SOLUTION....

Louis and I have lived at Sweetbriar in Johnstown for 15 years.  From day one, there has been a running battle between us about end of day wind-down. 

Louis likes to have the TV on as he goes to sleep.  Not really watch it, just listen to it.  I HATE the sound of the TV when I am getting ready to go to sleep, BUT because I can sleep with noise and lights I have just resigned myself to the fact that's what bedtime includes.

I like to read a bit before I turn out the light to go to sleep.  Used to be a chapter.  Now I am lucky if I get even a sentence or two before I am gone to "a la land".

Trouble is that when I am home, Louis doesn't like the light on when he is trying to go to sleep.  (Yet the TV assaulting our sensibilities is okay?  There's something wrong with this picture.)  He can have the TV on, but I can't have the light on.

I tell you we have exchanged cross words over it, bickered over it, and had downright battles over it.

The arguments always end when Louis says he DOESN'T CARE if the light is on.  Oh, but the first time I crawl into bed with a book in my hand, he inquires how long am I going to have the light on as he has to get up for work in the morning.  So, in frustration I either get out of bed and go up to the big chair in the loft or get out of bed and turn the wall switch off which controls both our bedside lamps.  He also says that I go to sleep and then get mad when he tells me I am asleep and I swear to goodness I am NOT!  He says he doesn't want to get up and go turn off the light when I go to sleep.

I tell him to turn his lamp off with the switch, then when I am done reading--if I get that far--I will turn my lamp off.  No....he doesn't like that.  He wants to come into the room and switch the light on EVERY time.  He doesn't like having to go across the room and turn the lamps on separately.

So, the last few months we have come to a better truce.  Only now I can't see to read.  The lamp doesn't give off enough light for these old eyes to pick those black marks off the page.

I tried a flashlight.  Too hard to hold and read at the same time.  Found a battery powered light in my drawer about the size of an old Walkman which I clipped to my clothes and tried to use at one time while reading in the car.  That was also unsatisfactory.

Then I was at Wal Mart the other day and happened to walk by the aisle with lamps.  Voila!  A clip-on, gooseneck high intensity lamp.  I nearly ran to the check out so I could get home and try it.

It's perfect!  The answer to our light on/light off dilemma for all those years.  I clipped it to the headboard where I can turn the flexible neck so the light--THE. HIGH.  INTENSITY.  LIGHT--shines right on my reading material away from Louis' side of the bed.  And, when my eyes start to droop there is a little switch on the cord that turns the light off without my having to get out of bed and walk across the room to the wall switch.

Cost of the lamp: $7.99 plus tax.  No more wrangling about having the light on:  Priceless.

Ain't life grand after all....!