Counting Sheep

As I grow older, I find myself facing more and more semi-sleepless nights. I usually read until my eyelids fuse, but even then, when I drop my book on the floor, they glare again. I've heard many suggestions for falling asleep, including one I read about just this week. This remedy consists of taping a dried bean to the inside wrist approximately 3 fingers from where the hand joins the arm, between the two tendons (?) running up the arm, check it out, you'll find the right spot. However, the method I think most of us have tried is counting sheep.

I begin with a lovely pasture filled with fluffy white sheep and a weathered gray, log-rail fence, clumps of beautiful green grass everywhere. The first sheep jumps with grace, landing on the other side much like a ballet dancer. Oops, here comes sheep # 2, running like mad, he gets almost to the fence and stops abruptly, coming to a screeching halt, reminding me of myself when the car in front of me stops with no signal and I apply my brakes too quickly. # 3 takes off and sails over the fence, barely clearing the top rail and lands with a belly buster on the other side, all four legs sprawled in the grass. Uh Oh! # 4 is fast approaching, ready to make his flight, now he loses his nerve and runs under instead of over the fence. Now 5, 6, 7 and 8 are lining up, they've decided to try it as a team, standing on their hind legs, they join "hands" and race toward the fence. From somewhere comes music, they stop to dance the Virginia reel. The remaining sheep run one after the other, one landing on his nose, another stopping to graze, others jumping much too fast for me to count and heaven only knows where some of them land! By now I am really wide-awake, so I pick up my book and retreat to the couch to read myself to sleep again.

I'm going to try that bean thing!