Archive for July 6th, 2007

The night I died, but didn't

July 6th, 2007

We had a winter storm last night.

I don’t remember the weatherman saying anything about storms. But then I didn’t see the weather forecast.

Anyway, we were sitting watching something really crap on television with the volume turned up so we could hear it over the wind. Herself chose the programme.

Next thing – POP – I was sitting in darkness and silence.

I thought for a moment I had died [it was a very bad programme], or that maybe I had gone blind and deaf simultaneously. But then I heard a quiet “f*ck” from out of the dark, so I knew the electricity had gone.

Being country dwellers, we always have plenty of candles and an oil lamp so I fired them up.

Now, candles and oil lamps don’t really give enough light to read by. Not with our sight anyway. So we had to talk. We discussed going to bed, but we decided there was nothing to do there as we couldn’t read there either.

Herself was all wired up because she had blogged yesterday for the first time in months and was in a fierce communicative mood.

We decided to phone a neighbour to see if he was OK. He wasn’t really pleased at being woken in the dark to be told there was a power cut. We told him it was too early for sleep [it was only one in the morning], and hung up.

We then decided to ring all our friends who we hadn’t spoken to in a long time. It seemed a nice friendly thing to do. I rang one elderly relative to ask if she had died yet. She said she hadn’t but thanked me for asking. I rang another friend about some money I owed him. I won’t tell you where he told me to stick my money, but that’s another debt I can forget about.

For some reason, people weren’t very talkative, so we got tired of that and went to bed in the end.

This morning, the power was still off. And Sod’s law kicked in and I woke early. So I sat in the cold and drank water. [Why is a house always colder during a power cut, even when you don't have heating?]

For once, all the trees are still standing, which is very unusual. But then I haven’t walked around the estate yet.

There were quite a few messages on our answering service, as we’d switched the phone off last night. They weren’t very nice messages for some reason.

The power came back at half nine. I knew because the house suddenly got warmer.

Now I am in the process of catching up on all the cups of tea I missed out on.

Then I think I’ll have a nap.

Barbed wire and nose picking

July 6th, 2007

Damnit!! I’ve been tagged again.

Eight random things about myself? That you haven’t heard before? Knickers!

I’ll try……

My fingers are all double jointed, but not my thumbs. This is very handy for mining the nasal passages.

I got an Honour in my Leaving Certificate for Art without ever having had a class [I did the exam for a dare].

I never flew until I was forty. Like our K8, I always wanted to be a pilot. In exasperation, I took a flying lesson, so the first time I was ever in a plane, I flew it myself.

I have a scar on my left buttock from sliding off a wall when I was a kid. I didn’t realise there was a rusty barbed wire fence there as well.

I have an irrational and violent hatred towards anyone who wears sunglasses pushed up onto the top of their head. I have to be physically restrained from beating them to a pulp.

I never married the woman of my dreams [thank God]. I married Herself and she became the woman of my dreams.

I was fired after ten days in my first job. I was in my last job for 28 years. I don’t know which was worse.

I played backing on many of the early 70′s Irish records. That was because I worked in a recording studios and the resident pianist was usually too drunk. I was the only other person who could play the piano.

So there you go.

Now I suppose I have to find some other hapless victims. Who haven’t I tagged before?

I think it’s time Primal Sneeze was pulled out of his complacency.

Not to mention The Pillion Passenger. [I told you not to mention him!]. I’ll say one thing about him – he has the best title for my site in any blogroll!!!

And of course Robert in My Blog. No. Not my blog. His blog.

How about stirring up some real marital strife [and them only off the aisle] – Just Me and Ellybabes?