The Overherd: ideal companions for oncall. Witness:

– Large Round Cow. When trying to stay up in bed long enough to deal with high severity tickets, is good to hug and lean against while typing upon keyboard.

– Cozy Cow. Ideal as a replication of child-to-stuffed-animal ratio for adults.

– The Overcow. Smallish enough to curl up around in a fetal position while waiting for services to bounce, hardware to come back up, networking issues to be solved by networking people, and etc. And still provides a good hug.

– Lulu. Because the sleep deprivation hallucinations in the shower are less frightening when cuddling her and looking into her gigantic smile.

– Not least, Ike. Because work is frightening without Ike, ferry and work cow.

I ranted on Twitter a bit. Like so:

Trying to sleep without Ambien is like… I forget, I’ve lost my ability to think creatively. Getting paged during this period is like… um

Before someone takes me to task for using sleeping meds to get sleep, I’d like to see you step into these insomnia shoes, some PTSD-driven.

Plus, I would like to punch people who suggest that folks who come down with PTSD just aren’t strong enough or good enough. You know…

… like how Picard wasn’t “strong enough” to completely resist the Borg. I can’t completely resist my PTSD. I do my best. If that means…

… I’m weak, I’d love to see you go through the 20+ years of hell I went through and see how sane your nights and dreams are afterwards.

This rant brought to you by LACK OF FUCKING SLEEP FOR 48 HOURS. Don’t worry, I only have 24 more to go! Or maybe a little more.

Sleep-deprivation insanity: it’s what’s for dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast….