Blinded By The Light

Wet, heavy snow fell on Detroit yesterday. Fun times. And in making my first pass clearing the walks around my house I had one of the the worst scares in recent memory. 

When I began shovelling it was still light out. Well, light enough on a cloudy, winter day that the street lamps hadn't come on anyway.  Forest Avenue alongside my house is a four lane one-way. It's not a terribly busy street but it is active. When I was just past a streetlight on that side of the house, the light came on.

That first instant of sudden brightness over my shoulder startled me something awful. Why? Because I immediately thought it was a car coming straight at me from behind. I actually cringed and tensed up, expecting a sudden and rather unpleasant crash with me at the epicenter.

Then the angel on my shoulder assured me it was just the street lamp. After she opened her eyes from the scare herself, of course.

The morning fright

You know what will make your heart stop? A door opening unexpectedly when you're sure you're alone at home, that's what will make your heart stop.

Our kids all live out of state and have been home after the Holidays for a couple of weeks now. My wife was gone to work. So when an unused bedroom door opened as I walked down the upstairs hall this morning it, ah, bestilled my beating heart.

Cr-ee-ee-eek, it said as it slowly slid open before me. Yes, I was startled. Because no one was home.

I stood perfectly still for a moment. Then I needed to reassure myself that no one was in fact there. So I stupidly reached inside the open door to turn on the light I knew was on the wall just inside that door. I did it so slowly that if the boogieman had been inside my arm would have been ripped from my shoulder as he impatiently waited to attack. Then I even more slowly opened the door fully to step into, as I expected (intellectually at least), an empty but now well lit room.

But I was no longer afraid. Nope. Not a bit. And I did not check every room in the house after that before finally relaxing and getting my morning coffee. I. Did. Not.

Really.