Night Two.

There are two less minutes of sunlight here. I thought that I missed the sunlight because I switched my days to nights, but it turns out that the daylight is two minutes shorter each day. In the wintertime every minute of sunlight is precious, and perhaps we do notice when it's not there.

I was every bit sound asleep today when a sudden shrill note began ringing in my ears. I stumbled around trying to find that cursed alarm clock that I swore I had turned off first thing upon arriving two days ago. I pressed all of the buttons two or three times, rotated the volume dial on the side thinking maybe that would silence it, even rotated the tuner back and forth. In an instant the noise stopped. Irritated, I rolled back over on my side, away from the malfunctioning electronic device. I was almost back asleep when it came again, that shriek of an alarm which I couldn't block out even with my hands across my ears. my next thought was that the thermostat was the culprit. Don't ask me why I had it in my mind the thermostat was causing the air conditioning to create the awful noise - I needed to believe that was the answer so that I could fix it.

As I moved towards the tiny box on the wall I realized that the noise wasn't coming from the thermostat, it was much louder outside my room. Only then did I reach the conclusion that anyone who had been awake and not in dreamworld when this happened would have come to. The fire alarm. That profanity provoking fire alarm.  I could not believe the hotel would have a fire drill in the middle of the afternoon when most of their tenants would be out on business. The insanity of it. I entertained the idea of staying inside my room for two seconds before I figured I would be deaf if I stayed in this echo chamber for much longer, and if it was a real fire then I would very much like to survive it. I got my valuables together and was at the door when the ringing stopped. I stood in limbo for a minute, my hand reaching for the door handle in case it started up again, but nothing happened. Relieved I wouldn't have to leave the room, I set everything in its place and crawled back to bed.

I ended up restlessly attempting to sleep, but no position seemed to work. I resigned myself to getting ready for the day now and taking a nap at a later time. When I went downstairs for dinner some time later there was a distinct smell of smoke in the air, although probably not as powerful as when it originally happened, and a few of the lobby doors were propped open. I bet by the time I get back any trace of smoke will be gone, replaced with that absolutely welcoming scent of bacon, eggs, and sausage.

That's all for now. I'm sure tomorrow will have a whole new adventure for me.