It Was a Dark and Stormy Night . . .

Jason and I were both a bit on the cranky side today. Neither of us has what would be described as a good night’s sleep last night. We had some thunderstorms last night which were the cause of our troubles. Usually I sleep well in both rain and thunderstorms, I guess the noise soothes me, but we have a saying around here “if Jason isn’t sleeping no one is sleeping.”

Jason channels his inner Goldilocks when it comes to sleeping. Everything has to be just right. We have ongoing and often volatile thermostat wars. Jason grew up in Canada and gets hot easily. I grew up in the south and get cold easily. Dual climate control in our vehicles saves us on road trips.

Jason thinks somewhere between 60 and 65 degrees is perfect for sleeping. I would be a block of ice trying to sleep at those temperatures. So we attempt to compromise. We set the thermostat on 70 (I would prefer 72) and we have the ceiling fan on. I *hate* having a ceiling fan on me at night, and often wake up with a slightly sore throat thanks to it, but in the spirit of compromise I go with it.

Jason’s other Goldilocks requirement is that he has to have a noise maker to sleep. Except the regular noise makers designed for just this purpose apparently are not soothing enough to him. He likes the sound that the air purifiers make so we have a collection of them just in case one dies. He also has some ungodly number of pillows that he arranges in various positions, sometimes slamming them down on me in the middle of the night as he flings one out of the way.

If all of Jason’s many requirements are met he sleeps like a baby. You could set a bomb off under him and he wouldn’t even change his breathing. I, on the other hand, am a *very* light sleeper.

Last night Jason was sleeping like a baby. Heck even I was sleeping well. I am assuming there were some strong winds since the electricity went out. Jason was immediately awake. The air purifier/noise maker wasn’t running any more, nor was the ceiling fan. As I mentioned above if Jason isn’t sleeping no one is sleeping so we were both awake.

After the electricity had been off a couple of hours I will admit with no air circulation at all even I was starting to get warm. Being next to Jason is like sleeping curled up to a space heater. On a cold night this is pleasant. On a warm spring evening with no air circulating not so much.

Jason starts complaining about how hot he is. I not-so-lovingly tell him to shut up. A few minutes later I ask him if he wants me to open the window and he says no in a very surly voice. We’re both laying on top of the covers, Jason sweating and me warm, in grouchy silence, staring at the ceiling. Whenever I can’t sleep instead of counting sheep I usually ride over jumps in my head, or ride full courses, work on trot lengthenings etc. Typically if I take my mind off the fact that I’m awake instead of asleep I drift back to sleep.

I was just drifting back to sleep and then The Don started crowing. I won’t type exactly what went through my mind as I head the The Don break into full crow outside my bedroom window at about 3am. I should also add the The Don is incredibly *loud* when he crows. Before Jason had a chance to launch into a tirade about it I pre-emptively told him to shut up again. Thankfully he took my suggestion and we continued to stare at the ceiling in silence with The Don crowing away with gusto.

I decided to start counting the seconds between crows. I told myself if The Don got up to three seconds between crows that meant he was winding down and we could have silence soon.

Silently I start counting. One one thousand. Two one – COCK A DOODLE DOOOOOOOOOO.

I start over. One one thous – COCK A DOODLE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I keep starting over. One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one – COCK A DOODLE DOOOOOOOOOOO

I repeated this cycle about a hundred times. Just as I was getting ready to go outside in my PJs and throw a tomato (or two or three) at him, The Don decided he had pushed his luck hard enough and was silent.

Jason and I were once again laying on top of the covers in complete silence. About five minutes later the electricity came back on. The ceiling fan started spinning, the air purifier started making noise, and Jason was quietly snoring within a minute. I went back to mentally riding over jumps and practicing lengthenings. Finally I drifted off to sleep again, and was woken by the sun shining what felt like five minute later.

Needless to say Jason and I were both cranky, grumpy and irritable today. The horses didn’t seem to mind.

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B-Rad