Winter has set in here in western-central Michigan. 21 degrees outside right now, and the corn stove is having a hard time keeping up. Temperature in the house is in the low 60's - nice and chilly. Chilly, anyway - not so nice, really. It's supposed to get down to 1 degree overnight tonight, so I'm sure the furnace will be kicking on some. We have the thermostat up to 64 today so the furnace kicks on whenever the corn stove can't keep the temp up to 64.

I am going to start writing about random childhood memories of mine here on my blog. My perception of my collection of childhood memories is that I remember much less of my childhood than most people do. I have a few scattered memories of various times and places, but for the most part my childhood is a complete blank in my mind. My mom suggested that perhaps it is because so much of my childhood was uneventful - not much to remember, in other words. Perhaps that is part of it. I suspect a larger part of it is that I have narcolepsy, and all narcoleptics seem to suffer from memory issues of one sort of another.

Since I first started thinking about my childhood memories, or lack thereof, I've discovered that I do remember more than I initially thought. However the memories aren't all readily available in my mind. They come to me randomly throughout the days and weeks and leave just as quickly. So in an effort to document them so I don't forever forget them I'm going to start writing about them in my blog. Hopefully others will find them interesting and won't be bored to tears by them.

It is also worth noting that the memories I will be sharing are only as accurate as my memory is - meaning some of what I share might never have actually happened, or might have happened rather differently than how I am explaining it.

The first memory I will share is an "imagined" one. I am quite sure this actually happened, but parents and siblings have both told me they have no recollection of this ever happening, thus I must have dreamed or imagined it. We've discussed this many times over the years, and to this day I still can't help but wonder if they really do remember this happening but will never tell me because it's rather humorous for me to have this "fake" memory.

I think I was between the ages of 4 and 7 at the time. It happened when our parents were taking us kids out west to visit our grandparents (Mom's parents). They lived in Wyoming, I think it was, and so we flew out to an airport in a neighboring state (Utah? I think?) and our grandparents picked us up from the airport and drove us back to their place. I remember the car ride back seemed to take a rather long time. Anyway, Dad wasn't able to fly out with us. I think it was due to obligations at work. We flew out ahead of him and the plan was that he would follow on a later flight, probably the next day, and bring our dog, Ginger, with him. He did arrive safely at some point after we did, and I remember him telling us about a scare they had on the flight over. The pilot had been flying *way* too low in the dark nightime skies and narrowly avoided colliding with a radio tower, thanks to the flashing light on top of it. After hearing that, we were VERY thankful that Dad had arrived safely!!

So there it is. The first childhood memory on my blog. And it's something that apparently never even happened (the part about Dad's plane almost colliding with a radio tower). I remember it quite well however!

I am really struggling to stay awake today. I haven't taken my Xyrem either of the last two nights and it's really affecting me today. I've stayed up too late the last two nights, and set my alarm to wake up and take the Xyrem approximately two hours after going to bed each night. Most nights I can fit in about 3 hours of regular sleep before waking up to take my single Xyrem dose - which gives me another 4 hours of sleep. Well, it seems that two hours into my regular sleep I'm sleeping so soundly that I don't really wake up when my Xyrem alarm goes off. Last night I finally woke up about an hour after my alarm started going off. I could have taken the Xyrem then still, but I chose not to because then I would have slept in an hour later than I wanted to. I'm regretting that choice now because of how tired I am. I just want to lay my head down and go to sleep! I'm working from home so I could probably get away with it, but it would be rather unethical so I'm not going to.

(Edit: Okay, apparently Plinky doesn't include the question with your answer - the question that this post is an answer to is: "If you were drafted into the military but could pick your branch, which would you choose?")

(This is the first time I've made a blog post with the help of this Plinky site - I may do it again if I see another Plinky prompt that interests me.)

I love airplanes. I've been dreaming of flying since my childhood days. If I was in the AIr Force the odds that I'd be a pilot are probably ridiculously low, but I'd like to think that I'd have somewhat decent odds of being assigned some job that involved airplanes (fighter jets or otherwise) on some level. That's why I would choose the Air Force.

Every now and then during my late teenage years I considered joining the military. Part of the appeal to me was the adventure that I thought was inherent in any military duty. Another aspect that appealed to me was that of serving one's country. The main reason why I considered military service is because I figured the military could whip me into shape. I've always been underweight and out of shape and never put any serious effort into changing either of those. I'd sort of try, but would give up way too easily when I didn't see quick results. I figured the military probably wouldn't help me gain any weight, but they'd at least force me to get into shape!

I chickened out though. I didn't think I'd make it through basic training (and that would be downright humiliating!), and even more than that I couldn't bring myself to talk to my parents about it. I really liked computer work so I figured I might as well just get a job in the computer field - which I did.