his breakfast.
Coco, asleep on the couch on top of his favorite blanket.
Coco’s foot sticking out from his cat tree. He doesn’t really fit in his cat tree (he’s too big), but he sleeps there anyway!
When I was a child, tween, teen and even in college, I was never a morning person. Not ever. Just ask my mother. She’ll vouch for me. Every morning, she’d come into my bedroom and call out in a sing-song voice “rise and shine, rise and shine”! It never worked. Ever.
She’d come back a few minutes later and yell like a drill sergeant, “Carole Moore (my maiden name – I don’t have a middle name, so she always said my last name. You know, if we’d had middle names, she would have yelled “Carole Ann Marie Lynn, get out of bed”, etc.; but, no middle name for any of us girls – a story for another day), GET.OUT.OF.BED! NOW!” Which, of course, the entire household heard, including my siblings.
My sibs, still, to this day, think I sleep in every morning. Well, sibs, I hate to break it to you, but I haven’t slept in in 40 years! That’s right – for 40 years I’ve gotten up early and made it to work, usually on time. That means getting up at zero.dark.thirty. since I don’t work the night shift. I think it’s safe to say, after 40 years, that I’m now a morning person. A rather begrudging one, but a morning person.
Here’s proof:
Sunrise from our front door on December 12, 2013 at 6:42 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on January 28, 2014 at 5:32 a.m. (I kid you not!).
Sunrise over our valley on February 2, 2014 at 6:39 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on February 11, 2014 at 5:49 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on November 26, 2013 at 6:27 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on December 11, 2013 at 6:42 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on February 2, 2014 at 6:41 a.m.
Sunrise over our valley on December 16, 2013 at 6:46 a.m.
Sunrise pool reflections on February 2, 2014 at 6:47 a.m.
Bonus content:
Need help learning to use PicMonkey on photos for your blog? Here’s a visual tutorial on how I chose the font I used in the cover photo. By the way, speaking of the cover photo, did you notice me taking the photo in Coco’s eye? Yep; that’s me and my camera reflected in Coco’s eye. Notice how annoyed he looks? Yep; he’s always annoyed with me when I stick my camera anywhere close to him. That’s why most of his photos are out-of-focus; he “deflects” my attempts to show him off! Here’s the tutorial:
Since Google’s little bots can’t read text on photos, here’s a brief explanation of what I did:
Lesson of the Day: Choosing the Right Font for Your Cover Photo in PicMonkey
- I typed “Call of the” in a simple font. I wanted the word “Wild” to standout, so I kept the rest of the title’s font simple.
- The font color defaults to black, so I changed it to white.
- After I typed “Wild”, I changed it to white, dragged the handles to increase the size.
- Then, one-by-one, I clicked (selected) “Wild” and kept playing with the various fonts until I found the one I like best. Which do you like best?
Actually, I almost selected the font “Exhausted” just because I like the title and that’s how we feel every morning when the Call of the Wild wakes us with his gut-wrenching shenanigans! But, how can you not love this face?
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other posts featuring Coco)
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