21:48: Violently Making the Bed

Given the size of our bed (a California King) and the fact that the bottom half of the mattress rests tightly inside a wooden box, stripping and replacing the fitted sheet is difficult. Desiree and I need to tag-team this chore. A lot of lifting, shouldering, pulling, stretching, and stuffing is involved. We get a little “western” with it, using a somewhat local euphemism for getting wild or violent. Typically, I need to hoist each end of the mattress high while Desiree wrestles the fitted sheet into place.

The last time we changed the bedding, our skirmishing produced a bit of collateral damage. After we finished with the fitted sheet and dropped the mattress back down into the box, I walked over to the nightstand on my side of the bed to inspect the tautness of the sheet.

“Where’s the clock?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” she responded.

“It’s not on the table.” On closer inspection, I found the thin cord trailing down under the mattress. “Guess what? I think the clock is under the mattress.”

Somewhere in all of our swinging and shifting about, we had knocked the table clock off the stand. With Desiree stationed near the cord, I hoisted up the corner of the mattress and she fished the clock out from underneath.

Interestingly enough, the clock popped out having changed to displaying the time in a 24-hour format. The time was 21:48.

The Clock Cord Trailing Away

The Clock After Pulling It Free

—Mitchell Hegman