I read the other day that you can never re-coup lost sleep. Once it is gone, it is forever gone.

Drat.

I left our house yesterday between four and four-thirty in the morning. Destination? Anson, Texas. K.O. had a bug and was out, so one of his henchmen and I were supposed to carry on.

I hauled my last load at nine-thirty last evening, returning to get my pickup at eleven-thirty. I have a little routine, where I do my mileage report and paperwork before I get out of the truck, then I move everything to the passenger seat, passenger floor board, and get my pickup and pull beside the truck.

The only thing different yesterday was I had picked up Et's driver paperwork at the compress after he left it with a forklift operator I trust. I had paper clipped said paperwork to the back of my paperwork packet.

I walked in the door of our home just a handful of minutes past midnight. I carried all my paperwork in, poured me a glass of tea and sat down to wind the day down. it was about then I thought, "I didn't see Et's paperwork. I retrieved my packet. No paperwork on the back. I returned to my truck and searched. No paperwork.

I decided it was either still in the big truck or had dropped between the truck and my pickup. I told myself, "Give K.O. a call early and he can check on it."

I got a bath and began to try to go to sleep.

Who is kidding who?

I knew until I knew exactly what happened to Et's paperwork, I was not going to sleep. At one-thirty-nine, I got in the pickup and returned to Anson.

Sure enough, the missing paperwork was sitting in the passenger seat, as if it had never been clipped to the packet.

I returned home and crawled in bed at three. Twenty-three hours after I woke Friday morning.

That is a big chunk of sleep I will never see again.

A personal note. Many years ago when Coca Cola introduced their new formula (which was widely rejected by customers) I signed on for the Diet version, which also was the new flavor. Since its inception, there has not been a day go by I did not drink a Diet Coke. Until Thursday.

Lately I have had craving for unsweetened ice tea. Wednesday I had one canned Diet Coke. Thursday I had none. Zilch. Zero.

I don't have a personal vendetta. I like Diet Coke and if I choose to have a soft drink, I won't hesitate to get one. However, I am going to continue to cut back on them and just see if a life style change makes me feel any better or different.

Pepa is doing better. He called me yesterday to tell me that home health care sent a physical therapist to work with him. He told me, "She really put me through it!"

I told him she was Ms. Congeniality, what was he going to do when the real therapist got there.

Jason has about completed installing the grab bars for Pepa. I guess we will find out how mobile Pepa is Sunday night and Monday morning. Pat and Memama are going to Dallas for Memama's eye appointment.

Have a great weekend!

FATHER, thank YOU for a safe work day. Rest me quickly. Rest me well.