Bad Habit

 Rich has developed a bad habit. No, not that one. Not that one either. What? Wait! Moms don't get to know everything about their grown sons!

What I'm talking about is that he's developed the habit of pushing himself until he drops. Quite literally, he drops asleep after days of pushing himself as hard as he can tolerate while only taking brief naps, and then drops wherever he is, whatever is left undone or whatever his surroundings.

At first, it was just leaving the lights on. I'd remind him to turn them off, and once he woke, he'd go around and deal with them. A bit late, but he at least recognized the need to do so.

Then I'd start finding him asleep near his bed but not on it, or occasionally he'd gotten part of his body on the bed. He'd sleep sitting up fairly often, sometimes on the floor. Some times he'd sleep leaned over the workbench while sitting up on a stool. A couple days ago he was working outside on the patio in one of the wicker chairs, winding up spending the night out there. It dipped into the upper 30s that night. When he came in, I suggested he treat himself to a nice hot shower, but he fell back asleep on the toilet instead. Once he woke again, he was warm and skipped the shower. 

Lucky for us there's a second bathroom in the house.

Yesterday was the topper. So far, anyway. I found him as I was working on taking the dog out to the back yard, her bathroom. He'd been on his knees, rummaging in a box on the floor for who-knows-what, and fallen asleep in that position with his head down inside the box. The dog refused to go over his legs, which were blocking her path, despite my calling and coaxing. I gave up, hoping her bladder was up to the challenge.

But then a thought: I came back out with my camera and took a shot of him this way. Someday I may show it to him. Having his head hang down over the edge of the box doesn't seem to have hurt him any, as proven by his waking a few hours later in order to go sleep on the toilet again. And the dog got outside in plenty of time, so there's that.

My friend tells me he's turning into a cat. She has one and he sleeps in many of the same positions including head hanging ones. When Rich starts licking his paws, I'll go for that explanation.