last night's sleep was...strained, at the very least
I went to bed at my usual time yesterday, about 5:30 pm. I read for awhile and the last time I looked at the clock it was about 6:30. I must have dropped soon after but just before 7 I was awakened when Phouka, sleeping beside me, launched himself across my body and dove for the closet. I thought WTF!? Moments later I heard a pounding on the door and before I could get out of bed it happened again. I stumbled out of bed and grabbed the oversized shirt I use for an impromptu dressing gown and made my way to the door just as someone was using a key to open it from the outside. That shocked me awake even as I realized that in all probability it was maintenance. I yelled 'Just a minute!' but it's amazing how hard it is for the people outside to hear me when I can follow the conversation of people standing in the breezeway with no problem whatsoever.
I got to the door just as it was opening and caught it while it was still mostly closed and said 'Just a minute' again. The man on the other side identified himself as Dominic (one of the two maintenance guys). I finished pulling on the shirt and opened the door. He apologized and said there was water leaking into the apartment below and he needed to come in. I stood aside and gestured. Last week when changed out my kitchen faucet he apparently jarred something loose by the shut-off valve and it's been maintaining a slow leak behind the half wall partition at the back of the corner cabinet. It only too him a couple of minutes to fix and he again apologized for waking me.
I didn't have much of a problem getting back to sleep but my night was plagued with constantly waking up and when I was asleep, weird dreams. I dreamed I'd suddenly been invaded by 3 strange young men as house guests that I couldn't refuse because they were from out of town and the city had arranged for me to put them up. I had no choice. Then I woke and when I went back to sleep I dreamed that my alarm went off at 8 am but I was supposed to be at work at 7 am. While I was running around (I still had my stranger house guests) trying to get reading and worrying about leaving all these strangers in my home, I was getting ready to go back into my bedroom to get dressed and was saying "Fine, but please just stay out of my bedroom." When I opened the door I saw a young woman lounging on my bed and realized I had another 'guest'. I was about to make an exception for her when I realized there was another guy lying next to her. I exploded, telling them to get out of my room and making plans to get a hasp and padlock at work. Then my alarm went off.
Not exactly my best night's rest. On top of it I had both a tension and sinus headache when I woke and neither abated much until I'd been at work a couple of hours. I still have them.
In other news, I'll never be able to understand Lowe's price markdown policy. Quite often they'll keep something around that's not selling at a stupid price and other times they practically give it away. Last year I picked up a big, decorative wall sconce with the thought of perhaps using it one day. I don't generally buy crap on spec like that but the original price was about $50. One day I marked it down to $44.99 and the next day down to 40 cents. WTF? I picked up a $20 outside thermometer/barometer for less than $1. Today I marked down several tools like socket sets to less than a dollar. There was a bird feeder shaped like Mickey Mouse's head that went from 19.98 to 80 cents. I pulled that and went to the lady's up front and found someone who wanted it. My find of the century though was a 32 piece Dremel set with a hand Dremel, a hand engraver and a combination soldering iron/wood-burning tool and we originally got in for Christmas at $99. Later it was marked down to $79. Then a couple of weeks ago it was marked down to $39.98. We had 3 in top stock that were pulled down and marked and we sold 2 of them. Today I marked the last one down again, not to maybe $20 (and it would have sold immediately at that price) but to $1.60!!!! You better betcha that baby went into my cart and then home with me! After my employee discount (which Lowe's still gives on any price that would be available to the public - Walmart won't give employee discounts on anything other than full price) my final price was $1.56. Now, I could probably sell it on ebay for $50 or more but I think I'll keep it. I'm a happy shopper!
I really hope I get better sleep tonight though.
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