Sometimes I'm a freakin' idiot.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been working nights for the last few weeks, and my whole shop just got put back on day shift (hopefully, not for long). So yesterday, I took a nap after work, around 19:00.

I wake up, roll over and look at my alarm clock.

It’s 8:30.

There’s light coming in through the window.

I have to be at work at 7:30.

Oh, shit. I knew setting my alarm clock/radio to wake me up to NPR was going to bite me in the ass one day; it must have gone off at six, and I slept until it shut itself off at seven.

I bolt out of bed, find my phone, and check for missed calls. There were no missed calls.

! call my shop; hoping to explain why I’m not at work.

No answer. Crap, I must have the number they disconnected programmed into my phone. I try an alternate number.

Damn it, no answer. They must all be out working on equipment… but why didn’t they call me a half hour or so after I should have been at work? And why isn’t anybody answering? There’s always someone in the office, dammit!

Waaaitaminute…

I go over to my computer and turn on the monitor. There in the lower right corner sits the little clock. It reads 20:34.

That’s 8:34 PM. But that hadn’t quite registered with me, so I checked the date.

Tuesday, April 6. So now I’m satisfied that I didn’t oversleep. Still a little jittery from the sudden adrenaline shock, I settle in for a night’s geekery.

First order of business: Find a clock radio that displays time in a 24-hour format. Ability to pick up a NPR station a plus.

2

I’m still trying to get all the clocks set, myself. One lost hour, I wonder what I would/could have done!

3

hehheh, that’s happened to me, and I love that feeling like I imagine I would love heroin.

I find it funny that you turned to your computer for verification. I would have turned on the tv. Pretty much no matter what channel you turn to, 8:30am is way different than 8:30pm.

4

Ellis Dee: I do have a TV, but it’s used only for my DVD player, my PS2, my GameCube, and when I get it fixed/replaced, my Dreamcast.

I’m glad, at least, that there was no night shift. That would have been an embarassing call.

5

Wow, we have as much in common as we have in differences. I’ve got Xbox only. (My PS2 doesn’t read games anymore, so it’s just a DVD player at this point.) And I’m a tv junkie. But I’ve definitely experienced the 12-hour displacement, and salivate at the propect of a night of geekery.

That would have been funny as hell:

“I’m sorry; I overslept. I’ll be there in 30 minutes.”
“Who are you again?”

hehheh

6

It’s happened to me, sort of. Imagine, for a moment, a winter’s morning – 5:40 am (0540, as TM would say). I meant to get up at 5:30 (Do I need to keep doing the 0530 thing? No? Thanks.), and obviously my alarm clock has failed me once again (this is a highly technical way of saying I forgot to set it). Crap.

It’s dark, but the street light outside our bedroom sends enough light through the window shades that I can see, more or less, well enough to get dressed. Unfortunately, jerking awake at this ungodly hour has done no good for my coördination, and I am stumbling as I tug my pants on, search for my wedding ring and my watch (yes, I remove my wedding ring at night; besides the feeling of impending doom that comes from sleeping late, nothing wakes me from a sound sleep faster than three grams of metal attached to my hand thwacking against the headboard), and try to find my shoes. I stumble so much, in fact, that I wake my wife, who is none too pleased, as she does not need to rise until 8:30. “What are you doing?” she asks; I stifle my reply (what the hell does it look like I’m doing, dear? I’m getting ready for work, LATE!), as my wife is not given to stupid questions, even when jarred into sudden wakefulness by a stumbling husband.

I realize, at this point, that I am still not wearing my glasses, so I slip them on and focus on my wife (whose face is buried in her pillow), and then on the clock, whose face is shining cheerful bright red numbers at me: 3:40. Crap. Too early to make a virtue of my idiocy, even. I remove my few clothes and return to bed, and all too soon, the alarm rings. Crap.

7

Oh my god, this EXACT same thing happened to me, but in reverse. I stayed up really, really late on a Saturday, getting to bed around 4am. I woke up, what felt like hours later, and it was 6pm. A hazy glow oozed in through the skylight. Goddamn, I was supposed to meet my friends at 3pm! I leap out of bed, go downstairs to make a cup of coffee, and turn on the Weather Channel.

It’s 6am. I have at least 6 more hours of sleep ahead of me! Hooray! But boy, did I feel silly. :smack:

8

A week ago last Saturday I had gotten to bed late. When I awoke and rolled over I saw that it was a quarter 'till! I had only fifteen minutes to get to work! I jumped out of bed, ran into the bathroom, showered, and dressed in record time. I went to work (I only live about a mile away) and clocked in. I went to see where they were going to use me and after a couple of inquiries, I realized I was a fricken’ hour early for work!

I went home and had breakfast then came back at the appointed time. :rolleyes:

–SSgtBaloo

P.S.: I’ve done this before a couple of times. This time I didn’t even have Daylight Savings Time to blame – that was still a week away.

9

Ellis Dee: Everybody in my shop knows me. Day or night shift. So it’d probably be more like:

Them: (blahblahblah) How may I help you?
Me: Yeah, this is Monster. Sorry I’m late, I slept through my alarm. I’ll take a quick shower and be in as soon as I can.
Them: snickering Monster, it’s 8:30.
Me: I know. I’ll be in…
Them: 8:30 PM. 2030. Damnit, Monster, go back to sleep, alright?

10

One sunday evening that nobody else was around a couple of winters ago I woke up at 6, showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, then began to wonder as it got darker. It hit me by 7.

11

I’ve dragged my ass out of bed, gotten to work, and realized that no one was there because it was either a) a holiday, or b) a freaking Saturday.

I mean, a holiday, sure. Dumb, but understandable - but Saturdays come along the same damn time every week!

12

Heh, welcome to my world TM. I am nothing if not a creature of habit. Change my routine and I’m sunk.

During the Olympics in Atlanta our company reassigned all project management personnel to “front line” jobs. I drew an assignment in the main cash vault, working 6AM to 2PM - not hours that I was used to working. For some reason that I can’t recall, my wife and kids were not home for a few days during that period, so I was left to get my notoriously hard to wake self out of bed early every morning. After a few days of working the early shift then walking downtown to soak up the Olympic atmosphere for a few hours I was exausted. I went home and fell asleep. When I awoke there was a faint light coming through the curtains. The clock read 7:00. CRAP! I was supposed to be at work and hour ago! I knew I would oversleep one day! I just KNEW it! I called the office and left a message that I would be in in about an hour. I took a quick shower, threw on some clothes, jumped in the car and headed for work. The news was on the radio station, but I was only vaugely listening. I was more intent on getting downtown ASAP. At 7:30ish Braves baseball came on. My first thought was “Where in the hell are they playing - Japan?” My second thought (apparently the first lucid thought of the episode) was “Wait - is it 7:30AM or 7:30PM?” I turned the car around and headed back home.

No one would have been the wiser except for that message I left at the office. I caught much grief the next morning.

13

Back when I was in junior high and my youngest sister was in high school, her phone rang in the middle of the night. We had a teenline, so it didn’t ring in our parents’ room, and she had a phone booth complete with decorator pay phone that rang very loudly. (Dad worked for the phone company, so we were a bit over the top when it came to phones.)

Sis gets up and gets in the shower, starting her morning routine. Her subconscious decided that ringing must be the alarm clock and it’s time to get up – even though it’s pitch black outside and there are hours to go before sunrise.

The really priceless part, in my eyes, is that she had a clock-radio. Her alarm never rang. Ever.

14

Me, working night shift at that particular time of year when it’s hard to tell sunset from sunrise…

::phone rings::
::I wake up and answer::
“Hello”
“Is Chip (my brother) there?”
I look around and answer “no.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“I don’t know, what time is it?”
“It’s 7:00.”
“Morning or night?”
“Uh…night…?”

Obviously he must think I’m an idiot…or drunk…or high…

15

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with a stomach ache, something that happens occasionally. I looked at the clock, damn, it’s 2:55 already. I get up for work at 3:40.

Got up, sat on the throne for awhile, then got ready for work. The liquid crystal display on the clock in the bathroom doesn’t work until the ambient temerature gets a little warmer. So I can only guess at the time in the winter by deciphering what segments do display. By my estimate, I had spent about an hour in the bathroom.

It was only until I went into the kitchen to take a pill I take each morning that I realized it was only 2:04! I got undressed and went back to bed. I would have felt really dumb if I hadn’t noticed and went to work that early.

16

Oops, forgot to mention that I realized later that the clock in the bedroom had actually read 12:55 and I just didn’t see the first digit.

17

My sister did that last year. She’s an assistant manager in a music store, and she showed up an hour early to open the store on her Sunday shift.

That’s funny in itself, but the best part of it is that after 30 minutes alone, she started getting VERY mad at all these slacker employees of hers who had decided not to show up on time! I mean, thank goodness there weren’t any customers coming in!

(insert dear departed “smack” smilie here)

18

Once when I lived in the dorms at college I woke up one dark morning convinced that my alarm had gone off. I shuffled down the hall to the bathroom and showered, alone, only mildly wondering why the bathroom was deserted. Went back to my room and only then did I see the clock clearly: 2:30 am. D’oh!

A few years ago I was home one May day recovering from a cold. I dozed off in the morning on the couch, and awoke to near-complete darkness outside. What the – ? Mr. S usually got home from work around 4 or 5; where was he?

Somehow I managed to focus on a clock and realized that it was 11 o’clock. IN THE MORNING. And it was dark as night outside. Uh-oh. Some serious shit was about to hit the fan.

I grabbed 3-month-old puppydog Phyllis, who was conveniently in her carrier, and high-tailed it into the basement behind Scout, our big dog (who was all too glad to go – she hates storms), phone in hand. The hailstorm hit just as we were going down. It sounded as if the entire second floor were collapsing, or someone were pelting the whole house with hundreds of bowling balls. It was LOUD. I had no idea if it was a tornado or WHAT.

I called Mr. S at work, 60 miles away, to find out what was going on. The weather was clear there, and he hadn’t heard about any storms. About two minutes later, the noise subsided, and I went upstairs to check it out.

That storm caused millions of dollars of damage in several counties. We lost three windshields, two windows, and a satellite dish. The insurance company also had to buy us a new roof. Our siding came through with flying colors because it’s made from the barnboards off our 100-year-old barn; the vinyl-sided houses weren’t so lucky. The ground was carpeted with branches and hailstones – it looked like Italian wedding soup. The plows came through later that day to clear the roads.

Hell of a way to wake up!

19

A couple of years ago I woke up to the sound of knocking on our front door and proceeded to jump out of the bed and run down the stairs knowing that when I opened the door Id find a friend waiting for me so that we could walk to school.

It was only when I opened the door and saw a gaurd on the otherside that I realised it was the middle of the night.

Stupid…

It gets worse though:

He tells me to get everyone out of the house as a house three doors up is on fire and the smoke is passing into the other houses through the attics. So I go and call everyone, pull on a knightgown and some slippers and go back out on to the street to watch the drama… A few minutes later my Mam & Dad joins me, a few minutes after that they tell me to go get my Sister. I went back into the hosue and you can tell its kinda smokey at this stage go into sisters room and ask

Me: “Sister, what the hell is taking ya so long?!”
Her: “I cant find my school uniform”

Looks like I wasnt the only one to be effected by the sudden wake up that night…

20

(Delly means there was a Cop at the door)

I went to bed one night, looked at the clock and thought “Ooo it’s exactly midnight”, then fell sound asleep. I woke up and squinted at the clock - big hand on 12, little hand on 2 - “I’ve only been asleep 2 hours?!?” I turned over (intending to go back to sleep) and thought “It’s awfully bright for 2am”
T’was in fact 2pm, I’d slept for 14 hours … ah sweet Seasonal Affective Disorder where would I be without thee?