Addi-fan-tastic

 It's been really hot in the Addiverse.... temperature hot, sillies--more so for the four-legged Addiverse inhabitants that the two legged ones.

Here's a photo of the dogs walking in the snow last winter.  I'm pretending this is cooling things off. I'm not in any hurry for winter but some days you just need a visual reminder that the weather is always in flux.

This ridiculously hot summer has taken its toll on the dogs.  At night, the dogs pant and pace and pant and pace and sound absolutely miserable.  They flop into their beds, then flop onto the hardwood floor, scoot under the bed, then plop onto a throw rug.  They pant some more, they go get a drink, they wander around some more, lick the air, lick their parts, lick their paws, wander some more.  (Whose idea was it to stop crating them?  Oh wait, that was me.  Remind me what a dumb idea that was.)  It's not THAT hot--for pete's sake, we have air conditioning and use it--but on some of those hot summer nights, it's not enough for our furry little friends.  They basically keep up up most of the night.  Actually, they keep the wife awake, which means I am then kept awake--misery loves company:

Me: (Asleep) Zzzzzzzzz.
The wife: (yelling at Lucy, who is licking something or other) "Stop it! STOP LICKING!"
Me:  (wiping drool off face) "Huh? What?"  (I never hear anything.  I don't know what she's talking about. I fall back asleep.)  Zzzzzzzz.
The wife: (yelling at Freckles) "Stop it! STOP DRINKING SO MUCH WATER!"
Me: (groan) "Huh? What?" (I still haven't heard anything...well, besides the wife.  I can hear her just fine. I am now wide awake.)
The wife:  (yelling at both dogs) "GO TO BED!"
The dogs wander to bed...but then start panting because they are so hot.
The wife: (yelling at all of us): "UGH! I CAN'T SLEEP!"
None of us can.

It got really old, this interrupted, less-than-optimal sleep.

(I thank myself for not letting them sleep in the bed.  I do not thank myself for having trained them to sleep in the bedroom.  Oh, how I miss the crates.)

One sleep-deprived morning, I decided we HAD to do something....and, instead of whining like usual, I actually came up with a solution:  a mini-fan.  I asked the wife if she still had that little desk fan in her office.  She assured me she did then inquired why on earth I'd be asking about that.  I explained my idea:

....Use the mini-desk fan in the bedroom to circulate air on dog-level--the floor.  What an Addi-fan-tastic idea!

Now, you would not think a mini-desk-type fan wouldn't make a hill-of-beans difference, but I am here to tell you that the fan saved my life.  I plugged that thing in, put it on the floor in front of the air vent, faced it toward the dogs' beds and turned it on.  I turned off the light and waited.

The hum of the fan is actually quite soothing....better than your generic white noise machine and a hell of a lot cheaper.  Bonus points for the fan drowning out the dog panting and wandering and flopping--the fan "covers" most of the extraneous noise the critters tend to make.  This means the wife can sleep, which means I can sleep.  Score!

I wasn't sure the dogs would even notice the fan, but trust me, they did: they shove each other out of the way to in order to secure the most air circulation.   Freckles usually wins, but that's because she's the alpha dog.  Lucy waits for Freckles to go get and drink and then scoots to the front row to get a shot at the fan's output.  They then both end up in their beds and sleep through the night, the fan gently blowing on them as if they were enjoying a cool ocean breeze.

I.am.a.genius.

We've been using the fan for over a month now and can I just say the quality of my sleep has improved one hundred bazillion percent.  The dogs love it--they've never slept better. The wife loves it and she is enjoying how rested she feels.  Life is good in the Addiverse.

I plan on using the mini-fan year round.  I plan on getting my own for use during soon-to-be happening hot flashes.  I plan on getting one for my desk for when the A/C is not on. I plan on getting one for the wife so she can drown out all sorts of noises at night....

I like the fan so much that I think I will give them to everyone I know for Christmas.

Act surprised when you open your gift.