Last night I chased flies until 4:15 a.m. Let me explain.
We live in a small home in southern Germany. When the weather is temperate, there’s nothing significant to report. However, when the temperatures rise above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the house gets hot. That’s because, for practical reasons, there’s no air conditioning. Unfortunately, there also aren’t any screens on the windows and doors. So, opening either invites in a slew of bugs include mosquitos the size of tea saucers.
Between the heat and insomnia, I finally managed to fall asleep at around 1:13 a.m. At about 2:35 a.m., I heard my 4-year-old daughter AB come up the stairs. It’s rare when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She appreciates her sleep as much as I do. I’m a light sleeper and am usually the first one to hear her. She walked in.
“What is it, sweetie,” I asked.
“There’s a fly in my room,’ she said.
AB won’t sleep with a fly buzzing around the room. She hates bugs, especially flies and the aforementioned mosquitos. I grab her and carry her downstairs. By now, I’m lethargic and grouchy. I want to kill said fly, plop her back into her bed and get back to sleep, hoping I can salvage three hours before work.
Whack. Down goes the fly (imagine an overtired, t-shirt-and-sweats wearing middle age man with a plastic fly swatter and gunk in his eyes trying to spot a house fly at 3 a.m. Yep. Glamour). I sit with her for about 10 minutes before she falls back to sleep. Victory.
But that was the battle, not the war. I get back upstairs and the master bedroom is like a furnace, probably from the up and down, and the fight with the insect. It’s so noticeably uncomfortable, however, that I can’t go back to sleep, rolling and turning in fits.
At about 3:35, AB comes back up the stairs. Another fly? “yes, Daddy.”
So much for leaving any windows cracked or open. Fortunately, this was easier to spot than the last. Down goes the fly. AB falls back to sleep in surprising time and I;m back upstairs. By now, however, the sonambulic angel has left the heavens and I struggle.
Final sleep time: about an hour and 45 minutes.
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Ugh! We didn’t have screens in Mexico and I had my nights fighting with bugs. If it happens again, try taking a quick shower to cool off. Always helped me.