The following thought process takes place between 2 am and 5 am ... cue the dramatic music.
I smell urine, or maybe it’s sweaty dog, or Trixie’s dog butt that’s 2 inches from my face. A few minutes later I hear a fart and Jackie emerges from underneath the covers on the far side of the bed where my husband used to sleep. I listen as Jackie waddles through the house, her nails clicking on the hard wood floor. Then I hear the familiar flap of the doggie door. I was hoping that was were she was heading and not some dark corner of the interior. She doesn’t return to the bedroom but instead hops up into the Lazy-boy in the den with her Daddy.
Her Daddy had been gone to a meeting most of the evening. I had spent the time watching episodes from the last season of The 4400. Did anyone else watch that Sci-fi show? It was about a group of people that showed up in Seattle after years of been missing, perhaps having been abducted by aliens. No one aged in all those years, which makes some now younger than their grandchildren. All returned with some special power or ability that they use for evil or for good. Mostly evil, because that makes for a more interesting x-file type storyline as the government agents try to stop them.
I watched two episodes that involved electricity. In the first one, members of opposing sides had been brought together and trapped inside the government building by one of the 4400. They had to work together to end “the game” as the building was trying to kill them. To save everyone, the two leaders sacrificed themselves by using their own bodies to complete an electrical circuit in order to short out the entire building’s electricity. Not a new idea by any means.
Reminded me of one of my favorite Star Trek The Next Generation episodes, Darmok. Captain Picard and Captain Dathon are beamed down to a planet’s surface and must work together against a common enemy. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the Tamarian Captain Dathon’s language only consists of metaphors from his own cultural experiences: Darmok and Jilad at Tinagra. Temba, his arms open. Chaka, when the walls fell. Picard figures it out in the end but not in time to save Dathon, who had put his life in danger in order to open the lines of communication with this new race.
The Darmok episode reminded me of a movie that came out in 1985 called Enemy Mine starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world where he encounters a surviving captain from the race he has been fighting. They are enemies and don’t understand each other, but end up working together to survive.
The second 4400 episode involved bank systems and computers crashing. The source of the disturbance was traced back to a man who was hooked up to life support machines after suffering a stoke. He was using his mind to manipulate the software using the electrical lines. This episode was titled Ghost in the Machine.
Why am I telling you all this? So you will understand what state of mind I was in when I took a bath. What?
I’m in the bathtub and the lights dim for a second. Then a few minutes later, one of the bulbs in the four bulb light fixture burns out. So, I’m thinking that explains why I thought I saw the lights dim. No problem right? Only several minutes later when I’m finished shaving my legs, that light bulb comes back on and now I think I’m going crazy or have been visited by some other world being. I was a little freaked out. Why do these things always happen when I’m alone in the house?
Speaking of house, I’m reminded of a family who “finally got a piece of the pie.” Actually, the theme song, Moving On Up, from The Jeffersons had been running through my mind for a few 
days now. I read a very funny blog post recently about the use of the word honky and whether it still held any negative meaning. Honky was one of George Jefferson’s favorite slurs. His neighbor Mr. Harry Bentley was played by actor Paul Benedict, who passed away in December, which is another reason I had the wonderful Jefferson show on my mind. Does anyone remember Benedict from Sesame Street? He was a painter on that show in the early 70’s.
Supporting actors and those behind the scenes rarely get the print space of their more famous counterparts when they pass away. This past week I read a small blurb about Bob May’s death. Who was he, you ask? Bob May, an actor and stuntman, was the voice of the Robot on the original Lost In Space television show. “Warning, warning.” “Danger, Will Robinson.” Also passing away recently was Gordon Whitey Mitchell, one of the writers on The Jeffersons, as well as Get Smart, All in the Family, The Partridge Family, Mork and Mindy and many other shows. Gordon was an interesting man with many different careers. He was a jazz musician who played with Benny Goodman and others before coming to Hollywood.
Everyone I’m sure heard about Ricardo Montalban’s death, but what about Don Galloway? He appeared in several episode of Fantasy Island. Galloway was best known for playing Ed Brown on Ironside. He was in numerous movies (including the Big Chill) and television shows. He also played Dr. Buzz Stryker on General Hospital in the mid 80’s. Isn’t that a great name?
What? You don’t lay awake at night and think about dead people? I guess I’m kind of into it. There’s a website I have bookmarked called notable deaths. I think its from Newsday. They never listed the death of Majel Barrett-Rodenberry which I thought was a major slight. But then they haven’t listed anyone’s death since Eartha Kitt. Then I wondered if the person who updates the page might have died. That would be ironic. Maybe they just got laid off like so many other newspaper employees recently.
So, why am I laying awake having such morbid thoughts. Could be that second pot of coffee I made this afternoon. Well, I couldn’t help myself. I was so thrilled to see my beloved box of Gevalia coffee arrive via UPS because I had almost run completely out of coffee. I was down to only one box of Crème Brule flavor that I had stashed away several month ago. I’ve discovered that I’m not a big fan of flavored coffee every day. I just want a big ol’ pot of my Traditional Roast.
Trixie’s making whimpering noises in her sleep. She does this a lot. Do dogs have nightmares? All my dogs are rescue dogs, so I don’t know what their lives were like before I got them. They were between six months and a year old when they came to live with me. All spent some time alone loose on the streets. I wonder if dogs remember that. They do all seem very appreciative to have food to eat every day and a warm bed to sleep in every night.
I’m glad somebody can sleep.
