Thursday 28 January 2010

Our door bell rang

at 8:55 pm. I had been up since 5:00am and my father had been up at 6:00am. I was contemplating bed and a book I need to finish reading. My father was immersed in the autobiography he bought recently. This is not good. Has someone had an accident? Does one of the neighbours need some help?
The woman at the door is someone we have met once before. She has her daughter with her. My father had offered some help with study skills and, being the first day back at school, they think this would be a good time to call - unannounced.
Now I know that there are people who live their lives at night. We do not. I tend to rise early, too early even for me. It means that I can make contact with people in various parts of the world at times which is covenient for them - late afternoon and early evening for the most part. It is a quirk of my job. I have learned to live with it. That does not mean that local people, especially people we do not know well or at all, should assume that I need no sleep at all. My father likes a little more time in bed these days. Why not? He will be 87 at the end of next week. He is doing extremely well but he likes to 'contemplate his eyelids' for a bit after lunch and he definitely does not stay up until midnight.
I would not personally contemplate on calling on anyone before 8:00am - and between 8:00 and 9:00 it needs to be pre-arranged, inevitable or urgent. I say the same for the other end of the day. I would not call on someone after 8:00pm unless it was pre-arranged, inevitable or urgent.
I even resist 'phoning friends after 9:00pm.
I know, for some people this is the beginning - well, perhaps middle, of the day. For me it is the end of the day. I want a bit of time to myself even if it is not for myself. I can see my father feels the same way. We are just not 'night owls'.
Of course we make the visitors welcome. We say and do all the right things. I wonder if it is we who need to adjust and not them.

4 comments:

Rachel Fenton said...

I think anything outside regular working hours, without pre-arrangement (unless it's family/close friends) is a bit inconsiderate. I suppose it's difficult to gauge the time in the summer but still...I wouldn't feel comfortable calling on someone so late.

catdownunder said...

Well I am glad someone else feels that way - we were beginning to wonder whether it was just us!

Anonymous said...

I never call on anybody unannounced. It's a question of manners.

catdownunder said...

I wish everyone thought that way - and that I had the courage to say, "No, I am busy."