as it turns out

I had been asleep about an hour when a dream woke me. Or I thought it was a dream. Anyway…………once awake, I have a hard time getting back into La La land, but since I had only been ‘out’ for an hour, I thought, not long enough to recharge, so I was determined that this time, I was not going to get up.

It’s very cold right now, and last night was no exception, so I cuddled down with quilt up to my chin and kept my eyes closed, in the hope. Then I heard it………… it sounded like a bird chirping at first, and the more I tried to ignore it, the louder it got. But I was bound and determined, no way, not this time. I was going to stay put. Think of something else, I thought to myself, willing my mind to go elsewhere, anywhere other than here where the ‘bird’ was chirping. No use. It was like a drill in my head. I lay on my back with all senses at alert, and then it dawned on me that the chirping was not a bird but one of the smoke detectors. It wasn’t full blown screeching so I knew there wasn’t a fire, just the nagging warning that the battery was going dead. Let it. I was not going to get up.

So, having identified the noise, I rolled over and concentrated on something else. I almost accomplished a clean getaway when a pinging sound rang hollow in my ears. Now what? For some reason, the bathroom pipes picked this moment to start dripping. Ping, ping… chirp, chirp. Conspiracy.

The house was not going to let me sleep. I looked at the big red numerals on the dresser and saw that it was 2am. 1½ hours since this ‘nightmare’ began, and still I was awake. Well, I thought, I could get up and tap the keys for a while. Turn off the dripping, disengage the smoke detector, and while I’m at it I’ll just start a fire, brew some coffee, let Oz out, …………….No. No. No. I. just. Do. Not. Think. So.

And as I quickly dismissed that dim-witted thought, I got cozy, pulled the quilt back up to my chin and fell deeply into a lucid dream, chirping and pinging fading into a black hole.

Oh, by the way, the smoke detector is still chirping. It will just have to wait until I finish this rant. Wake me up in the dead of night demanding attention, annoying. Nah uh uh………I can be annoying too........