Robin Shelly Said:
“Not to change the subject - ahem - but since Ernie is on hiatus & not going to post anything here until Ground Hog Dog (& he did tell us to keep posting without him), I would like to conduct a little informal but important (to me) survey here. I would like to know:
Do you turn the bedroom light off BEFORE or AFTER you get into bed at night?
I'm serious!
Thanks.
And, Ernie, if you're out there reading this, I'd love to have your answer, too. (:”
I made a list of other “bedroom questions” to go with Robin’s question, but they ended up sounding like an obscene phone call so I didn’t go there. But, I did discover that I still have a fertile mind.
Oh, I need to answer the question; I turn the light off after I go to bed, because I like to read awhile before going to sleep, even though my body is exhausted, my mind is still racing at bedtime, so I read until it slows down. Then click… ZZZZZZZZ…
Robin, at some point we will need to know the reason why you ask!!!
Hey, Robin, at Christmas time they sell those remotes that you plug in and then you can switch the light off AFTER you get into bed. Doesn't work on the ceiling light, but works on lamps. :)
ReplyDeleteBefore, It's a long way from the switch plate to my bed. I'd have to have gorilla arms.
ReplyDeleteRobin, you have lights? Are they electric?
ReplyDeleteOregon
blow the candle out and cross the room to bed is my routine.
ReplyDeleteLights out first. Sometimes it's a race between me and the wife to get in bed first and make the other one turn out the lights.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a night stand with a reading light on it, as far back as I can remember. It never occured to me that people wouldn't have a night stand. It's not that big of a deal folks.... Even po' folk could have 'em.
ReplyDeleteIt's rare that we have our bedroom light on at all. It gets enough light from the adjoining rooms most of the time.
ReplyDeleteLike Fred I rarely turn on a light in the bedroom.
ReplyDeleteLike Kym I'd need gorilla arms, so I turn it off before I go to bed.
sUzy lives sooooo totallly in the present momant that their is no 'before' and "after'... There is only the Lihgt!
ReplyDeleteher b now ...
s
doesn't anyone fall asleep in their recliner,like i do?then stumble to bed in the dark!
ReplyDeleteI have to have a light I can turn off from bed... I'm a bedtime reader and have been ever since I was a kid. Growing up, I rigged a long string to the pull chain on my light. My mother was a bit dismayed but let me get away with it. I know people who have to go to sleep with the TV on.
ReplyDeleteIt's a whole routine. I turn on the lamp, turn off the overhead light, brush teeth, don jammies, crawl in, plug cellphone into charger, set the alarm on my cellphone, and turn off the light.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little I was afraid of "bed unders." I turned off the light, and I swear I flew to my bed.
I never heard them called "bed unders" before but, ooo, they are scary."
ReplyDeleteKym,
ReplyDeleteEvery little kid has a monster that lives under their bed. The monster only comes out when the lights are off. Sometimes you can see the monster’s shadow on the wall, or you can hear him moving when it is very, very quiet.
I can’t describe the monster, because it stays hid really well. But every kid knows that it is there. The Monster will eat your feet off if you get out of bed in the dark. When I was little, I tricked the monster by having a bedside light, so I could reach over and turn the light off without putting my feet on the floor. I would pull my arms back really fast, because I wasn’t sure if the monster Also ate arms. The only way to be really safe is to crawl under the covers and sit in the middle of the bed, with your flashlight on.
I had monsters under my bed, but it sounds like Indie had “Bed Unders” which are probably the brand of monster where she is from. Didn’t you ever have a monster???
I wonder why Robin Asked? She must have a monster under her bed.
Oh! By the way. Introductions are in order.
ReplyDeleteRobin, meet Indie, she started the Independant News in Garberville.
Indie, meet Robin, she was the Laytonville Ledger, contemporary to your paper, only in Laytonville.
i sleep with lights on and the tv on. tuned to an english soccer game where the fans sing all through the game. not because i'm afraid of the dark but so i will wake up at 530 am to go to work.
ReplyDeletei did think there was a monster in my closet and in the basement when i was a kid and i lived near a mortuary so i was careful to close the windows on foggy full moon nights to ward off vampires and the wolfman.
i did see a monster during the late 60's in the basement. he was like that predator dude, green and red. i was reading a book about not resisting evil so after the immediate shock of seeing him or her, i sent it some love vibes and he or she started singing a silent song and zapped me with some white light.
Nice to meet ya, Robin.
ReplyDeleteHey, you guys may laugh at Bed Unders, but they were no joke! They could grab your foot and yank you under the bed. They looked like an unholy combination of gorilla, armadillo and roly-poly. To this day, I keep a lot of stuff under there so there won't be any room for Bed Unders.
My bedroom has many lights from fiber optic to a big chandelier and all things in between. I use them differently for different moods and needs (like finding something). There are two sound machines in my bedroom as well, and a colorful waterfall thing. But I turn all that off and put the tv on sleep mode and I'm out in 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the bed unders! But mine would only grab you to drag you under the bed if you stepped on the bare wood floor. If you stepped onto the rug then you were safe.
ReplyDeleteBed reader here--light goes off after.
The floor is water. You'll drown. The rugs and furniture are islands. You're okay if you stay away from the water.
ReplyDeleteThe water is infested with neocons.
ReplyDeleteWe use "Monster Spray" to ward off all things bad in the kids' room. We tell the kids we spray the stuff and they sleep fearlessly.
ReplyDeleteSo cute, all these stories. The furniture being safe islands, lol!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young I worked as a psych aide for awhile in Santa Cruz. I was once talking to a person from the night shift and she told me of having to go in regularly and do checks of patients' rooms. One night an aide walked by a bed, and a patient was hiding under it and grabbed her ankles! I nearly had a heart attack just hearing about this second hand! I was asked to work the night shift but always refused for that reason.
Well.... We went to all this trouble to tell Robin Shelly about our bedroom lights, then she disappears on us. I'll bet a bed under got her and chewed all of her fingers off.
ReplyDeleteI'm here, Ernie.
ReplyDeleteI'm just listening.
Well gee Robin! You just drop a bomb on us, about whether we turn our lights off before, or after, we go to bed, then disappear on us. You should have known that we would start telling bedroom stories. Thank God they turned to “Bed Under” stories instead of the usually bedroom horrors! Suzy Blah Blah even got spiritual about it.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to have to tell us why you asked someday you know.
Can't imagine why it matters but I turn the light off just before I go to bed. On my nightstand I have a telephone and a pistol.
ReplyDeleteSuzy Blah Blah even got spiritual
ReplyDeleteErnie, did yuo mean to say that i waxed spiritual --LOL!
"out out breif candle!"
willy the shake
Until then, huggles,
s
i have no recollection of fearing what was under my bed or in my closet as a child. maybe it was so bad that i dont remember.
ReplyDeletei do remember horrible sleepless nights trying to get to sleep because i was goin fishin in the early AM. Sleeps enemy was a grandfather clock tick-tocking loudly and ringing chimes all through the night(!) in a wooden floored hallway at my grandparents house. listening to time's loud passing all through the night seemed mighty cruel. to add insult to injury, there was a very oblivious-to-time snoring duet decibelling from their bedroom, and echoing down the hallway. why there was a glass window intact in the house i do not know. i loved them dearly as they were the best of grandparents, but i dreaded sleeping there. to this day i often worry about time's passing and how people are snoring.
Suzy Blah Blah,
ReplyDeleteI do not know you, but you don't seem like the kind of girl to wax.
(is this cute and funny?)
Thanks, everyone! Looks like the "befores" have it but it's close.
ReplyDeleteMyself? I get into bed & then turn off the lamp that sits on the table beside my bed. Like Ernie. (Ernie, what are you doing here anyway? It's not Ground Hog Day yet!)
The reason I started this little "survey" is that my husband, after 30-some-odd years of getting into bed & then turning off the light, has suddenly & inexplicably, started turning off the lamp on his side of the bed BEFORE he crawls in. Seemed odd to me but maybe not. (Please be careful with your analysis of this - (: - & think twice before you post anything, 'kay?)
I've enjoyed all the stories... love the Bed Unders (my monster was in the closet or just outside the window)& psych ward story (shudder!)... thanks for "loving" all the monsters away, Spy! Anonymous is right - the floor is water & you will drown! Bunny's bedroom doesn't sound like a bedroom at all. Mine is dark & quiet at night... no TV in there... but there is a phone... no pistol, thank goodness.
Hi, Indie. Nice to meet you, too.
Yes, Oregon, I have electric lights in my new-fangled house. I also have running water & indoor plumbing. I may even try out Rose's suggestion - LOL!
And Suzy, I think it's pathetic that Anonymous has to ask if his joke is "cute & funny" (it is!) but I think he's trying awfully hard to impress you. No matter! I knew I could count on you to see the light.
'night!
To turn on the bedroom light, when I was kid, you had to walk across the dark room and pull a chain on a wall sconce. The most satisfying scream I have ever heard was my little sister turning on the light when I had hung a fake tarantula from the chain. We still laugh about it.
ReplyDeleteRobin
ReplyDeleteThanks for one of the most entertaining posts that I’ve had in a long time. Some of the answers really jumped out at me… Shudder.
Indie
Thanks for the “Bed Unders”. That really turned the conversation. I now have a new expression to use.
Lodgepole.
Having raised a kid, I liked your “Monster Spray”. If there are any parents out there with children that are afraid of bed unders, I’ll bet it works to keep them away.
Spyrock gets credit for the most animated and graphic monster: “he was like that predator dude, green and red. i was reading a book about not resisting evil so after the immediate shock of seeing him or her, i sent it some love vibes and he or she started singing a silent song and zapped me with some white light.
“
Ben created his own monster by hanging a fake spider on his sisters light pull-spring. I might still use that on my wife… Maybe she’s not reading this…
McKinleyville Kris Had the meanest bed unders, they would grab him and drag him under the bed if he stepped on the floor. He was only safe on a rug.
Anon even got into the spirit, with the water floor, and the furniture Islands.
Olmanriver was kind of annoying though, can you imagine not having a bed under???
After Indies story about the psych-ward dude grabbing the nurses ankle, I’m going to have permanent lights installed around my bed rails!
Bunny is my good friend that reminds be why you can’t stay mad at liberals very long. I don’t know how she sleeps in her bedroom. Fiber optics, waterfalls, sound machines? She doesn’t need a bed under.
Fun post! Does anybody have any questions that they want me to put on my blog while I’m gone????
Ya Ernie, I do have a question you could explore.
ReplyDelete"Does a house fly do a roll or a loop when it lands on the ceiling"?
Oregon
How 'bout: Will Ernie regret hanging a tarantula from his bedroom light switch?
ReplyDeleteHa!
Or the age-old "what shall we have for dinner tonight"? I really could use some help with that one!
ReplyDeleteMy question would be: does it inspire more,or less, fear in us future bridge users who have watched the Confusion Hill (pylon to the sky) Bridge being made?
ReplyDeletein absolutely no defense of being annoying... i must offer that i grew up with antique bedframes which were high off the ground and the quilts never covered all the way to the floor. my environ was kept very clean by my mother, a mighty dust warrioress. 'dustbunnies' had no chance with little to eat and frequent vacuum hosings. maybe she knew about bed unders and was taking care of them so i never knew that fear.
ReplyDeleteor maybe my therapist and i just havent gotten there yet.
Suzy Blah Blah,
ReplyDeleteI do not know you, but you don't seem like the kind of girl to wax.
(is this cute and funny?)
hey, r u that hairy monster that lurks under Suzys bed with the dust bunnys? No im not usually that kinda girl but if u r looking 4 it --Suzy will indeed give u sum wacks.
scuse me suze:
ReplyDeleteNo I am a different hairy critter.
As inviting as it sounds to experience "sum wacks", I suspect I am wacky enough, and dim sum!
By the way, Ernie... thank you for letting me "take over" with my little survey. It really was fun!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it, too.
Thanks!