It was 630am the day after my birthday. The phone rang. It kept ringing and I woke up mid dream eventually but didn’t quite unlock the phone in time.

Then it rang again and I saw the message; SOS. THE SITE IS DOWN.

I knew why. It was my fault, sort of. I forgot to finish a task yesterday. The second part of a two step process to download and delete two backup files which were huge and violated my clients rules.

So I got out of bed, sneezed, and started the tech support process to resolve it. The sneeze was the significant part of the story. The phone ringing twice went unnoticed by the 7 puppies that reside one floor directly above me. It was the sneeze that apparently woke one of them up.

A slight murmur started it. As the first hint of light entered the room, it was just light enough that it seemed an appropriate time to open their eyes and declare the start to the day.

Normally this happens around 7:30 or later these days as it stays dark longer each day. But today I had started the chain of events that begins each day an hour earlier.

The barking.

It starts with one dog followed by another and another. Before long, the outside dogs catch on and begin to waken. Then the two big dogs begin to bark and howl at the moon even though the moon isn’t there. The lighter it gets, the more the dogs want to wake up the humans and receive their morning attention and nourishment.

The humans don’t wake up. Or at least if they do, they don’t let any of the dogs know it and they wait them out. Eventually the dogs quiet and the humans go back to sleep for another 20 minutes.

Or 10 minutes. Or 5 minutes. We never know when the dogs will repeat the process. Meanwhile I’m up at my computer calming the nerves of my customers and getting their site back online as quietly as I can. Any new noise might start the chain of events over again.