Morning scene

The garbage truck is outside rumbling and beeping, and I squint ferociously enough to make out the time on my alarm clock.

I realize I have one hour of summer vacation left. The sheets are still comfortably cool, and soft from yesterday's laundry, so I doze a bit. The window is open to make the most of a cool night, and light is sneaking past the mostly closed blind.

Roll over. *squint* I have half an hour of summer vacation left. I could reset the alarm a bit later, but I have things to do. Stuff. Stuff starts today. What did I get finished last night and what's still waiting for me? I should have enough time to get the last syllabus copied this morning and check over everything. What the heck is the deal with the new online course system, anyway? I have no idea what the students are going to actually see on that thing....

I have fifteen minutes of summer vacation left.

Sleep is a long gone specter, but I can at least enjoy the idea that I don't have to get up yet. Not really. Not yet. Summer isn't over until I actually get up. What happened to the summer, anyway? They just slip past faster and faster, and I've finished not a tenth of what I'd hoped to.

I have ten minutes of---$*@# it, I'm getting up.