Insomnia

I have been wide awake since 2:18 this morning, after dozing off at 10 last night, and the world feels out of kilter for the following reasons:

1) My air conditioner is on the fritz and intermittently bursts into muffled roars and then subsides into ominous silences. It has been doing this all night. It looks sullen and brooding, and I fear that it may burst into a ball of flames at any moment now.

2) The aforesaid air conditioner has also developed a leak. It drips, audibly. This is not good for my fevered imagination that has been incited to flights of fancy by my recent glut of Agatha Christies. Lying wakeful, I can visualize a body lying in my living room, stabbed in the back with an Oriental dagger, blood dripping onto the carpet. Drip drip drip. Damn the air-conditioner!

3) I had my first microwave fire earlier this evening, as I absentmindedly microwaved something without remoiving its foil covering! I am convinced that senile dementia is setting in early. Give me a month or two, and I'm sure I'll be forced to wear my name and address on a placard round my neck, so that some kindly soul can direct me homewards when I am found alone and palely loitering on a city street at 3 am.