Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Recycle

Years ago, before C came into my life, I would sit around writing drivel. I used to be part of a group of seven that would submit the drivel for comment by other readers on a particular website.

As I suspected would happen, my steamy contribution piles were bringing the place down. The other writers were far more talented than I could ever be. So I stopped submitting.

And this was before I knew what individual blogging was, or that it could be accessed by anyone. Even though it had been around for years at that point. That's just my way. I don't usually discover anything until it's fit for a history book.

I was going through the back ups C made of my pre C computer and found some of these drivel gems that I wrote. I figured that I'd put them here from time to time, for a giggle.

_________________________________________________________

My eyes open. I know I’m in bed, at home. Something is different though. I don’t know what it is yet..."What time is it?" I wonder. I look to where my clock should be and there are no familiar red numerals. I realize that it’s awful quiet. It is awful dark. "Ah, the power must be out." "What time is it?" I think again.

I pick up the phone by my bed to call the computer voice that tells one the time. The phone is dead. No, I’m not in a predictable horror movie. I’ve forgotten that cordless phones need electricity. "What time is it?"

I am driven now. As if whatever took the power away will be at my mercy when I find out the time. Cell phone, battery operated savior. Ah, but I must find it. On my way through the house to find it, I step on the cat. "Sorry kitty, I just have to know what time it is!"I can’t find my cell phone and I can’t stop asking myself "What time is it?".

This is silly. It’s pretty obvious I don’t have to be at work yet...unless I’ve managed to sleep through an entire day. The whole neighborhood is dark. Quiet. I never realized how many lights and sounds there are 24 hours a day in my little hood. I look to the east. I can actually detect a small patch of black sky turning ever so slightly blueish. Quick calculation tells me that it must be about 6:00 a.m.

Guess what? I still want to know exactly what time it is. After all, it’s not like the sunrise would be close to accurate...or anything. Aha! Found my cell phone. At that moment, the power is restored to my home. I look at the blinking 12 12 12 of my VCR and think "Ooooh, what? What? Mighty electricity provider trying to foil my attempt to find out the time?" "I will not fall for your 12:00 illusion!"

I click on my cell phone. It is 6:12 a.m. I’ve been robbed of 18 minutes of sleep and one hit of the snooze button by the power outage. I reset my clocks. I realize that my fridge and heater are actually pretty loud appliances. I can hear the man-made electric powered stream that runs through my complex kick back on. Well, at least I know what time it is.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wierdest feeling in the world - get home, take a nap (this is usually preceded by a few adult beverages before getting home). You wake up from the nap, it's a little dark out, no sounds, you look at the alarm clock and it says 6:30 - so now you're trying to figure out if you've only been asleep for like a half hour or did you lose half a day?

ZooooM said...

It's funny you say that Al, because one of my older brothers was out partying one weekend (er...we were still high school age, so the parents found this to be far more disturbing than funny at the time) and slept through Sunday, until about 6:30 p.m.

When he woke up he immediately thought he had slept through until 6:30 am on Monday, so he ran through the house like he was on fire trying to get ready for school. When he found us in our various Sunday night activities, the realization began to creep over him.

It's one of those repeat every Christmas stories.

The Management said...

Bleahhhh... Time is for SLAVES... I yearn to be free of the shackles of modern living...Go back to a time of seasons and years not seconds an minutes...

Errr... well maybe not. Where did that come from.

Not a bad story though.

Otter

ZooooM said...

My managing otter friend, thanks!

Maybe you are falling for my hypnotic jibber jabber? I doubt it though.