Fifteen minutes from where we live, there run a set of train tracks.
Not special train tracks, nor particularly busy train tracks, just normal, run-of-the-mill train tracks like thousands of others all over the country. Yet those train tracks manage to give me panic attacks every time they announce their existence.
Confused? Allow me to explain.
Every night at approximately 1:40am, a freight train races along those tracks, blowing it’s whistle as it passes.
One would think that fifteen minutes away (by car) isn’t exactly close, but in the quiet of the night that train whistle carries all the way to our humble little home, loud and clear.
On the nights that I hear that whistle, I know I’ve stayed up too late and that I will probably regret it in the morning when Lilly is invariable jumping on my bed and yelling for me to wake up long before I am mentally prepared to wake up. Worrying about not sleeping obviously manages to wake me up even more, making it even harder to fall asleep.
On nights that I hear the second train that goes by at 3:20am, I know for sure I’ll regret my nocturnal wakefulness come sunrise and at this point, insomnia has definitely set in.
On the odd nights that I hear the third train at 4:05am, I stop worrying because now I know I’m screwed whether I manage to fall asleep or not. This release of worry inevitably helps me fall asleep, but not soon enough because morning brings with it exhaustion and a raging migraine.
So yes, those train tracks? Definitively evil.
Can I by any chance get a petition started to prevent trains from blowing their whistles after midnight so that the night owls among us can stay in denial about how late it’s getting? No? Oh well, it was worth a try..
Never trust a jellyfish: I am an Anthropologist by training, a housewife by choice, a voracious reader, a lover of fantasy fiction and Sci-Fi, a new mommy, an observer of human nature, a closet optimist and a cupcake enthusiast. I write about all of the above and anything that might strike my fancy 🙂
