Somewhere between when your kids are tiny infants, and when they get to be, say, 4 1/2 and 2, you come to appreciate, REALLY appreciate a decent night's sleep. We at our household, are very fortunate in this department, son #1 was in bed for 12 hours last night, son #2 went for a whopping 14. But that's not the norm - they just played a little too hard in the pool yesterday. So I can't complain about the kids keeping us up. Not this time anyway.
Let's go back a week. Friday night a week ago, someone near us, perhaps even in town somewhere decided what a great idea it would be to have a fireworks show. Fabulous. They must've paid a LOT of money, because these were the big ones. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them. And when they finally had their grand finale at about 11:30pm, we had been TRYING to get to sleep for half an hour or so, and it did nothing but make us even more awake. We'll call this sleepless night number 1. The very next night, sometime around 4 in the morning, Mr. Skunk decided to spray somewhere VERY nearby. If you've ever been awoken by an odor, you know it's possible - to be sleeping peacefully one second, and the next, wide awake, gasping for fresh air, trying not to gag. This skunk was CLOSE. Like right outside the window close. And it took forever for the air to clear. Say hello to sleepless night number 2. The next night, we got a reprieve. That's not saying we slept great, but at least nothing woke us up. The next night was Bat Night (read below). Sleepless night number 3. The night after Bat Night was "Wake Up 10 Times Looking at the Ceiling Because You Think a Bat MIGHT Be There Night". Sleepless night number 4. The next night was a double-whammy. Mr. Skunk was back. Luckily, he hit us this time at 11:30, shortly before lights-out, and the smell only lingered until sometime after midnight. But then at 3 am, some fool in some fool truck comes roaring up the driveway, causing the dog (who was asleep on our bed) to start barking. I got up to look out the window, and the fool in the truck is shining this huge, powerful spotlight on our HOUSE! At 3 am! Once he spotted our house number (I guess), he drove off. Try getting back to sleep after that one. Sleepless night number 5. And then there was last night, the crowing glory. Or maybe the grand finale (let's hope). Thunderstorms. Tremendous, severe, unending thunderstorms. The first one hit around 11. It finally stopped rumbling around midnight. But at 1:30, it kicked in again and rumbled loud and often, off and on until 3. Back to sleep, only to be awakened at 4:30 by the worst one of all. By 5:40, I had to get up and check the radar to see if it was EVER going to stop storming. It did. At 6:30. Son #1 got up at 8. And jumped on me. Sleepless night number 6.
The fool in the truck? We still have no idea. We did call the state police and inquire as to whether perhaps someone was looking for an address in the middle of the night. They said it wasn't them. A bit disconcerting, but no harm done, just another sleepless night.
So tonight. Tonight we want to sleep. Please, mother nature, skunks, bats, idiots with fireworks and fools in trucks, leave us alone! Because tonight we'll probably have kids with belly-aches to deal with!
And it did occur to me that perhaps IF we had air-conditioning in this house of ours, and IF it would've been running and all the windows shut up tight, we probably would've slept GREAT this week! Just another reason to install A/C....but I digress.....
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We mercifully missed getting hit hard by the big thunderstorms. Lots of lightning and thunder, but nothing seemed to hit very close. This was around 4:30am. I was VERY surprised that no little people made it down to our bed. I figured that somehow they'd been tired enough to sleep through it? Wrong! I found out the next morning that the storm woke them but that they just kept each other company, and managed to stay brave that way. I was quite impressed.
I'm not too fond of strangers showing up in our driveway. I find it creepy though I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because "accidental" or "mistake" is unlikely. The drive is so long that someone really needs to know where they're going , otherwise they wouldn't waste their time.
Oh yeah, one more thing. After an absence of AC for several years, and now having it back I can report the following. It's great during the days...... easy to get used to having again. Nice to not be dripping wet all the time. OTOH, at night it's a bit of a different story (well sometimes). I've noticed that when the temperatures dip at night, the heat tends to stay in the house. Hence the AC runs even though it's cooler outside. Probably a waste of energy at that point. But then again I don't want to open windows and allow the humidity back in.....
Well, you make a good point about the a/c at night. Rarely, and I mean rarely would we ever need it at night around here. Most overnights are in the 60's, and with our attic fan, it clears out pretty nicely. Rainy, thunderstormy nights when everything feels wet is a different story, though. But in 5 summers here, we've only had maybe 2-4 nights per summer that have been steamy and unbearable. Then we installed ceiling fans and they work wonders. So for now, we'll save the extra cash and spend it on something else!
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