Twilight Zone

Last night, I had just climbed into bed and turned on the television to watch the late news and weather when the electricity flickered once, flickered twice, then went off completely. So, I’m laying there in the dark, trying to remember where I left the blasted flashlight the last time this happened. Of course, I can’t remember. I could, however, recall where I put the matches for the candles in the living room.

After my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I got up and checked out the back window to find that all the houses on the block behind me were encased in darkness. Then I gingerly inched my way down the hallway and looked out the living room window…ditto…the houses across the street. The only building that was lit up was the Shell Station on the corner. Feeling somewhat “comforted” with the knowledge that I was not alone in my darkened state, I fired up the old lap top…bless the chap or chapetta who invented battery packs…and played a few games of Spider Solitaire before finally going back to bed.

I carried one lit jar candle and the “zippo/bic” lighter thingy (I abandoned the matches after I burned my fingers twice trying to stick my hand down inside the jar) back to the bedroom with me. I put the candle on the table by the bed and put the lighter on the bed with me. Okay, perhaps not the smartest thing, but I wanted to make sure I could find it if I needed it, and I checked to make sure that the tip was not hot or anything. Well, about 12:15 the lights came back on, so I had to reset the alarm, etc. By then, I was wide awake, so I watched a bit of Bobby on BRAVO before turning out the light.

This morning, as I was getting dressed for work, I noticed that the lighter was resting alongside the candle…not on the bed where I had placed it last night. You have to understand, I sleep on the opposite side of the bed where the candle was, so to move it in my sleep, I had to come all the way from the other side of the bed. Not only that, there is very little space on the table and I had placed the lighter at a very narrow angle, so that had to be carefully arranged to make sure it didn’t fall onto the floor. So, what I'm say is...if I didn't do this in my sleep, then my "guardian angel" must have intervened to keep me from going up in a ball of flames in the wee small hours of the morning. Now that I think of it, I'm just glad I didn't attempt to light the candle in my sleep.

I guess my question is…do y'all ever do stuff like that? I mean, there are times when I leave the bedside light on and wake up the next morning to discover I have turned it off in my sleep. I used to wear a hand guard at night to ease the pain of carpal tunnel in my right hand. This sucker fit snugly and had a Velcro closing…I had to tug hard when I was awake to get the dang thing off…yet many mornings I awoke to find I had wrestled it off in my sleep and flung it to the far side of the room.

I have been told that I both talk and sing in my sleep and now this. Sorta makes one wonder what other things one might be doing in her sleep. No wonder I wake up feeling more tired some mornings than when I went to bed the previous evening. Apparently, I get more exercise when I'm asleep than awake.

I suppose, all things considered, it could be a good deal worse. I could be one of those poor unfortunate creatures who raids the refrigerator in her sleep.