That would be me. I’m such a chicken. I’m braver in the daytime than after dark. There’s nothing that’s ever happened that’s made me so scared . . I’ve just always been this way. Back when I was growing up in a small town, there was little to no crime. We left our keys in the cars during the day but we’d bring the keys in at night. Probably 9 out of 10 nights, when I’d start to go to bed around midnight, I’d remember that my keys were in my car. There was no way I’d go out the door alone in the dark, walk 12 feet past mom’s car to my car and get my keys! So, I’d go wake up mom and dad and get one of them to come watch me while I went and grabbed my keys.
Fast forward to now . . several times a week I hear something in the dark. Of course, Vince never hears anything. He doesn’t understand why I hear things he doesn’t hear and he doesn’t understand why I wake him up to investigate.
Here’s our usual middle of the night “discussion”:
Me: Vince!
Vince: Huh?
Me: Vince!
Vince: Huh?
Me: I heard something!
Vince: Huh?
Me: Did you hear it?
Vince: Huh?
Me: I think you should go check it out?
Vince: Huh?
At this point, I give up and go back to sleep.
Last night Vince went to bed right after the news went off. I stayed up trying to finish binding on a quilt and went to bed about 11:30. Since he was already asleep, I didn’t read or anything but I had a few things I was sorting out in my mind so it was probably11:45 or so before I went to sleep. Then . . I heard something. I really heard something this time and I knew it was real. My first thought was that someone had busted in the front door. You know how noises seem so loud in the middle of the night.
Vince and I had our usual middle of the night conversation:
Me: Vince!
Vince: Huh?
Me: Vince!
Vince: Huh?
Me: I heard something!
Vince: Huh?
Me: Did you hear it?
Vince: Huh?
Me: I think you should go check it out?
Vince: Huh?
At this point though, I didn’t go back to sleep. I decided to be brave, get up and investigate. As I was walking out of the bedroom, I could hear car doors slamming (probably the burglars realized I was awake and they were making a quick getaway!). I walked back into the bedroom.
Me: Vince, I hear car doors slamming.
Vince: Huh?
Me: Something’s happening outside.
Vince: Huh?
Heck, I’m getting no help out of him! Back down the hall and when I got to the front door, I could see lots of flashing lights. Bad picture that it is, I guess it’s better than a blog entry with no picture, right? I did walk down there, in my pajamas with flip flops on in the 30 degree dark, camera in hand but one of the policeman turned and looked at me like where the hell did you come from? (he didn’t say that!) so I turned around and went home, turned off the flash and took his picture from my porch!
My guess is that someone lost control because a couple of car lengths back, a utility pole was down, a pickup and a car were smashed pretty badly but I don’t know anything about the drivers.
I went back to bed after seeing what had happened but after about 20 minutes, the tow trucks arrived and by the time they backed up and beeped and backed up and beeped about a dozen times, it was time for me to get up and work on binding again!
I would have been happy to have taken a nap today but my schedule was full so . . maybe I can get to bed early tonight; maybe I will not hear noises in the dark . . maybe! 🙂
Pat says
Gosh..>I HATE to hear noises in the nighttime…and nobody ever hears them but ME. I had to laugh, though…with as much of a chicken as you are, you actually left the house in the dark in your pajamas and walked around to see what was happening???? I’d have been too chicken to do that..so you maybe aren’t as much of a “scaredy cat” as you think you are! (I’d have been afraid there would be some wackos running loose from whatever happened and they’d jump out and grab me!)
CJ says
That’s why they make those nifty little snub nose pistols, so a girl doesn’t have to be afraid to be out alone at night :)~
Nancy says
This is why I wear ear plugs every night….
So far I have missed –
Ambulance at the house across the street
Helicoptor for the neighbor
large noisy party on the corner with police and everythng
huge bonfire at the house behind us, shots were fired, police came and everything.
pdudgeon says
hubby and i have been known to sleep thru lots of things even without ear plugs! like the time recently when some vehicle jumped a curb, crashed thru a brick and stone wall nearby, and left a 4 x 7 foot gap in the wall. we figured it must have been a big SUV to have made that much damage. did we hear anything?
NOPE! we missed the whole thing….had no idea anything at all had happened until the next morning.
Vicky says
I leave a movie on real low after I go to bed so I don’t hear the boogie-men! Daisy’s almost as deaf as she is blind, so I can’t count on the killer dog to protect me. That’s why I keep a big rotary cutter in my bedside table. LOL.
Linda Card says
And I bet Speck slept thru the whole thing, didn’t he? When I here noises at night, I am too scared to go look. So I say, “Must be the dog”.
Karen L says
I’m with CJ…..you need a stainless steel bulldog……….
Karen L
AnnieO says
I rarely hear noises at night because I am deaf in one ear and sleep with that ear up! But DH is a very light sleeper and when the dog chases one or more of the cats at night, gallumphing up the stairs, he always hears that, and naturally when our daughters come in late. And any hard rain we might get. I am always the surprised one in the morning if we have had rain (of course, I live in So. Calif so it is a rare event anyway)! Brave lady, Judy, going outside in the dark!
Mary Lea says
Judy, that was funny…but I’m sure it wasn’t last night. Your DH is like most…has selective hearing… Good night, Mary Lea
Evelyn says
I hear all kinds of noises in the night… and my DH hears nothing. Grrr. But – it does come in handy when you have a sick child in the next room – I always hear him if he needs me! Now, if my neighbors would just quit shotting rats out their kitchen window in the middle of the night…. I hate hearing gun shots. One sound I love though is the fog horn – if it is going off I know it is foggy. Anyway, I sleep much heavier during the day so usually take a 1 hour nap sometime in the afternoon. I never really wonder about “daytime” noises. Cheers! Evelyn
Dawn says
Oh this one cracked me up!!! All of Vince’s huh’s…heeheehee
dawn
Mrs. Goodneedle says
You wore your pajamas outside? Groan. I posted about this very phenomenon today. Ha!! (When awakened from a sound sleep I suppose an exception can be made! 😉
I had to laugh at the policeman’s reaction. Any married woman can relate to your husband’s response, too funny! I hope everyone involved in the accident is OK.
Linda says
I go with “the cat did it” when I wake up to noise in the night. Because she DOES like to snoop around at night & she’s clumsy so she knocks things down sometimes. I do wonder though how you would do with noises in the night out in the country if you’re this nervous about it when you live in town?