I'm feeling better this week after taking a little time to rest. The value of rest can't be overstated.

The proper amount of sleep may in fact be the most important factor in my quest for feelings of bodily comfort and well-being.

While I can function well on anything over four hours a night, I can only do so for a limited amount of time. After three or four nights like that, I find myself feeling irritable, grouchy and generally hard to get along with. In other words, I'm being a typical man, as I've been told. Luckily, I've managed to get a few nights worth of six or more hours sleep, which means I'm feeling more like myself— which means I'm happy, but still hard to get along with, which also likely makes me typical male material by most feminine accounts.

In seriousness, I do think the recent high temperatures also affected my mood, ability to sleep and energy levels. When it's really hot outside, it's hard for me to keep my energy levels high. But it's even harder to get restful sleep in a room with temperatures rising above the 75-degree mark.

With two window air conditioners going during the day, it generally stays fairly cool at the house. But it's been so hot, even at night, that it's been hard to bear. It was in the upper 70s outside late at night a few times.

Since I usually don't leave the air conditioners running when not at home, it can take a good while for it to cool down in the evening. So I found myself reading, watching television and even eating a few times after 10 p.m.

The eating thing is something I need to avoid at all costs, since anything eaten after 7 p.m. or so turns quickly into a handy midsection hump on which one can sit a plate while in the recliner on future late-night eating binges.

The problem is that I'm usually asleep by 10 p.m. and sitting up later means that my body thinks it's time for the fourth meal of the day. Let's see, is it breakfast, dinner and supper or breakfast, lunch and dinner? Well, no matter, either way there's an extra name left for that late-night meal that adds in several hundred unnecessary calories and inches to the waistline.

I'm depending on my regular regimen of summer and fall exercise to carry me through this tough time. Perhaps the remainder of the building work, coupled with the traditional firewood gathering ceremony, will be enough to keep me in the same size pants for another year.

Lord knows sitting here at the keyboard isn't working entirely well. Perhaps I should do some research on how many calories per hour a man can burn typing and then set up my diet accordingly. Most likely I'd end up eating leaves and twigs. At least I wouldn't need to try and add fiber to my diet.

Since I'm told cholesterol and saturated fats become more of a concern with each passing day, I realize it would be wise to cut down on unhealthy foods. But a veggie sandwich with no mayonnaise on hard whole grain bread with a side order of birdseed isn't my idea of a feast.

There are options for people like me. There is fiber that can be mixed into a drink and even fiber that can be sprinkled on top of normal foods to help make them healthier. Let's just throw the food away and eat the table, I thought as I munched my way through a fresh batch of fiber-enriched pancakes. The texture, somewhat akin to sawdust, made me wonder if I already was doing just that. Back in the day, fiber came from cabbage, greens and pinto beans laden with pork fat. Fiber was then seen as a real danger to the common person's health—but not to those who consumed it. It was those who lived in the same home, especially on hot evenings when the breeze was still.

But I'll spare you the details of that memory.

Besides, according to my sources, a diet low in fat and meats can make men more irritable. This condition can prove particularly dangerous when said man is already sulking, underwear clad, in a recliner at 11:30 p.m. while waiting for the house to cool down enough to go to sleep.

Luckily, if ever I truly need to go to sleep, all I need to do is turn on a really interesting television program and wait for the commercial break just before the climactic ending. There, just as the sperm whale was preparing to munch down on the giant squid on camera live from Japan for the first time, I drifted off. It was not a deep slumber, but a kind of half-sleep—the kind where drool might puddle on your arm and you answer questions with words like, "Un-yuh."

Maybe I can figure out a way to use my chair as a radiator to heat hot water and thus save enough on my electric bill to buy a family vacation to Antarctica. Of course, my usual idea of a good time is spending a few nights in a tent. So long as there's a campfire and some marshmallows and hot dogs, it all goes over just fine. One thing's for sure, kids won't line up to roast fiber wafers on an open fire.

The idea that an actual vacation involving going somewhere and actually doing something might come to pass is nearly too mind boggling to cope with.

However, with the season of late evening sunshine, warm temperatures and good building weather drawing ever more quickly to a close, perhaps I'd better consider moving forward on my outdoor building project before trying to take a sizeable amount of time off for rest and relaxation.

Maybe I'll just have to live vicariously through someone else's adventures. Since I've grown fond of watching that survivor guy on television, I could try to survive seven days in the backyard with only one match, a camera, 12 cashews and a package of beef jerky.

After a week trying to catch bugs and munch grass, I bet a feast of rolled oats and wheat germ would appeal to me more. But as high as the grass is getting, I might not ever eat my way out without the aid of a weed whacker and a small herd of goats.

Maybe it'll cool off soon, I thought as I took my shift in front of the family's only oscillating fan. I know I'll feel better once I have consumed a late night tomato sandwich on unhealthy white bread with fat-filled mayonnaise and a glass of whole milk. I hope my digestive tract forgives me.