Falling On Deaf Ears

Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)

Saturday morning I had set my alarm for somewhere around 7:55am, which gave me just enough time to wake myself up and head out the door by 8:30am to help a friend with his home remodeling project. When I went to bed (and even moreso when my alarm went off in the morning) I really didn’t want to do it… it had been such a tiring week. But, on the other hand, I really did want to do it. Our schedule for the rest of the weekend only allowed for a few hours of helping in the morning, so I was happy I could help. Even if only a little.

Well, being a bit groggy myself, I didn’t get out of bed till 8:30. I got a nice hot cup of chai to take with me, which I hoped would wake me up a bit (as well as just be super awesome… who doesn’t love chai???). I stumbled out the door at about 9:00am, and headed for my friend’s house. It’s about 25 minutes away, so I was kinda late.

On the way there, some other friends came to mind who live right around the corner from where I was going. They had popped into my consciousness a few times this week, so I figured maybe I could sneak out about 30 minutes early and go visit with them for a short time, if they were home.

I kept driving, and finally got to my destination. It’s a bit of an interesting place to park (as in, there are not many places to do so), especially when there are visitors. There were two cars in their driveway, and another parked around the side in their yard. Looked like a decent crew was starting off the morning. I found a spot for my van, and headed to the door.

I knocked on the door, but since there was no response, and I was already late… I figured they were upstairs and couldn’t hear me. The door was unlocked, so I just opened it and went inside. I said the customary, “Hello….” as I walked in, since it’s kinda weird to just walk in to someone’s house. Strangely, as the sound of my voice faded away, there were NO other sounds. I found that quite odd… so I headed upstairs to see what they were doing that was so incredibly quiet.

No one was there. Very strange. Well, I looked around a bit, checking out the work he had done over the past week. It was looking good. I was reminded of our attic project as I looked around. I actually considered just getting to work putting in the insulation that needed to still go in, or stripping electrical wires and connecting them to the outlets and such. But then I remembered, I have no idea what I am doing with all of that.

So I waited.

Actually, I walked downstairs, and said “Hello?” one more time, walking from room to room to see if they were working on some other project at the moment. I opened their kitchen door and checked on their back deck… I looked everywhere… no one. I even called out my friend’s name down to their basement (where they sleep) and there was no response. Now, granted, that was a quieter voice than the other times since there was a possibility they were still sleeping, (though… I have NO IDEA how… I was not quiet before that). But, I used a normal to loud voice… and… no response.

I figured I had two options. One, my friend and his father-in-law were out getting supplies or something. But, what were all of the cars doing there in the driveway? Two, they were both dead in the basement or something.

I really hoped it wasn’t the second one.

Actually, there were three options, but I couldn’t believe the third was true. They really could be just sleeping, but they would be the world’s soundest sleepers, hands down.

So, at about 9:45 I sat down at their computer to type up a quick article for my BuffaloBills.com page that had come to mind on the way to their house, and another friend was online, on their buddy list. Just for kicks, I sent her an IM and told her my funny story. She suggested I call his cell phone. So I finally found their house phone and dialed his digits. Straight to voicemail. I left a message – in a normal to loud speaking volume – and continued writing my article. It was short, so I was done in 5-10 minutes. I closed down my windows and, having seen or heard no signs of life in the house, I decided to go visit those friends I mentioned earlier.

It was just after 10:00 now, and I figured that I could go visit our other friends for 20-30 minutes, and then head back and join the work force which would certainly have returned from running errands, or maybe be awake by the time I got back! 🙂

Well, the story gets even more interesting but it’s getting rather long. So, the rest is condensed.

I showed up at my other friends’ house, and knocked politely (not too loud since I was visiting unannounced on a Saturday morning) and was about to leave following no sign of life in their house. I was heading to the van when their garage door opened. After an initial startle… my friend welcomed me and invited me in. The cool/weird part was they both were just thinking of our family that morning too! (We really haven’t seen each other in months, so that’s really cool and weird that we were in each other’s thoughts…)

Well, we got to catch up on stuff, and got to talk about life in God’s kingdom, and various manifestations of the church. It was great. And long. 🙂 Ended up chatting for well over an hour, and by that time, I figured it was just time to call the morning a wash (as far as remodeling goes) and I headed home.

I got home just before noon and called my no-show friend on his cell again, to chide him for not being there when he told me to be there. No answer. Right to voicemail. Now, I didn’t really think they were dead… but the thought almost seriously crossed my mind at this point. I left a message and hoped to hear back from him soon.

Thankfully, he called back within 5 minutes or so, and we laughed about the events of the morning. Option three was correct… they were ASLEEP in the basement. Neither of us could believe what happened. Dude. That is super, duper, incredibly sound sleeping. I could have robbed him blind! Maybe I should have… 😉

Anyway… let this be a lesson for you folks. Never leave your doors unlocked when you invite your friend over to help you with remodeling in the morning if you go to sleep at two in the morning and don’t plan to wake up, even if your friend comes in and makes a decent amount of noise.

Or something like that. 🙂