Last night

This morning started in more or less the usual way. I rolled over at 6:09 and took out my earplugs, ready for the sound of Katie talking to herself in the next room. Happily, she waited until 6:45 to do that, and in the meantime I had an incredibly weird dream involving my mom, Christmas decorations, Katie being up way past her bedtime and a husband who was, inexplicably, drunk. (Which I really haven't seen since we were both in college, although I did hear his bachelor party was a doozy.)

Soon enough, though, I was awakened to the soothing sound of Katie talking about birds. I put on my sweats and sweatshirt and was pulling on my socks when I suddenly realized, "Hey, these are wet! Why are my socks wet? And, come to think of it, why are these sweats and my sweatshirt damp too?" And then it all came rushing back.

Despite the fact that I sleep with earplugs, I wake up all night long hearing things. Sometimes they're a figment of my imagination, in which case I yank out my earplugs, listening hard, then put them back in, grumbling at myself for being so stupid. Last night, however, the sound I was hearing was very real. BANG! CRASH!! This went on sporadically, sometimes every minute or so, sometimes with 10 minutes between crashes. I knew instantly what it was, but I didn't want to get up and deal with it. I kept hoping that I was wrong and that the noise would stop without me getting out of my cozy bed.

Even though I knew it was supposed to rain last night, I had no idea how violently the wind would blow. (Weather.com informs me that we had gusts up to 30mph last night.) Our garden gate has been broken for weeks, which, as you may recall, is how Katie escaped one day. I had no idea how to fix it, so I shoved an empty toilet paper roll into the latch mechanism. That worked just fine to keep the gate closed, at least until my mom came to visit last week. She (quite kindly) decided to drag our trash cans in from the curb, but she couldn't figure out why the gate wouldn't open. So she basically forced her way in, destroying the TP roll. Sigh.

Which brings us back to last night's gusty winds. That darned gate, soaked with rain and very heavy, kept banging shut and then opening, over and over again. Each time I heard it, I hoped it would just stop, but by 2:30 am I'd had enough. Plus, I was pretty sure we were going to get angry letters from the neighbors. So I put on my sweats and headed outside. Rain was coming from every direction. I trudged out to the offending gate and shoved a washcloth through the latch, tying it in a knot. On my way back, I watched one of our matchstick shades blow halfway off the patio overhang. Great. So I got a chair and climbed up to take the whole thing down before it got blown to pieces. Somehow in that process I stepped right under a downspout, soaking my socks.

And that's when I mentally started writing this post. This is too good, I thought: 6 months pregnant, up on a chair in the backyard, getting soaked to the skin at 2:30 in the morning. And wouldn't you know it? By 3:15 the wind had stopped. I should know - I was still lying awake in bed after my daring adventure.

But oh well, all in a night's work. This morning the sun is out and the whole world looks sparkling clean. Time for a nice cup of tea!

Hope you all had a restful night's sleep! :)