For me, Fridays seem like the longest day of the week.

I blame it on the anticipation factor, waiting for the weekend to begin after five days of doing what someone else pays me to do. You know, I have more time to do what I don't want to do than I what I do want to do. And even when I can do what I want to do, I don't always get to spend all that time on a totally selfish pursuit.

Time is often budgeted between needs and wants, in that order, rather than doled out freely at will. But this past weekend, I actually got to relax a good portion of the time. I visited a friend, took a long nap, messed around on the computer, picked up some wiring parts at the hardware store and moved some old computer parts around.

For me, that was a weekend of leisure, but the nap really took me by surprise. It was Saturday evening and I decided that I would try and catch up on a few winks. However, by the time it was over, I felt more like Rip Van Winkle.

I must have really needed some rest. After one of my friends left that afternoon, I had been sitting outside watching the sun make its last fading arc over the horizon.

A smoky grey cat was wandering around in the woods around the house. It must be responsible for the tracks that I have been seeing going from the school bus to a hole under the house. I enjoyed watching it stalk through the wet leaves, making barely a sound, looking for prey. I have never fed it, but I decided to share a couple of my Vienna sausages, which passed for supper along with a few crackers and a cup of soup. I am looking forward to making friends with this obviously feral feline.

'Wild' cats are always the most interesting to me. I have a certain respect for any domesticated animal that learns to make its own way in the world. I wonder if this one has kittens somewhere nearby. If so, maybe my mouse problems are over with.

As the light faded, I started feeling a bit tired and wandered back in the house, turning on a lantern and leaning back to read a bit. By 6:30 p.m. I had turned off the light and dozed off in the twilight, enjoying the quiet of my mountain retreat.

I had figured on sleeping for about an hour and then getting up to get a few things done around the house. I was completely alone and there were no sounds, except for the occasional 'whoosh' from the propane stove as the thermostat kicked into action.

When I woke up, it was hot. I was not under a blanket, but I was wearing a sweatshirt. I had turned the heat up a bit because it had been off for a few days and it takes a while to get the whole house warm, especially around the floor. In addition, all the stuff in the house takes a while to warm up, too.

When I woke up, I didn't know what time it was, but I was really surprised to find it so deeply dark in the house. I had been on the love seat and my leg was 'asleep' and I had pins and needles shooting up through my foot and into my calf.

I am not sure if the fact that the circulation was cut off to my leg or the fact that the temperature setting was too high on the stove was the reason for my waking. Actually, the warmth of the stove might have had something to do with the length of my sleep. There is nothing like a warm fire to make a body comfortable.

As I said before, other than the dim light of the fire visible through the front of my big stove, I was in near darkness. With no electricity, it can be difficult to get light going after darkness falls. After stumbling over a few different things that are still only known by the bruises they left behind, I finally found a lantern and some matches.

That's when I realized that it was 78 degrees in the living room and I had slept through Saturday night and a small portion of Sunday. It was 12:30 a.m. when I woke up, half groggy and in need of a trip to the restroom. That's one modern convenience that I do, thankfully, have. I noticed that my cell phone battery had gone dead, which also lead to my undisturbed period of peaceful slumber. With cell service, sometimes it seems like I am paying for the right to be aggravated no matter where I go.

Anyway, I don't think I ever remember napping that long at one time without waking. To beat all, I was able to get a nice cup of hot decaf tea, read a little and fall back to sleep within an hour or so and not wake up again until around 6:30 a.m. That made for about 11 hours of sleep, which is more than I have gotten in a long time.

These days, I usually wake up automatically between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. every morning, regardless of how long I have slept or the day of the week. So sometimes I lose an hour or two here and there.

I don't know if a body can really ever catch up on sleep, once you lose it I suppose it's really gone. However, 'catching up' makes for as good an excuse as any.

When I awoke on Sunday morning, I felt really refreshed. At the same time, by Sunday night, I also felt somewhat guilty for not getting more work done on the weekend. I have some sort of a complex — if I don't get a good amount of work done when I have the opportunity, I feel like I have wasted time. I have read that life is a vapor and soon it passes away and that all of us who labor and are heavy laden will one day have rest. The longer I live, the better that sounds. Especially the resting part.

Anyhow, I have lots of stuff that needs doing, like wiring repair, cleaning up the rest of the brush from cutting those trees in the yard, splitting and stacking wood and a million other things. Even so, perhaps I did what really needed to be done. I think everyone should take more time to schedule things like taking long naps on Saturday evenings. There are many things that don't seem to be productive that are much needed in life, like rest.

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