In the full darkness of an Autumn night I don’t bother about turning on lights as I wend my careful way around a flat that is large enough for two and then not really big enough to swing much of a cat, or a hamster for that matter.
Littering the walls, in sockets, are strategically placed nightlights. Some of them are light sensitive so flicker when a moon beam elbows its way around a curtain chink; they keep me awake with their Belisha beacon mimicry so I tend to unplug them. Funny how a flickering light penetrates a closed eyelid or two.
The surviving nightlights, from a time when I was worried about my mother getting up in the middle of the night and stumbling, gleam faintly, adequately lighting up the dark spaces.
Beside my bed I am driven to turn my alarm clock to the wall; its brightness is in the “dim” setting but in the gathering gloom its “dimness” radiates triumphantly, disturbs my sleep.
On the other side of the room the printer is awash with blue and white lights that flash and shine, bright enough to read by. In all its heady wirelessness it has to be disabled.
Below the printer on the floor, plugged in to an extension strip with an amber indicator, my charging phone, whose four by two inch LED screen intermittently pulses, is turned face down.
I could wear a sleep mask.
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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