Couldn’t wake up & even dozed off sitting on the potty 

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“What’s going on here?”

Click on link above to watch short video from 2:03:23 in the morning.

Faithlyn, my wife, probably has a different memory altogether of what happened. The following, however, is what my sleepdrunk mind recalled the morning after.

Deep sleep is, for me, a rare and precious experience for it’s so difficult for me to fall asleep and stay asleep. Had gone to bed about a half hour after midnight. I was sleeping hard when the fire alarms went off. Earlier took one capsule of deep sleep herbs plus one capsule of ibuprofen for a headache with a tall glass of water.

See, I am not only a neurodivergent insomniac but also HOH, Hard of Hearing. My hearing loss is labeled moderate to profound, bilateral, originated from birth trauma some 65 years ago, and has become more severe over time. Many Hearing people are surprised to learn I don’t sleep with my hearing aids in. Oh, I’ve tried, and all the loud sounds of the night from baying dogs to vroom-vrooming cruisers would keep me up. Plus after wearing them all day long I need to get those devices out of my ears and off my head.

Faithlyn and I live in a new apartment complex in Shoreline just north of the Seattle city line. The complex is shaped like an enormous triangular battleship. Clearly I’ve seen too many science fiction movies. This is the first time the fire alarm had gone off in the middle of the frickin’ night. The fire alarms are so loud it even wakes me up, which I suppose is now good to know as we weren’t sure if the alarms would do so. My wife is even deafer than me, but she was up transfixed by some convoluted crime show on “NettlesFlicked.”

Groggy, I rolled over to sit on the edge of the bed. Confused by the loud sound. Must be time to go to work, I thought, but didn’t feel my pillow thumper go off. I reach out to turn around my clock to see the time: gosh, don’t remember what I saw except twas close to 2:00 in the morning. Damn. Not time to wake up for work. Felt even more confused. What is making all that racket? Just wanna fall back asleep. I was finally, finally sleeping hard!

My wife steps into the room and turns on the light. She gestures at me. Dazed by the lights, I look over at her thru squinted eyes, and feel even more confused. Can’t hear anything. She shouts at me something about a fire, a fire alarm, the fire alarms are going off,  and we need to go. I think she said all those things for her moving lips appeared blurry without me wearing my eyeglasses. We need to get out of here. Now! What? First I need to go pee. That big, tall glass of water is coming thru! Continue reading →