Canary

Normally, I am the one who wakes up first. I suppose the reason is that for most of my working life I had to be at work before the sun made an appearance in the sky. There was no good reason that the mail had to be sorted and on the street early in the day, it was just tradition. I guess it goes back to the times when there were multiple deliveries each day and the early morning mail gave you a chance to read, write a reply and have it delivered in the afternoon post. Kind of old school email.

 

In the years since I have been a man of leisure, that early waking has become later and later in the day. I can still get up and active early if it is important, but rarely would anything be that important any longer. Since Louise has retired, she has embraced late nights and sleeping in, which is as it should be. The sun will often be awake long before we are now.

This morning however, Louise was the first one awake by a goodly margin. When I finally rolled out of bed, the furnace had warmed up the floors and I had already wasted a large hunk of the morning. The reason that Louise had risen so early is that she thought there a carbon monoxide build up in the house. It was probably the tail end of a dream that woke her, but once awake she had the irrational fear that carbon monoxide was at a deadly level. Keep in mind that carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless gas and we wouldn’t be able to discern a build up. Also, the carbon monoxide detector that is just outside of our bedroom would have been emitting a high pitched whine. Like I said an irrational fear.

I found it interesting that even when I got up she was still disturbed about the feeling. More interesting yet was the fact that she didn’t wake either Buster or me to warn us of our impending death by toxic gas. I’m starting to feel like one of those canaries that were once used as an early warning device in coal mines. When the bird died, it was time to leave the mine. I’m sure that’s not the case.

 

However, I did make sure that there were new batteries in the carbon monoxide detector and tonight I plan to tie a thread to my toe and Louise’s wrist so that if she makes a run for it she will have to take me. 

Perhaps I should look into getting a Canary…