There is not much that goes on in the course of a regular night’s sleep that can wake me up. In California I had no problem sleeping through earthquakes, and here in Texas I usually have no problem sleeping through the storms, and let’s not forget about my daughter.
Anyway, Alina is just opposite of me when it comes to what we are capable of ignoring as we sleep. And last night, as during most of the thunderstorms that we experience here, her thunderstorm hysteria began to kick in. I think she is afraid that any run of the mill thunderstorm will turn into an F5 tornado like in Twister and begin to destroy everything and send cows and semi trucks flying through the sky.
Last night though was a little different in that there where a few lighting bolts that hit pretty close to our house, and managed to wake me up to my wife’s panic (I usually sleep right through it as her worries thunder through the room). But not last night. I was awake. And, as I lay on the bed wondering if I needed to get up to check the weather a bolt of lighting lit up our room and shook the house with it’s immediate thunder. It felt as though the house had been hit.
Our bathroom door was partly open and the lights were off, and it was dark. Well, that is until the lighting hit and the bathroom began to rapidly pulse with red light that looked to be fire. Alina jumped out of bed and was through the bathroom door in milliseconds. Only to discover that Rachael’s toothbrush with red lights in it that responds to being shaken had also not liked the thunder. Stupid toothbrush. We thought the house was on fire and it was just a blinking instrument of oral hygiene.
You know what the worst part about the whole thing is though? It was kind of like crying wolf. I thought a blinking red toothbrush was fire. I just hope that if our house ever did get hit by lightning I would not assume it was a toothbrush and fall back to sleep, turning on the fan because of the uncomfortable heat in the room. That would be bad.
