Of Late Nights and Big Frights by Konnie Enos

Recently something happened that resulted from a combination of things.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Melinda adheres to the old saying “early to bed, early to rise”. She is also extremely sensitive to noise and cannot sleep with lights on. I understand that last one because I found it difficult to sleep with lights on too.

Nobody else in the family goes to bed before ten so when she does, we shut off as many lights as possible, shut our doors, and limit the noise we make. We don’t do this merely to be nice to her. We do it to not “poke the bear”. She doesn’t hit, but she can completely chastise you if you wake her up. Let me tell you, you know you’ve been chewed out even if all she does and glare and slam a door.

Also, because of her noise sensitivity and household arguments about what people were watching/listening to, we mandated that everyone must listen with headphones unless everyone else in hearing range agreed with whatever was being played, be it a song, show, or game. With Melinda, hearing range includes anywhere within our house, even with the doors closed.

These two traits are indications of her neurodiversity.

Royce is not nearly as sensitive to sound, and he prefers to be awake at night. At night, he will generally run in the backyard. He also insists on long-sleeved shirts and long pants. His favorite color is black.

These are indications of his neurodiversity.

One thing about me is I cannot sleep with the light on. If Jerry is still awake when I go to bed, I put on my sleep mask. I also cannot have lights suddenly turned on, even if I am awake at the time. It’ll give me a headache. Yes, I have yelled at more than one family member because they flipped on a light without warning me. Usually Jerry.

I should also add that if Jerry goes to sleep before I do, I generally turn out any lights I don’t need so the room is dark enough to sleep. If I go to bed first, I wear my sleep mask.

So now the event of a few days ago.

It was later in the evening. Melinda was long since in bed. I couldn’t hear Royce running in the backyard or moving about in the front room. I assumed he was at least on his tech, if not asleep too. Jerry was snoring beside me. Not being tired yet, I decided to watch an episode of a show I like online.

With that in mind, I logged onto my computer and the necessary site. I then made sure the lights were all out and I had my headphones on.

My nice over-the-ear headphones that make it somewhere between difficult and impossible for me to hear outside noises. Headphones that I often have off of one ear during the day if I’m listening to something, so I don’t miss anything.

Now, the show I chose to watch sitting in a dark room with all other sounds cut off was a crime drama. I can feel Jerry sleeping beside me, know Melinda’s asleep, and cannot hear if Royce is even awake. Though, since I hadn’t heard Royce before I put them on, I assume I’m the only one up.

Just as I get to a rather tense scene. You know the ones where the music lets you know something scary is going to happen. Someone touched my left hand.

I kid you not. I jumped. Jerry is on my right. I look up and cannot see anyone in the dark room. I know from experience throwing my headphones off will take my glasses with it and I was positive I didn’t want to be blind at that moment. With one hand I shoved my headphones off an ear while with the other I reached for my reading light.

Taking the headphones off allowed me to hear Royce calling me. Turning on my light helped me to see him in all his dark clothes.

And yes, he did tell me he tried a couple of times to get my attention before he touched me. But he did not yell so as not to incur Melinda’s wrath and he did not turn on the light not wanting me to yell at him. Probably because my yelling would have invoked Melinda’s ire. She’d also be intelligent enough to figure out he was the one who started it. In other words, he would have gotten it twice.

I’d tell you why he needed my attention at that hour but as I said it was a few days ago and I honestly can’t remember.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Of Not Quite Empty Nests and Quiet by Konnie Enos

My full house tends to be quiet about as often as it’s unoccupied. Which is to say never. Even at 2 a.m. I can still hear someone moving about, or snoring, even if it’s a dog.

In other words, our house is never completely quiet. Partly because we do have dogs but mostly because we have night owls living here.

My days end with me being able to hear something in our house, or yard. Someone snoring. Royce in the backyard. A dog’s tags jingling as they wander through the house. Once in a while, it’s a dog, or two, barking.

My days begin with Jerry moving about our room and being able to hear Melinda moving about the house, opening curtains, letting dogs in and out, doing chores, and fixing her breakfast.

Now being as old as I am, I generally have to go to the bathroom at least once during the night. Yesterday was no different. When I woke up the first thing I noticed was Jerry wasn’t in our bed anymore. The second was that he wasn’t in our room either.

I knew he wasn’t in the bathroom, so there were only two other places he could be. In the backyard with his dog or not at home. He’s not home on Tuesday and Thursday mornings because he has a job doing some yard care for a friend of his. Since our car is in the shop he has to catch the bus, which necessitates leaving extra early.

Being Tuesday, I figured he was headed to work.

I curled back into bed until my alarm, and Xavier, let me know it was time to feed him. I stayed awake just long enough to fill his bowl and put it down for him.

Now Melinda does feed the other two dogs, Gunner and Ivan are hers. Plus the sun is up, so of course she is too. I could expect her doing her chores would be enough noise to prevent me from doing more than resting, but I was still tired enough to try.

Sometime later I startled awake with the realization that I could not hear any noises.

I know Jerry has climbed into bed in the middle of the night without waking me but as I was sprawled over his side of the bed, I’m positive he would have woken me up.

But Melinda doesn’t seem to be moving about either. I assume she is back in her room and I slept through her chores. Both of which have happened before.

However, I could use some assistance because somehow our fitted sheet had dislodged during the night and was now about half off the bed.

I went to find Melinda.

Her bedroom was empty unless you count Ivan still lying on her bed.

The bathroom was empty too, so I headed for the front room.

Nope.

The only other person I remotely saw was Royce. And all I saw was his obvious lump still curled up under his blanket, in his bed. Well, Gunner and Ivan wandering around the hall. Though they were more standing there because they weren’t clinking their tags around.

So obviously Melinda was not inside. No car, so she’s either on foot or not far. I’m not sure which one it is. I saw no point in looking for her. If she was just out front she’d come in soon enough. Otherwise, she wasn’t home anyway.

So I went back to my bed intently listening for any sounds indicating Jerry and Melinda were back, or Royce awake, while picking up my tablet.

As I work to turn it on, Melinda walks in the front door. Then before I have my app open Jerry returns. While Jerry was occupied elsewhere, I had Melinda help me make the bed.

Now things are back to normal with the normal quiet noises that usually prevail in our house.

Now I’m remembering when my house was not so quiet.

The noise from whatever tech device was on before everyone in the house had headphones, particularly the Bluetooth variety that allows Melinda to listen to music while skipping up and down the hall without letting everyone hear it.

Or someone watching the TV or playing a video game.

Or just kids playing. Or talking. More likely fighting.

So even though I don’t quite have an empty nest, I still have a much quieter one and I’m still used to the noise. I may have to resort to playing some instrumentals because if there are lyrics, I’ll pay attention to the words instead of concentrating on my writing.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Of Emergencies and Bolting out of Bed by Konnie Enos

The first thing I was cognizant of this morning was someone (Jerry) banging around in my room. Then I noticed the light, most of it was because Jerry had left several doors open and the light on in the bathroom.

Now, as is usual for me, since I was awake, I stumbled to the bathroom and turned out the light. We do have a nightlight in the bathroom which illuminates the room when there is no other source of light. However, it’s off because the sun is already peaking over the horizon.

After using the bathroom, I stumbled, still not fully awake, back to my bed. While I was doing so, Jerry saw me. “You’re up early.”

I grumbled. “I’m not awake.” Then climbed back into bed, taking the time to adjust my blanket and pillows in just the right way to allow maximum comfort for whatever remaining sleep I could get before I had to wake up for the day.

I had no intention of stirring until it was time to feed the dogs, and without checking the time, I knew it was way too early for that. The sun wasn’t that far up yet.

Then one thought bolted me completely awake.

It’s Wednesday!

I checked the time just before my Wednesday morning alarm went off.

Of course, I posted last week. We switch off every other week, so it isn’t my turn to write the post. But I’m flashing back to the phone call I got Monday night. The phone call that I didn’t do anything about all day Tuesday.

I had thought about possible solutions to the problem but I made no actual effort to do anything about it. So too early in the morning, I’m faced with a looming deadline and the only recourse I have left is to address the issue myself.

So I’m awake and again staring at my screen trying to figure out what to write for the post this morning.

Why isn’t Bonnie writing it?

She is currently dealing with a plumbing issue that requires effort on her part at about two-hour intervals to prevent her apartment from flooding. At this point all she can manage is keeping her house as dry as possible and what little sleep that effort affords her.

When she called Monday night to give me a heads up it was clear that she wasn’t fully awake. Between that and telling me all the effort she’d put into trying to get this issue fixed, I knew she wouldn’t be able to write this week’s post.

When she first rented this apartment, her landlord was easy to contact and he always responded promptly. That changed over the last few years.

She’d had issues even getting her rent check to him and I’m positive this isn’t the first repair that place needed when she could not get ahold of her landlord. I have the feeling he’s ignoring other tenants too.

Now? He hung up on Bonnie. He won’t return messages or make any effort to contact her thus leaving her to deal with the issues on her own.

This time, she’s contacted a lawyer because besides having to deal with the plumbing issue on her own, she’s now missing work. Work she needs to be able to pay rent, though I’m sure a lawyer would tell her that she is well within her rights to not pay rent to her slumlord.

I’m not sure what his endgame is. However, I’m sure he wants to sell the place but it was already run down enough before 2020 that he’d have to invest money, and time, in the building before anyone would even make an offer. Though it’d be more time-consuming and expensive to repair around the tenants.

I think his current lack of response is to get frustrated tenants to move out. Perhaps some of them have. But Bonnie has not only lived there for years but there is no other place she can afford. She’s looked.

I’m hoping she can get this taken care of enough that she’ll be able to do my post next week. I’m also praying her housing situation will improve because one of her only other options is moving in with family members. Most likely me.

The issue with this idea is we don’t have the room.

Melinda is the only one not already sharing a bedroom but that’s because I’m the only other female in the household. And since her old bedframe collapsed earlier this month, she no longer has a spare bed. Acquiring another bunkbed frame was far more expensive than the one we did buy.

All in all, I’m praying she can get things taken care of this week, and without having to move here.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Of Immune Systems and Sickness by Konnie Enos

 In the last few weeks, we discovered that Tony has a pretty strong immune system but Royce’s isn’t that strong.

You see it’s flu season and apparently not only is covid and the flu going around again but RSV is too. On top of that Royce started earlier this month as an Amazon seasonal employee.

Now Amazon can be a great place to work and one of the first things Royce found out when he started there was they have rooms set aside for their employees with Autism to go to have time to calm down from a meltdown.

Yes, you read that right. Amazon understands people with Autism enough to accommodate their needs. Royce had at least two fellow employees tell him that they were personally close to someone with Autism, as in a family member or close friend.

So Royce is feeling pretty good about the job, right up until he comes down with a cold. At that point, he’d only been working a week and was too sick to go in. And figuring out how to report that and get the time off was stressing him so bad he actually went and applied for a different job. (Unfortunately, they turned him down.) But, Royce is figuring out how to navigate the system. Mostly he has learned that they have people hired to help employees navigate the time off system. Still stressful, but he’s handling it, even though he’s had to get time off a second time in the less than a month he’s worked there.

But all that brings us to the main issue.

I don’t know why, but every time Royce gets sick I get it from him and only sometimes does anyone else in the family get it.

The first time he got sick. I got it, though not as bad.

Now this time? So far Jerry and Tony are the only ones not affected.

Which is bad.

Melinda and I do most of the housework and we both are so sick we both saw doctors yesterday.

Yes, both of us were prescribed antibiotics.

This brings me to my issue.

It’s my turn to post and I’ve been under the weather since at least Saturday. I’ve even been crashing for the night before, or very shortly after, 10 p.m. I finally let Bonnie know that I hadn’t written my post yet and I wasn’t going to be able to write it any time soon. Like possibly not at all.

Due to taking Melinda to quick care and making sure Tony got to and from work, Jerry couldn’t take me to quick care until later in the day. (I have slightly different insurance than my kids and the nearest quick care won’t take my primary insurance.) Needless to say, both places were pretty busy and it wasn’t quick at all.

The only reason I didn’t go straight to bed when I got back from the quick care last night was that I hadn’t had dinner yet. And the only other thing I managed was to let Bonnie know I was sick before I crashed for the night.

Needless to say, my post did not get written. And Bonnie wasn’t able to get one done because, unlike me, she has a job and other responsibilities.

I’d rather still be asleep, but the sun is coming up and I’m somehow awake at this hour, and since there was nothing posted yet, I thought I’d at least attempt to get something written as to why I didn’t do this sooner.

Oh, and Royce has decided that whether or not he likes them, he will wear his mask at work from now on. He even said he was going to get him a hazmat suit. Though for now, he’s making full use of all the hand sanitizer Amazon has available for their employees to use. That and wearing his mask of course.

So that is my week so far.

I’m also falling back to sleep so I’m going to end this post.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Of Coincidence and Memories by Konnie Enos

 

I’m sure most people have heard stories of people looking through old pictures and finding out that at some point in their past they’d crossed paths with someone they’d met much more recently. Recently I was reading some of these types of stories and it got me thinking.

I remember when we were about fourteen and Jacki’s then-boyfriend came around and talked about crashing a birthday party for some girls he did not know. The friend that told him about it did not know them.

Somehow, I was talked into going with them. (Bonnie may have gone too.)

The birthday girls were in fact twins and the party was in their large front yard. And yes, no one kicked us out though after a while I had to use the bathroom. Someone tracked down one of the hosts for me and got me permission to go inside and use the bathroom, but I was told to come straight back out.

I hurried in, did my business, and went to dash back out but was stopped by a display of family pictures. One in particular. I stayed long enough that one of the hosts came in to find me. I asked her if she knew who was in the one picture or where it was taken.

She told me where she and her twin sister were in the picture and what she knew of the others in the picture, then mentioned she was told one of her cousins took it and she thought the two youngest girls were his kids.

They were.

I remember Dad taking the picture in Grandma’s living room.

Yep. We unknowingly crashed the birthday party for Dad’s cousins.

Well, all this got me thinking about the Bicentennial.

Why?

Because it was chock full of these weird crossed-path incidents.

First, there was the young man (eighteen to be exact) who was in the color guard leading the parade in our hometown that day. Not only was Bonnie also marching in that parade, but it wasn’t the first, or last time our paths would cross his. And apparently, the first time was while we were still in our Mom’s belly. The second was just two years previously when Bonnie declared she would never have anything to do with any man who felt that way about boys playing with dolls, even if those dolls were meant for boys. (Our brother had some action figures similar to G.I. Joes', but closer to what Barbies are.)

The next time Bonnie crossed paths with him they ended up dating and then happily married.

But the eeriness of the events from that one parade doesn’t end there.

To this day I can still remember a small group of people riding and prancing their ponies around the street as they passed where I stood watching the parade. One of those ladies came right up to me and I’ve never forgotten what that young cowgirl looked like.

Fast forward almost thirty years and I’m in Nevada and I just moved into my house. When we attend the new ward (congregation) I spot a lady who for some reason immediately had me flashing back to that cowgirl even though she was not so much as wearing a cowboy hat. Yet, every single time I saw her, I flashed back to that cowgirl.

I did ask her if our paths had crossed somewhere but we had never so much as lived in the same city.

A few years later I was talking to her and she brought up the Bicentennial and mentioned her uncle roping her into riding with them in that parade as a last-minute replacement for someone else. I asked what city it was that she’d ridden in the parade for.

You guessed it!

Pocatello, Idaho.

That’s right, I flashback to that cowgirl because she WAS that cowgirl.

And reading those stories has me wondering if someday we’ll come across an old picture of mine or Jerry’s that somehow has the other one of us in the background long before we met and got married.

I mean, I know we both lived in the Salt Lake City area when we were toddlers/preschool age so it makes me wonder. Of course, that’s the only time we even lived in the same state until we met and eventually married in our late twenties.

Now I’m writing a story where the hero and heroine have their paths cross several times in their lives before the story starts. What is even funnier, while others find the earliest connection in their lives, I don’t think they ever do.

Have you ever written characters that have any of these “our paths have crossed before” moments?

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.