Stranglehold

Stranglehold                                      2009

Sunday, October 15, 2005-11:36 A.M.

Good morning.  Damn, I hate time off.  I don't mind a few days between gigs, but having a whole week off is making me feel like crap.

I've been sleeping more than usual, and despite a mad rush of housecleaning that Pamela and I got done yesterday, I'm hard pressed to list any achievments this week.

I had a plan to send out a bunch of DVD's to various booking agencies, and follow up on the ones I have out there already, but that idea went to hell.  It's cold and I'm depressed and all I want to do is sleep.  I even nixed the idea of heading out to the club this weekend to see D.C. Malone and Dave Ing...Annette Lorenzo is hosting and she's one of my students, so I wanted to throw her the support, but I just couldn't get out of the house.

I have a sleep apnea study that I have to do on Tuesday...that should be fun.  They're going to hook me up to sensors and see if I stop breathing when I sleep...I already know I do, because I fell asleep in a chair a few months ago, and woke myself up when I stopped getting air.  Sleep apnea is common, what happens is the soft tissue at the back of the throat collapses during sleep and cuts off the windpipe...the sleeper stops breathing until the body goes into suffocation mode and wakes the sleeper up, usually not enough to be fully awake, but enough to roll over or change positions, then back to sleep, and the cycle starts again.  The result is you sleep all night, but wake up groggy, and that's definitely what I've been doing.

I've been up for the last couple of hours, just listlessly trolling the internet, so I'm going back to sleep until the Bills kick off at 4:00.   They're playing the Jets, so maybe they'll win one today and I'll get out of my depression for a little while.  I sure hope so.

Blessings and tidings,

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY