Dave’s company has an office in Massachusetts, and he has to go there for a couple of days this week for some work-related thing. This only happens a couple of times a year, it’s not exactly the extensive travel requirements of my current job. So I dropped him off at the airport yesterday, and he’ll be back home on Wednesday. And for some unexplainable reason, I got totally freaked at the idea of staying here by myself. I mean, I’ve lived alone for the better part of the last 6 years, but I’ve always been in an apartment. There is something about living out in the country, and knowing that if I were to scream for help, there’s not even a remote chance that anyone would hear me. Also, the house is really big, so if I were upstairs in the bedroom, someone could break in the house and I wouldn’t necessarily hear them. So even though it’s somewhat irrational, I got kind of spooked. Before Dave left, I made him hang up the curtains in the living room (which we had taken down when we painted). There’s a huge bay window in there, and at nighttime, you can see inside from the street, which didn’t sit too well with me. There’s also a sliding glass door that leads to the backyard, but that doesn’t freak me out as much – I think because there’s two huge floodlights there, so if a crazy man with an axe comes running out of the woods toward the house, I’ll see him and have a chance to get a head start out the front door.
Speaking of the woods behind the house, yesterday when I got back from the airport, this was in the backyard. Shortly thereafter, one of her friends showed up. (It’s a bad photo, so I labeled it.) They’re really cute, but they confuse the hell out of the cats. Particularly Beaumont, who can’t seem to decide if they’re just super-huge mice that he should be hunting, or if he should run back in the house where it’s safe. He did get pretty close before deciding to vacate the premises, though.
Anyway, back to my spooked-out self, Dave pointed out that with 2 cars in the driveway and a light or two turned on, no one would be stupid enough to try to break in. So last night I left several lights on throughout the house, took 2 over-the-counter sleep aids (ahh, Tylenol PM, how do I love thee?), set the sleep timer on the TV to drown out any mysterious noises that I might hear while I was trying to fall asleep, and managed to sleep soundly through the whole night. So I think I’ll be fine if I stick with that routine. One night down, two nights to go.
The deer in the photo with Beaumont apparently doesn't feel very threatened by him, so maybe they're all homies. He has been living there for a while.
I love how in the first photo, Beaumont is walking past her nonchalantly, like "La la la, I don't see youuuu…" And in the 2nd pic, when he actually is looking at the deer, she almost looks like she's scowling at him, like "You want a piece of me? Bring it on, you little black furball!"
Ah, this is another reason by Rose should be your dog. After living in Miami, where I would hear gunshots in the middle of the night, Bella was my saving grace. [NON SEQUITER: Alissa, "Saving Grace" is the name of the movie about marijuana that we were trying to remember].Sometimes I'd hear gunfire, which was so weird to me that it didn't seem real after a few minutes. The only way I was sure it really happened was because Bella had barked. Dogs are much better than cats when you get the creepy feeling, because you can ask them to go check out the noise and they won't get distracted by a bug crawling on the wall or the need to take a nap on a roll of paper towels in the middle of the hallway.You're okay. You're fine.
"they won't get distracted by a bug crawling on the wall or the need to take a nap on a roll of paper towels in the middle of the hallway."That's what's strange about my little dog. He's a cat!
I suggest a fan (not pointed on you) to drown out any potentially spooky noises. I am totally dependent on mine. Otherwise, I lie awake and obsess over the sound of each leaf falling in the driveway.
I have an air filter that's an excellent source of white noise – it's been great in my past slightly-noisier apartments. But unfortunately, I'm dragging ass on moving my stuff from the old apartment to the house, so it's still there. I should've gone to get it this week, but it didn't occur to me until just now. And I'm picking Dave up from the airport in 2 hours. Duh.