The Sleepwalking Burnettes, Part II

Unfortunately, the tendency to sleepwalk and snore were both passed on to me. When I was a small child, my parents were always catching me wandering around the house in the middle of the night. It started causing serious concern when my dad caught me going out the door late one night when I was around six years old. We lived on Route 58 where the speed limit was 55 mph and tractor trailers usually went by our house very fast, so wandering outside was a very dangerous thing.

Like father, like daughter.

When I was in the 6th grade, I went on vacation with my good friend, Debbie and her family. We went to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Busch Gardens and then on to the Outer Banks. This was a camping trip and it was so much fun. One night, we stopped at her relative's home to spend the night. Debbie and I were going to be sleeping on the pull-out couch. In the middle of the night, I woke the whole house up as I was trying to choke an African Violet! This story has been the source of much amusement through the years and even if I wanted to put it out of my mind, I am reminded of it often!

When I was in college, I neglected to mention to my two roommates, Jennifer and Laura, that I was a sleepwalker. It did not take them long to discover my problem. One night I woke them up with my mumbling. I was gazing out the window into the street that ran in front of our 3rd floor dorm room. When they asked me what I was doing I said, "All of the cars are gone." What?!  There were always cars parked on both sides of the street and now I was saying that the cars were gone?  They got out of bed and looked.  Of course, all of the cars were there and they tried to tell me that, which just made me angry. Then, I said "All of the addresses are gone too!"  Well, of course, this was just too much for my roommates and they started laughing at me which made me really mad. This happened within the first couple of weeks of my freshman year and my roommates were really strangers at that point, so this whole deal freaked them out. I eventually just went back to bed. Months later, there was a boiled egg throwing incident, but I will just let you use your imagination on that one!

I typically go to bed a couple of hours before my husband does and it seems like most of my sleepwalking incidents occur during those first two hours. On quite a few nights, I appear in the family room where he is watching television and I will start babbling on about things that usually make no sense. Sometimes, I can vaguely remember these episodes. The ones that I do remember usually start when I jump out of bed and I know that I just HAVE to do something or something bad will happen. As I am walking through the house, I will start forgetting what it was that I have to do, which frightens me even more.  I do know that when Steve attempts to interact with me, I get very, very angry when he laughs at me or tells me that I just need to go back to bed. The more that I try to explain what I am doing, the madder I get because on one level, I KNOW that I am not making any sense and when someone laughs at me, that just infuriates me.  I just can't seem to wake up completely.

I have always been prone to nightmares too and growing up I had one reoccurring nightmare that was just horrible. After I would have it, my parents would have to sit up with me for hours trying to get me to calm down and realize that it was just a dream and that I was okay. To this day, I cannot really tell you what the nightmare was about, but I can still see snippets of the dream in my mind, but if I try to describe it to you, it makes no sense. I still get a sinking feeling when I start thinking about that dream. I had this dream from the time that I was a very small child up until I was almost 16 years old.  Interestingly enough, I never had the nightmare again after my mom was killed in a car accident. It makes me wonder if the nightmare was a premonition of her death.

So, yes, I must confess. I am a sleepwalker. I talk in my sleep. I have terrible nightmares. And, to hear my husband tell it, I snore like a rhinoceros! But it is all something that I inherited, so I will blame it on my genes!

To read part I, click HERE.

Same Difference Batt Spin-Along

During the month of March, I participated in the Same Difference Batt Spin-Along on the "Fiber Artists & Yarn Spinners" group on Facebook.  The idea was to see that given the same guidelines and materials, would spinners produce similar yarns.

Here is how mine turned out:

The Sleepwalking Burnettes, Part I

I come from a long line of sleepwalkers. My Daddy, my Grandpa, and my Uncle Lindell were all world class sleepwalker. Here are some stories.

During the Great Depression, my grandfather was building a new house with the help of his brother, Tommy Burnett. Grandpa, Grandma, Daddy, & Lindell moved into the house before everything was completed. One of the things that was not finished was the front porch.  The porch was a good seven feet off of the ground and the only thing that needed to be completed about it was the flooring. In the middle of the night, Grandma heard Grandpa get up and go downstairs. She hollered at him "John Ettered, where are you going?" (His name was John Edward Burnett, but many people called him John Ettered, Dettered, or J.E.)  He did not respond to her. She heard him opening the front door and she ran down the steps just in time to see him step out onto the front porch. Naturally, Grandpa fell through since the flooring was not down. He didn't even wake up!  Grandma got him back in the house and in the bed.  The next day, he discovered that he had several broken ribs and he did not remember a thing about it.  Grandpa was also quite a snorer!

Grandpa Burnette

My Uncle Lindell was also mightly bad to sleepwalk. In the wee hours of the morning, Grandma heard the wooden backporch screen door slap closed.  She got up to see who was up at that time of night. Even though they had an outhouse, most everyone would use the slop jar rather than going outside in the middle of the night so it was strange for someone to go out.  When she got outside, Lindell was thrashing around up in the woods, yelling and carrying on something awful. He thought that he was at war! She tried to get him to come into the house, but he just kept on yelling and threatened to hit Grandma if she got near him. Grandpa came outside and he couldn't get Lindell to do anything either, so they both just watched him to make sure they he didn't hurt himself.  He eventually calmed down and just walked back into the house and went to bed.

Uncle Lindell Burnette

My dad, Bobby, was also quite the sleepwalker. When he was younger and still living at home, Grandma said that he was always getting up in the middle of the night and talking in his sleep. If anyone tried to touch him when he was sleepwalking, he would punch them!  When I was just a small child, I can remember that he would get up in the middle of the night, cook food and then eat it.  The scariest thing that I ever remember him doing was one night, my mom was working third shift, so it was just me and Daddy at the house. Daddy woke up 6 miles from the house sitting in his car!  He had driven that far from the house in his sleep. It terrified him because he knew that he had left me at home alone and I was always so scared to be alone.

Daddy

Another incident happened one night when we were all at home. Mom caught Daddy going out the back door around 2:00 AM. He was fully dressed and was walking with his cane. He was heading into the backyard where a creek bordered our property. Mom was afraid that he was going to fall into the creek and hurt himself because he was headed right to the creek. (My dad was very unsteady on his feet because he had multiple sclerosis.) She asked him what he was doing and he said that Jim Dalton, the mail carrier for Laurel Fork, had come by and asked my dad to deliver the mail for him!  Mom tried to reason with Daddy and he was just getting more angry and more insistent that Jim had came by the house. This was all happening in the wee hours of the morning and there was a considerable amount of yelling going on, so I'm sure that the neighbors wondered what was going on. Mom finally got Daddy back in the house after a good hour, but he was still convinced that he needed to deliver the mail. The next morning, Daddy was STILL swearing that Jim had come by and ask for his help!  Okay, so maybe there was something weird going on that we were unaware of, so Mom did get in touch with Jim and ask him if he came by the house.  Of course he did not, but my Daddy still swore that he did days after the incident!

This is the end of Part I. Watch for Part II and learn about some of MY sleepwalking adventures!

Picture A Spring Sunday

** Click photos to see enlargement

Chinese Cherry

Dandelion

Violet

Violet

I have never noticed the little curls on the bloom before!

A miniature forest of moss

Snake Berry Bloom

White Violet

Violet

All photos taken by Kimberly Burnette-Dean. Images may not be used without permission.

Copyright 2013--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean

Wildlife Encounter

This morning on my way to work, I suddenly could not remember whether I had removed Ozzy's collar.  I knew that I would worry about it all day, so even though I was already a couple of miles from home, I turned around and went back. Of course, I had taken the collar off, but I can be a bit OCD about things, so to avoid worrying, I had to check!

Leaving home for the second time this morning, I heard a big commotion in the pine trees beside our driveway. While I was trying to see what was going on, a scream pierced the quiet morning and a Red-tailed Hawk swooped over my head in the direction of the pine trees. There was another mad scramble in the pine trees and a crow vacated the pines in a hurry, cawing.  The hawk and crow continued creating quite a ruckus, swooping back and forth, fighting and crying out. 

I ran back in the house to get my camera and then I walked underneath the pine trees to see if I could figure out what was creating the stir. I had thought that maybe there was a nest that they were fighting over.  Fortunately, I was wearing my new glasses, so I could actually see!

This is what I saw in the tree.

Photo by Kimberly Burnette-Dean

For a few seconds, I could not figure out what I was seeing. Then it hit me:  It was one of the many owls that I hear hooting at night!  I made a noise to try to get it to look at me.

Photo by Kimberly Burnette-Dean

Isn't it a beauty?  I'm not sure if this Barred Owl is a male or female because unless you see them together, it is difficult to distinguish the difference. The females are about a 1/3 bigger than males.

While I was looking at it and taking bunches of photos, the crow and hawk continued to fight with each other.  After the hawk flew directly at the crow and almost hit him, the crow cawed a couple more times and flew away. I think that the hawk then lost interest, because he left too. He probably didn't go far because we do have several red-tail hawks that I think live in the woods behind our house because I hear and see them often. I don't know if the owl was involved in the whole scene or if it was just an innocent bystander. The crow and hawk both were flying pretty close to the owl and the owl would get all ruffled up.

I wanted to watch longer, but I was already running a bit late for work and I just barely made it on time.  Even though I live in Roanoke City, I am so fortunate to have acres of National Park Service/Blue Ridge Parkway woods behind my house because I sure do get to see lots of wildlife.  I see more living here than I did when I lived in the country in Meadows of Dan!

Copyright 2013--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean