So, here we are again. Another week has passed like a leaf in the wind and died beneath the tree of life.

Doesn't time go by so quickly?

I woke up this morning in a rush. I thought I had overslept by almost two hours. I had planned on getting up early and getting some work done.

It is Saturday, by the way. My problems started last night when I got into bed and realized that my wind-up alarm clock had come unwound. Not that it is a bad thing to unwind once in a while, but it is not a good thing if your clock does it.

So, with a slight air of aggravation, I quickly set the time and the alarm and gave the clock the necessary forty-three cranks to get both the alarm and the time wound and ready to go.

I was soon in never-never land, dreaming of sugar plums and all that stuff they say people dream about. As a useless side note, I never remember dreams unless they wake me up. For instance, I dreamed the other morning that all my teeth were rotten and that I was in the dentist office getting them pulled when he decided to go to lunch. Here I was, in dream land, with that little candy-cane sucking thing in my mouth and cotton practically coming out of my nose. As I sit racked with pain, the dentist looks at me and says, "Sit tight, I am going to lunch." He then pulls out this gas mask and came toward me with it and I woke up. Pretty ridiculous, eh?

Then another time I dreamed that someone was breaking into my house and I had a gun, but I had all my bullets mixed in with marbles, coins, ink pen caps and jacks in a shoe box lid. I woke up sitting up on my elbow sorting through the imaginary lid and scared to death. So I had just as soon not dream, thank you very much. With dreams like mine, would you want to remember them?

At any rate, the alarm went off as usual and I turned it off without waking up fully. I was so tired.

I just laid there for a good five minutes looking at the paneling, trying to get my eyes to open and my brain's on switch to kick in. I felt like I had just laid down. I must have dozed off again, because when I glanced at the alarm clock, it was already 10 a.m.

I was so late. I had lots of work to do and I had overslept. I hate that feeling of anxiety that I get when I feel like I have overslept. It is kind of like the feeling you get when you break something that was very expensive and don't have the ability to replace it. However, this time I couldn't glue my time back together and hoped no one noticed. Boy, I hope my mother isn't reading this.

I ended up looking in the mirror that morning and having a good laugh all by myself. I had noticed before because it isn't that common for me to be smiling in my bathroom while I look in the mirror.

Not that I am unhappy to be in the bathroom, but there just doesn't seem to be that much to smile about. Sometimes I think of one of those random funny thoughts - the ones that might not be funny to anyone else or even at another time. This wasn't a random thought, but it was almost like being the butt of my own joke.

I guess it is kind of like one of those "you had to be there" deals. So I will share it with you and see how you feel about the whole thing, just like being there, only better - you won't have to see me in my underwear with my hair sticking straight up.

It all started while I was brushing my teeth. Up and down, round and round, back and forth, just like I have done for many moons.

I looked up after brushing my teeth and made that face that I make to ensure that I have properly cleaned my teeth.

When I looked into the mirror, I noticed that I had two shaving cream earrings, which was pretty funny, but not the really funny thing. I also had an inadvertent thought about the movie "Something about Mary," which thankfully passed very quickly, followed by the realization that it was only 4 a.m.

The realization came when I happened to notice my watch, which was on the arm that happened to be holding the toothbrush at the time. It was on my arm right where it belongs, but its little hands were in the wrong place.

Actually, the hands were in the right place, but my watch was upside down.

Evidently, it had been upside down the night before when I set my clock as well. How it got that way is a matter of pure speculation. I wonder if it was upside down the entire day before and I just didn't notice? Scary thought, isn't it?

The time was not 10 a.m. as I thought, but 4 a.m. Here I was, rushing to get ready and it was still the middle of the night. I suppose there are some folks who routinely rise at 4 a.m. on Saturday, but not I. For a matter of fact, until that day, I didn't even know that there were two 4 o'clocks on Saturdays.

At any rate, I didn't feel too bad, so I just stayed up. By the time I had rushed to get ready and all and nearly had an anxiety attack, I was too wide awake to sleep.

So I just got dressed, sat down at my computer and wrote most of this column while it was all still fresh in mind. After I finished it up, I slipped on my coat and walked outside to have a cup of coffee in the cool mountain air. As the sun peeked it's domed head over the far away forest, I thought to myself, sometimes the best times in life happen by mistake.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

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