FINALLY!!!!!

Yes, I’m finally home from my travels, but that is not the reason behind this post.  The “finally” I am referring to has been a thorn in the side at least once for all who travel by air.

I am not always a rule player, but more often than not I am.  When it comes to air travel I ALWAYS follow the rules, especially when it comes to carry-on baggage.  As you frequent flyers know, most fellow travelers believe the carry-on restrictions in both number and size apply to everyone but themselves. 

There are times when my I want to slap the gate agents silly as they let passengers board with bags that are clearly too many in number and/or too large in size.

But today I wanted to hug the gate agent at Bradley Int’l Airport in Hartford, CT!

I had been occupying space at the gate for nearly a half hour and was biding my time for another hour until the boarding process would start.  That’s when I saw her coming.  There was no way to miss her – a youngish woman taller than the average person and broader than many, who walked, no marched, down the concourse with an air of authority, daring anyone to make eye contact with her never mind ask her a question. 

Since I had my back to the podium I didn’t realize she stationed herself at my gate until I got up to use the restroom when the first class boarding began.

I was in the last boarding group and enjoyed some people watching while waiting for my group to be called.  Since I was in the last boarding group I was also closely monitoring the amount of carry-on baggage entering the plane before me.  I had two pieces with me – a suitcase that fit within the size guidelines on United’s website and a briefcase.  The latter would fit under the seat in front of me and the former in the overhead bin…if there was room.  Hence my monitoring – I was legal but there were many rule breakers amongst my fellow travelers.

You cannot even imagine my glee when the gate agent asked a young lady to put her carry-on bag into their size stand to make sure it fell within the guidelines.  No matter how hard the young lady tried, she could not get it to fit, a fact that was obvious to even the non-seasoned traveler.  With a very disappointed look she gave the bag to the second gate agent who then tagged it for relocation to the plane’s belly. 

The next person in line encountered the same problem and he was NOT a happy camper.  He went on and on about the fact he has carried the bag onto a plane numerous times and has never had a problem.  Gestapo Lady as I privately dubbed her, replied that it was FAA guidelines – if the bag didn’t fit it was checked.  The disgruntled man was a calmed a bit by the knowledge that he would not have to pay the checked bag fee. 

Hhhmmm…do I see the beginnings of a new trend, a way to avoid that minimum $20 baggage fee?

Back to my fellow passengers…several went through fine before Gestapo Lady went back into action.  This time the offending bag appeared to be the same height and width as mine, or close enough that the difference was not visible to the untrained eye, but it still didn’t fit.  When the passenger questioned this, Gestapo Lady indicated that she had overstuffed her bag and now it was too deep.

Oops…I looked down at my puffy red companion and quickly started to think about what I could remove and fit into my bulging briefcase in order to get mine to fit should I have to play that game.  I resisted the urge to return to a bank of seats and start pulling stuff out…if my bag fit it fit, if it didn’t, then it would be taken away from me and we’d be reunited in San Diego.

Ahhh…the confidence one has when one’s boarding group is still two numbers away.

The garden of confiscated bags behind the podium increased in size and color while my mind started to race.  I was still quite pleased with Gestapo Lady but I was starting to chew my lip, my earlier confidence slowly eroding.  Short of removing a few things from my suitcase how could I make it look smaller?

A smile threatened to spread across my face as I came up with a solution!  I collapsed the handle and carried the bag!  I figured if I had it off the ground it would look tinier.  At least I hoped it would.

When my group was called I stepped in line and moved forward with as much confidence as possible.  I really wanted to thank Gestapo Lady for her efforts but I was afraid to draw attention to my red buddy.  Besides, when I greeted her she was very surly – a result I’m sure of all the grief she’d been getting from my fellow passengers.

I sailed right through the boarding process and once on the plane I shifted some of the bags in the overhead bin above my seat and slid my bulging red buddy into place between two other carry-ons. 

Then and only then did I exhale and allow that smile to spread across my face.

Daddy’s SUV is Tired

Though it’s been a whirlwind past couple days I can’t say that I’m tired, just a bit out of sync time-wise.  With everything I’ve done I can’t believe that each time I look at a time-telling device it’s hours earlier than I think it is.  Daddy’s SUV on the other hand is tired…very tired.  If it travels more than 25 miles in a week that’s amazing.  If one uses this figure as a weekly average, in the past three days I’ve turned between 12 and 13 weeks worth of miles on the odometer.  And there’s more to come on Sunday.

Friday morning Dad and I came back from the Eastern end of the state.  Within half an hour of being home I was out the door to catch up with my best friend of 37 years.  I had asked if we could stop by to see his mother so that was our first stop.

In my opinion, Betty is the kind of mother everyone wants.  Absolutely no offense to any mothers, mine included, but Betty was always so incredible.  We hadn’t seen each other in 26 years and were ecstatic when our eyes once again met.

After twenty minutes or so of catching up Jeff and I left Betty to her work and went off to lunch.  We relaxed, chatted, ate and drank then headed to his house for a cup of tea and more chatter.

His friend took this picture and when we saw it I told Jeff that it was the perfect Christmas Card picture.

Jeff:  Go ahead and use it.

Me:  Yeah, sure…and when you send it around you’ll have to say something about having REALLY big news beyond moving to New York City.

We both laughed so hard we were crying. 

Punchline:  Jeff is gay… 

I went back to my Dad’s and within an hour we were out the door to enjoy dinner at a local restaurant.  Shortly after getting back home I walked down the block to visit a neighbor who was a teacher at the local elementary school.  My sister was the only one of us who was her student, but Miss Laliberte knows all of us.

I rang the doorbell and was greeted with a huge smile, a bear hug and “I can’t believe you remembered to stop by” (I had told her I would in one of our mail, not e-mail, snail mail, correspondences earlier this year).

We chatted for 1-1/2 hours before parting ways and wishing each other super holidays.  I walked back into my Dad’s house at 9:30PM and went to bed post-haste.

This morning I was up and out the door by 8:30AM.  I drove past my old house in Springfield before going to Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up coffees, donuts and munchkins.  The donut delivery service, me, arrived at my friend Anita’s house around 9:30AM where I spent the next 2-1/2 hours catching up with her, her daughter, her 3 granddaughters, her son and daughter-in-law and her grandson.  On my way home from their house I stopped at the new fangled food store and chatted with her husband for 10 minutes before he had to get back to work.

I spent a couple hours helping Dad with assorted items on the to-do list he created for me before heading out to Friendly’s to visit with a high school classmate that I found on Facebook.  We spent a couple hours catching up over ice cream desserts before I returned to Dad’s and more to-do projects.

My friend Tracy called shortly after 4PM and off I went again – this time to Bertucci’s for dinner (soup and salad since I was still full from my banana split), wine and conversation.  When we were leaving I asked if she could do me a favor and she readily agreed so off to the liquor store we went. 

I purchased a bottle of V One Vodka, a vodka made by my former boss’s brother and one that you cannot get in California.  I’ve never had it and I’m not a vodka person, but I wanted to support Paul’s efforts and put my curiosity to bed.  I also picked up a bottle of Ginger Brandy (surprise, surprise).  Tracy has both bottles and will ship them to me in the next couple weeks.

I wasn’t yet ready to go to Dad’s so when I exited the highway I pulled into Barnes and Noble.  This store, a mere 2 miles from my Dad’s house, is AWESOME!!  It’s a large 2-story building that envelopes me in peace the minute I enter.  When I lived in MA I participated in bi-weekly writing workshops in this store – we sat at a table upstairs along one side of the building and in front of a large bank of windows.  Imagine my sadness when I went upstairs tonight and found that our little nook is no more, that bookshelves have been added and now fill that space.

That was the only disappointment so it was acceptable.  I puttered around for half an hour and treated myself to a new address book as well as “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (and it’s all small stuff)”.  I had to leave after the half hour otherwise I would have bought more goodies and that would have spelled big trouble since I’m traveling carry-on only.  I barely had enough room for everything that I brought with me and since the only thing I’m leaving behind is a CD I haven’t gained any room for the return trip!

Though I’m not really tired, I’m going to climb into my jammies and get myself ready for a final busy day tomorrow.  Breakfast at Bernie’s Dining Depot, a stop at Walmart then the open house/family reunion at my cousin’s house. 

Have a SUPER Sunday everyone!

My Sanity Questioning Adventure

During Thanksgiving dinner I told my brother, his family and my Dad about my upcoming big adventure.  I wasn’t sure what their reactions would be but I was quite sure there would be some expressions of concern.

Imagine my surprise when everyone was thrilled for me!  Yep…they all applauded my courage, admitted some envy and cheered the adventurist in me.  Not a single word of concern or negativity was uttered.

So…what is this big adventure?

In January I have three artist/designer friends staying with me for a few days – a girls’ PJ party of sorts.  At the end of their visit,  Laura and I will drop Joan and Ursula at the airport on Saturday before we head to a local private airport for our adventure (Laura doesn’t go home until Sunday).

When this whole adventure idea began it was as a hot air balloon ride.  It evolved into indoor skydiving then morphed into indoor skydiving combined with…a tandem jump from 12,500 feet!!!!

Yesiree…Laura and I each get two turns in the wind tunnel (indoor skydiving) followed by one tandem jump apiece while attached to a skydive instructor!!!  We are going to fall out of a perfectly fine airplane and float back to terra firma!

Most of my friends think I’m insane, a couple are cautiously supportive (lest their support be seen as encouraging risky behavior), my sister stopped short of telling me not to go but made it abundantly clear it’s nothing that she would do, and the rest of my family is thrilled for me!

My brother did mention that he’ll be very curious if my body will do what my mind tells it to do and fall out of the plane.  It seems my nephew encountered an overly zealous survival instinct when the family vacationed in Alaska and did some rock climbing.  When they were going down the rocks my nephew had to repel over the edge of the cliff but his hands would not let go of the rope even though his mind was telling them to.  I really appreciate my brother putting this thought into my head…hopefully I will have forgotten all about that by the day of the big adventure!

Maybe I’m naïve, but I firmly believe that there is a predetermined date/time at which I will move on to the next chapter of life in the great beyond, and no matter where I am or what I’m doing, this transition will happen at the appointed time.  So, if something happens during the jump that moves me to another world, it would have happened even if I hadn’t jumped.

Besides, it won’t hurt.  I’ll do a ton of thinking during the time it takes to fall back to earth, but I won’t feel any pain when I stop. 

I do have one really big fear about all this, and that is that I am going to LOVE skydiving!!  This would be a problem because the planes fly over my house all the time — upwards of 2 dozen times a day on weekends.  Every time they fly overhead I will envy the skydivers who fell out of the planes and enjoyed an exhilarating journey back to earth.

So, if I do love this I have decided that every year on my birthday I will take a tandem jump.  If I win the lottery I’ll take skydiving lessons and learn to jump by myself, but the annual tandem jump will hopefully suffice in my non-winning world.

Have no doubts, I will blog all about this adventure, and do so in such great detail that each of you will feel as if you dove with me.

Are you ready for the adventure?  You’ve got 2 months to prepare!!

The Day After Turkey Day

I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving Day no matter where you were or what you were doing!!  My day was great and though I won’t bother you with all the details, I will entertain you with a few highlights.

Before getting on the turnpike to travel to my brother’s house, Dad and I spent a prolonged visit at the local Dunkin’ Donuts.  It was supposed to be a quick in and out for a dozen donuts (plus 2 for Dad for the drive), a bagel with cream cheese (for me) and two coffees.  Unfortunately many other people had the same idea (but with different purchases) and the ladies and gent behind the counter had not yet finished their work choreography so things were not moving very smoothly.  Fortunately Dad didn’t seem to mind sitting in the Blazer staring at the drizzle and the sporadic traffic while I stood inside DD patiently waiting.

20 minutes after pulling in we were pulling out, both of us curious to begin our journey in earnest and find out how much traffic was going to be keeping us company.  Not that we wanted any company, we were quite content with the thought of having the road all to ourselves.

Do you remember the 1936 movie “Go West Young Man” starring Mae West?  I don’t, it was long before my time, but the majority of other people out for a Thursday morning drive not only remembered the movie, but also followed the lead.  The westbound lanes of the turnpike were jammed!  There were some areas where traffic moved smoothly, but those were not the norm, brake lights and reduced speeds were.  All the traffic was a surprise to me and Dad but not a bad surprise because we were heading east!  Here’s hoping that later today when we head west everyone else is heading east 

The company and meal at my brother’s house were awesome!  Our dinner consisted of roasted turkey and smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, turnip, bread dressing, meat stuffing, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, green beans, black olives, green olives, pickles, wines chosen by my nephew the wine student (seriously…he is studying wines).

Later in the afternoon we all played Apples to Apples.  It’s a fun card game using green and red cards.  The green cards have adjectives on them and the red cards have nouns.  The first person flips over a green card from the stack and reads the adjective and description aloud.  Everyone else takes one red noun card from their hand, puts it face down on the table and slides it to the first person, the judge if you will, before taking a new red card from the stack.  The judge decides which noun best matches the adjective and gives that green card to the person whose noun was chosen.  This whole routine repeats, the judge changing each time, until someone has 7 green cards in front of them.  They are the winner!

Though it may sound too easy to be fun, but the game is a hoot because when donating your noun card you have to take into account the judge’s personality, sense of humor, likes, dislikes, etc.  Trust me, it gets really silly, especially when under the influence of full bellies, great company, a roaring fire and mulled wine 

Two side-notes to yesterday:

1.  My niece suddenly became a beautiful young adult!  It’s been 18 months since I’ve seen her and in that time she went from being a kid to a young adult.  It was so fascinating to watch her and talk with her.

2.  I miss the rain…a lot.  It’s been overcast, drizzly and this morning, rainy, since I arrived on the east coast and I can’t get enough of it!  During my layover at Dulles airport I even watched the raindrops send shock waves through the puddles.

Ohh…yeah…my sanity questioning big adventure?  Well the details were VERY well received, no one even questioning my sanity!!  I don’t think it was due to politeness as there seemed to be six excited cheerleaders at the table.  I will fill you all in on the adventure tomorrow…I’m editing the post today.

I hope everyone had a SUPER turkey day!

Flying East

I’m hanging out here at Dulles Airport…I’ve got 2 hours to kill before boarding starts so I figured I’d update you on my vacation thus far.

The trip to the airport was uneventful and fast.  On the off-chance there’s a So. Cal. Chipper reading this post, I won’t indicate the number at which I was traveling.  Let’s just say that I was practice flying BUT I rarely caught the pack of cars in front of me and was always caught by the pack behind me.  Californians do have an on-going love affair with speed (maybe that’s why so many NASCAR drivers are from the Golden State?).

I’m very glad that I prepaid for my parking as the lot that I chose was only accepting vehicles that had reservations.  It’s inexpensive for San Diego ($10/day) and extremely convenient to the freeways.  The good news was that the shuttle followed me to my parking space so within 10 minutes of turning off my ignition I was walking into the airport!  And the better news was that my car is parked underneath something because I‘m right near the cement support!  I’m not sure what I’m parked under as it was dark and the shuttle was waiting, but my car will not get sunburned while I’m in MA!

As I approached the nearly empty security screening area I realized that on this trip I was one of those passengers that I hate being behind.  It took me a few minutes to get all my stuff situated on the conveyor belt – shoes and coat off and in bin #1 along with my neck pillow, my briefcase went into bin #2, my laptop into bin #3 once I took it out of the briefcase and my carry-on suitcase was plunked directly onto the belt.  Fortunately two of those people I hate were in front of me and much less organized so the people behind me were actually waiting for the people in front of me, not me.  PHEW!

But…once I passed through security that wasn’t exactly the case as I tried to gather everything back together…  L

The wait at the airport was uneventful and fairly quick thanks to my laptop and the work I had brought with me.  Once on the plane I was thrilled to find that the overhead bins were not all full and I was able to hoist my suitcase into a space right above my head.

I tucked my briefcase under the seat in front of me, put my neck pillow around my neck, grabbed my iPod from my coat pocket and then put my jacket on like a Snuggie.  I was dozing before the plane was even in the air!  Thank goodness because I’d been up since 2:30AM (no alarm – just the time my eyes popped open and my brain engaged) and it was now 9:30PM!

Part way through the flight as we bounced our way through some turbulence I woke up thinking EARTHQUAKE!  When I opened my eyes and oriented myself I knew that was wrong, but my error did end with a chuckle and the realization that I have become way too Californian!

The rest of the flight was uneventful and long since I was still very tired but unable to do anything more than doze.  I see a nap in my afternoon plans…I’ve been working way too much and sleeping way too little for days, weeks actually.

When I deplaned and entered the airport I was staring at Starbucks.  Boo…hiss…  I was on a Dunkin’ Donuts mission and I knew exactly where I had to go thanks to researching the locations on Dulles Airport’s website!  I hoofed all the way down one concourse, past another Starbucks, and partway down a second concourse before reaching my destination.

I purchased my goodies, medium coffee cream no sugar and a plain bagel with plain cream cheese (they didn’t have any veggie cream cheese L  ) then hoofed it all the way back to where I had started.  Yep…I came in at the same gate I’m flying out of!  That never happens when I have 45 minutes or less to make a connection, only when I have hours to fill. 

So here I sit, blogging while I patiently wait for the next 70 minutes to pass so the boarding process can begin for my flight into CT.  All’s quiet right now in the concourse but I’m sure the number of bodies will increase exponentially with each tick of the clock.  After all, it IS the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve day everyone!

Just a Very Quick Post…

…to let you know that I’m leaving shortly for the airport so I can get my Thanksgiving trip to New England underway!!

Family, friends, food, goodwill and cold weather — is there a more perfect combination?

Have no fear readers…you’ll be on my vacation with me.  I’ll be blogging while hanging out with everyone so that you can share my vacation pretty much as it happens!  And don’t forget…the big reveal about my upcoming sanity-questioning adventure will appear on this blog sometime between Thursday and Sunday 

In case  you don’t stop by between now and turkey day have a FANTABULOUS Thanksgiving!

Under The Influence

I spent almost the entire day Saturday working.  Granted I was at home and comfy as could be in my new jammies, but I was working…all day long.  There were a few potty breaks, an hour-long break to make my yummy soup, a half hour break to do dishes and another half hour break for dinner, but other than those times the day was spent staring at my computer monitor doing work.

Why?

Deadlines!  The trade show deadline  combined with my Thanksgiving vacation back east equaled a lot of stuff to get done this weekend.

After a total of nearly 12 hours of monitor staring, I’m sure you can feel the headache that I had when I finally shut down and went to bed at 8:30PM.  I rarely take aspirin, motrin or anything so I’m never able to use up a bottle of even 50 tablets before its 2 years from date of purchase expiration!  However, Saturday night my head and eyes hurt so badly that I took one Tylenol PM.

Yes…ONE. 

Just one…

I was out before 9PM and slept soundly.  So soundly in fact that when the alarm went off at 5AM Sunday not only did it have to wake me up, but I hit the snooze button – 6 times!!!  So much for an early start on more work!

I semi-blindly stumbled my way to the kitchen, yawning the whole way, made a pot of coffee then realized that I was cold and I needed my nice warm polarfleece bathrobe.

When I walked back into my bedroom I put on the light then burst into laughter.  I have absolutely no idea how I could have slept as soundly as I did since my bed linens indicated that I ran a marathon, kick-boxed or engaged in some other very active something or other…

It may be unbelievable, but really, when I went to bed Saturday night all the covers were neatly in place.  The foot of the comforter was hanging between the mattress and the footboard; the blanket was stretched the length of the bed, not hanging off the side and the pillows were side by side across the head of the bed, not half on top of each other one one side.

I have no recollection of moving around or of dreaming.  All I remember was 8:55 on the alarm clock and then nothing until the beeping started at 5AM.

I was under the influence of one Tylenol PM… can you imagine what would have happened if I had taken two????

 

Soup’s On!

Last weekend I bought myself a 21 pound frozen Butterball turkey that I won’t be cooking until Christmas week.  This meant that I had to store the turkey in Fritz the chest freezer (he lives in my garage), which in turn meant that I needed to take out the 3 large containers of frozen home cooked turkey stock…and make soup this weekend!

The stock slow thawed in my fridge all week…

Well, they sort of thawed in the fridge – the majority of the thawing happened in the stock pot on the stove Saturday morning.

The multi-tasking chef in me cut up all the vegetables while the stock was thawing — onion, celery, baby carrots, green pepper, broccoli and baby spinach.  I added a can of kidney beans and two cans of petite diced tomatoes.  From the freezer came the corn and peas, and the spice basket surrendered salt, pepper, lemon pepper, basil, oregano, balsamic vinegar and chicken boullion.

While all of the above simmered in the turkey stock I cut up the thawed turkey meat and added it to the pot before plopping myself in front of my laptop.  For the next 3 hours I work-worked while the soup simmered and filled my house with the most delicious aroma.

The final addition to the soup was a box of mini bow-tie pasta.  Isighed with relief when everything fit!  Really — the stock pot was filled to within an inch of the rim! 

After another hour of simmering I served myself a bowl…and then another because it was just so yummy!!

Doesn’t it look awesome?!?!?!?!  Too bad the internet doesn’t offer a smell feature…but on the other hand, that might be a good thing for you readers as you’d be drooling after just one tiny whiff 

If you’re not a regular reader of this blog, you might be wondering exactly what I’m going to do with all the leftovers.  The answer is that I freeze it in individual size portions just like I do with all meals I make so that I can take homemade meals to work every day!

I ate two bowls of soup for lunch and divided the rest into containers…

Voila!  21 containers of soup — there would have been 23 except I ate those two bowls for lunch.

Soup anyone?

 

A Thorn In My Side

Who would have thought that this cute little bit of technology would create such a problem for me!

The theory behind this flash drive is excellent — a tiny little device that holds 8 GB of stuff for easy transport from one computer to another.  It can be any kind of stuff the owner wants – word documents, spreadsheets, pictures, graphic layouts…anything!

I thought for sure my biggest problem with this 2-1/2″ x 3/4″ x 3/8″ device would be that I would lose it.  After all, it IS tiny and can easily hide in a million different places in my 1706 sq foot house.  Let’s not even discuss the nooks and crannies available in the 160 square foot area at work that I call my office (think “creativity is not neat” and you’ll completely understand why I have so many nooks and crannies).

Alas, I was wrong.  The biggest problem has NOT been losing the flash drive – I think I’m so paranoid about losing it that I always know where it is.  Why am I so paranoid?  I have been tempting fate by storing files on the drive, working with these files constantly, and saving them on the flash drive but NOT on the network at the office.  If I lose this little thing then weeks worth of my work magically disappears!!

If my stupidity is not the biggest problem with this little red technological wonder then what is?  Twice this week, not once but TWICE, I’ve sat down in front of my laptop all set to spend a few hours working at home while in my jammies, only to discover that said device is not with me!

Maybe my forgetfulness is a result of my being mentally wiped out from everything that I need to get done at work; all the planning, preparations and product development for the upcoming major industry trade show.  Or maybe it’s my rebellious side doing its best to give me a few at-home hours for myself.  If I don’t have the work with me I can’t do it (let’s skip over the fact that I could drive back to the office and get said device). 

Though the flash drive wasn’t in my possession Monday and Wednesday nights I was 99.999% sure I knew exactly where it was.  Upon my (1 hour early) arrival at work Tuesday I looked down at my CPU and sighed a huge sigh of relief when I saw the flash drive.  Thursday morning I arrived nearly 1-1/2 hours early and when I looked at the CPU I burst out laughing.

Why?

Well…see for yourself…

Doesn’t it look like the CPU is sticking its red tongue out and mocking me?

Oh please say yes ‘cuz if you don’t agree then I’m more tired and mentally exhausted than I think I am, and that’s really bad news since there’s still two months of working at this chaotic pace before the January trade show!

It’s a Conspiracy…

…and I don’ t like it.  I’m the innocent victim and I’m starting to get cranky.

Wednesday morning at 1:23AM I was rudely awakened by the howling of coyotes once again.  After a few minutes of this eery annoyance I crawled out of bed, shut the window, went back to bed and burrowed under the covers.  Sleep returned after several minutes but it wasn’t a solid sleep, it was hours filled with weird dreams, tossing and turning and sporadic clock watching.

Wednesday night when I went to bed I eliminated any chance of a repeat by keeping my bedroom window closed (besides, it’s cold outside!).

Thursday morning at 2:21AM I was rudely jolted out of sleep by Hoover.  Not A Hoover as in vacuum cleaner, but THE Hoover, the annoying little poodle who lives next door.  Some nearly silent noise or barely-there smell brought him outside through his doggie door and set his vocal chords a barking.  For a good half hour Hoover sat on his side of the wrought iron gate and barked, his voice ricocheting between my house and his owners’ house, the structures being a mere 10′ apart.  It wasn’t a “stay away from my house or I’m going to eat you” bark so I wasn’t worried for my safety.  It was however, a “please come and play with me, I’m really a fun guy” kind of bark so I was convinced the local stray cat was sitting on the outside of the gate taunting Hoover.

I was unable to block out the barking even after relocating myself to the family room and putting on the television so I was up for the day.  In retaliation, I sent several telepathic nasty-grams to the neighbors, some threatening that I’d call the cops and report Hoover, but alas, no lights ever came on in their house.  Either my telepathic abilities are non-existent, I sent the messages to the wrong house or the neighbors are telepathically challenged.

Friday morning at 2:47AM I awoke to a thunk, thunk followed by a fairly loud constant hum/vibration.  My first thought was EARTHQUAKE but once the common sense area of my brain woke up I realized that the noises were in the wrong order.  During an earthquake the hum/vibration comes first and the thunking is the encore of the performance, the caboose on the train, etc., not the other way around.

My next thought was that my across-the-street neighbor’s son had returned home, with friends in tow, and their cars with loud exhausts were idling in the street.  I marched down the hall but was sidetracked by a flashing light coming in through the guest room window.  I looked out the window and saw an orange light reflecting off a garage door.

Orange?  What safety vehicle has an orange light?  A tow truck?  Was there an accident?

Being I’m as curious as a cat, I grabbed a bathrobe then headed out into the cold to investigate.  There were two vehicles parked in front of the house on the corner on my side of the street, but I could only make out the lead one as I was blinded by their headlights.  And I only knew what it was because of the flashing white and RED lights on its roof (I’m thinking the funky street lights we have changed the color of the reflecting lights since they give a yellow-orange cast to everything they illuminate).

The first vehicle was a fire truck!   I was confident there wasn’t a fire since the hydrant in my front yard was hose-less and my nose was not assaulted with the smell of smoke.  I’m not sure if the homeowners were even at home but since the house has an alarm, the fire department could have been called because of the alarm monitoring.  Or did the owner call because of the smell of smoke?  Or was it a rescue call and therefore the second vehicle was an ambulance???

I’ll check the fire department incident reports for the next couple days so I can find out and/or I’ll check with my across the street neighbors this weekend.  Either way, I’ll get to the bottom of this latest sleep interruption and incredibly early start to my day.

If most things come in three’s then I should be able to sleep through the night tonight without any interruptions.

I hope.