there’s this noise that you hear in various action movies, “raiders of the lost ark” comes to mind, it’s that noise when somebody is pushing aside some huge stone tablet or door or something and it’s kind of a deep scraping noise and they probably have a bunch of variations of it on special-effects CDs.

I have that noise in my house.

it’s not just because kevin is out of town.  it’s coming from the chimney which isn’t far from my side of the bed.  first there’s the big scraping of pushing back a huge stone thing, and then there’s the sound of birds chirping.

clearly there are birds nesting in the chimney which can’t be good.

but what are they doing with a massive stone tablet up there in the chimney?  when they push it back,  does all the stuff from the ark of the covenant fly out?

hmm, i don’t think so because when they opened that ark in “raiders,” i’m pretty sure that if you didn’t close your eyes your face would melt off because of all the scary things pouring out.

maybe it wasn’t the ark, after all, that made that noise.  maybe it was the rolling of the giant stone marble that chased indy in the opening.

so it’s 3:38 a.m. and my brain isn’t working quite as well as it probably would if i was actually awake.

shadow is lying on my lap.  winnie was up here a minute ago but shadow seemed really sad.  it’s funny about how animals are perfectly happy to get up with you in the middle of the night, and equally happy to sleep all day with you if that’s what you want to do.

except the other morning i knew it was finally time to get up because shadow was standing on my stomach.

in addition to the birds and the big slab in the chimney, i also felt that it was crucial to get up and turn on kevin’s computer to make sure it wasn’t broken.  he turned it off before he left on his trip and i turned it on the other day because i had to print something out and it’s easier to just type something into his computer and print it out or else i have to bring my laptop all the way into the office and connect the cord and i realize this isn’t such a big deal but it seemed like it at the time.

so anyway after i used his computer i didn’t shut it down, and then the power went out the night before last because of the horrible storms.  so about an hour ago i was lying in bed listening to the big moving slab of stone in the chimney and i remembered that the computer was on but what if somehow the lightning zapped it?

not that lightning struck here in the house.  not that i’m aware of, anyway.

so i came in and turned on the computer and it’s working just fine and come to think of it, i think i did actually turn it off after using it.

shadow thinks it’s ok to be awake now, but he’d like a snack, please.

it would be nice to get back to sleep.  this is the first night all week i’ve attempted to sleep drug-free, without any kind of cold medication whatsoever.  it was working fine until being wide awake, which seems to be continuing.  perhaps lying down will promote further sleep.

today when i talked to kevin on the phone he sounded completely tired, and he said he was going to take a nap.  plus i think it’s been storming there in virginia a lot, which is not good when you’re camping.  plus it has to be even worse because they’re supposed to be shooting big muskets and things which involve lots of metal, which is not good in the lightning.

maybe they’ll get thoroughly rained out and decide to come home early.  because even though he’s been gone since ridiculously early wednesday morning, it feels like he’s been away at least a month.

we went to the art fair this afternoon and it was windy and cold so not as much fun walking around plus i had to blow my nose every three feet or so.  then we went to the wine tasting right there at the edge of the art fair and randy bought some rhubarb wine which doesn’t sound so good but it was kind of good in a sort of weird way.  i wouldn’t mind a glass right now, maybe it would help me sleep.

ok then.  i hope you’e sleeping right now, and if not, i hope you’re up doing something enjoyable instead of being awake just because.

ok ok ok,

really really early sunday morning grace.