I would never, ever wear earplugs to bed. There is just so much I have to be aware of 24/7. Those babies back in the day were Job-One of course, but also sick kids, sneaky teenagers, dog needing to go out, the occasional car driving by (suspicious! we live on a quiet street! there is NO reason for a car to have to drive by!), distant thunder, wind through the branches, house creaks (why, oh why?), bad guys breaking in.... You know the usual dead-of-night stuff one must be aware of.
But even with his earplugs in, at least I can shake him awake if I have an auditory concern and say, "Did you hear that?!?" (No, of course he didn't!) It's when he's not here that the problem arises. My little bitty anxiety disorder kicks in and my hearing becomes like that of the Greater Wax Moth -- galleria mellonella. (The animal world's best hearer; I looked it up.) I hear everything, some of it real.
I tell myself the neighborhood is no scarier in the dark than in the light of day and I know that to be true, intellectually! But my reptilian brain wants me to be on high alert because sometime in the distant evolutionary past they didn't have home security systems that connect directly into the police department. But that is of only limited reassurance, because my hyperactive Worry Wart Amygdala decides to perseverate on the fact that the alarm might go off and then what?!? That would be super scary! Let's get scared in anticipation of the scare just so we're super ready to be scared! (See what I mean about the little bitty anxiety disorder? This is the kind of game it likes to play.)
I try to calm myself with the knowledge that the woman down the street is, if not older, at least slower than I and she seems very confident living alone. I'm not sure what her issue is, but for awhile she had a walker and now doesn't -- I'm thinking some sort of joint replacement surgery -- but I'm still more fleet of foot. I know she too has an alarm system, but when she described it to me, I got alarm system envy because she has cameras apparently mounted everywhere, like Fort Knox or Alcatraz. I know those are old and maybe closed down places (yes to Alcatraz; no to Ft. Knox -- I looked it up) that probably don't have cameras so much as barbed wire, but there might be zoning violation about barbed wire in my neighborhood, I don't know. Anyway, that many cameras could be cool to monitor. I bet I might catch the critter who is eating all my bush beans! My gardener friends are thinking either deer or rabbits are stalking my raised beds under cover of darkness and with the right infrared camera I'd nail them cold! I digress.
Fortunately Hub doesn't go away that often and as already mentioned, he's pretty useless to me even when he's here with those earplugs in and his sleepy-making allergy medicine onboard. He has an alarm clock that gets progressively louder the longer it beeps. There are times it's at full volume before he rouses. And there was the one time our burglar alarm really did go off (triggered by someone opening a door before disarming the system), the siren screaming at one million decibels and he didn't hear it!
How can someone purposely make themselves deaf in the dark of night. That's just wrong. I say, "All senses! Take your battle stations! It's 2 a.m. and we have a job to do!"
At least, that's the view from here...©
