Funk Babblings

This is inconsequential in the greater scheme of things, but hey, it makes my life easier.......

When we moved to Canton almost five years ago, I never bothered to switch from the bank I'd been using for a decade to a local bank. At first I held out hope that we'd soon be moving someplace more civilized, like Akron or at least Kent, and didn't want to have to switch again when that happened.

So I found the free ATM at a local credit union, found where my bank had local ATMs, and found the nearest locations where I could deposit my checks -- 30-45 minutes away in neighboring counties. Considering the sort of hours that banks keep, that distance was a handicap, but I still managed to get there every month or so.

Eventually I got settled into Canton enough not to think we'd soon be moving to another city. But I still didn't change banks. Hey, I had my account number memorized. And by this point I was used to the long drive to the bank.

Then last year my bank bought another bank that has a large presence around Canton. At first it only meant that I could use the local bank's ATMs for free. The bank teller who told me this groused about how long the merger was taking, and questioned whether it would ever really complete.

Finally, last week all the locations of the local bank changed their blue signs to green signs and suddenly became my bank. As far as I can tell, all their old customers had to change account numbers.

And now I finally get to use my same old account number to deposit my paychecks just a mile from my house again.

Not all that long ago, I considered myself a night person. I'd enjoy whatever was going on in the late evening, go to bed around 1 or 2 a.m., and struggle to get up whenever I needed to. I always said I liked *being* up in the morning, but hated *getting* up in the morning.

Then I got an office job with "normal" hours. They wanted me there at 8am. I was never able to do it, and since I always stayed past 5 anyway, my schedule soon changed to 8:30-5:30. Still a shift from what I was accustomed to, but doable.

But after a year and a half of that, I think I may be becoming that dreaded creature, the Morning Person. I start becoming non-functional (especially socially) around 10pm. If I stay up, I usually can barely keep my eyes open past midnight. And (assuming I actually did go to bed when my body told me to) even on weekends I usually wake up on my own without an alarm sometime between 6:30 and 8:30. Though the earlier end of that usually results in a nap a few hours later.

Not only that, but I actually notice myself being more productive in the morning, as long as I can avoid distractions. (Or, alternately, I can be quite productive with those distractions.) At night I can do certain "mindless" tasks like reading fiction, or brain-dump style writing or programming, as long as there's no complex thought involved. (I know, people wonder how I can write a program when I can barely carry on a conversation, but it's just translating brain logic to computer logic, something I've been doing for two decades. The hard part of programming is when there's no good brain logic to start from, or when the brain logic is wrong or incomplete.)

I'm not so sure I want to be a morning person. I don't like having to go to bed before the fun ends - or begins, in many cases. But I still like being up in the morning.