The Big Black Blob at the Bedroom Door

B.N.Real · January 23, 2012, 10:25 PM

About twenty three years ago,my wife ( girlfriend then) and I were sleeping in bed when I was woken up sudennlty by a load sound near the foot of the bed.

It was like something clanking and rattling like someone trying to get in our apartment.

On reflex,I leaned over to the side of the bed,grabbed my 357 mag Dan wesson six inch barrel revolver,aimed it at the bedroom door opening and looked up at where the the bedroom door was wide open ( as we left it).

Where I saw a huge black blob in the doorway.

I had a bead drawn on the doorway and the blob never moved and as I leaned in my bed,gun drawn oin the door the blob simply melted away and the door way was seen in the dim night light clear and open.

The noise was a fan we had at the end of the bed that the bearings had failed in and the fan had simply gone nuts when the motor went bad.

That blob was a phenomenon caused by my suddenly waking up in a hurry and looking as hard as I could into a darkened door opening looking for a potential bad guy.

Thankfully,I never let a 357 158 grnr fly into the open doorway that night.

It was a sobering thing to have happen and it taught me to indeed wait until my eyes adjusted to the light before I ever engaged my weapon again.

My wife likes to talk about the night I almost shot the fan in our bedroom but I like to think of the night that I did'nt discharge my weapon until I knew there was a reason.

I am telling you this story so that you might try yourself at night-suddenly opening your eyes and see if you see the same dark blob I saw.

It's a optical illusion you need to know about when dealing with light changes and eyes trying to adjust to that.

And train yourself accordingly to not engage until you can truly see what is in front of you.

AK103K · January 23, 2012, 10:39 PM

I dont engage the blob until the dogs get done with it, cause thats likely all thats going to be left by the time I get there.

BlackFeather · January 23, 2012, 10:51 PM

A good reason for a flashlight.

In my martial arts studies we did a fair bit of night "scouting" and fighting. The most important part of seeing in the dark is NOT staring directly at the "object", but to the side. Keeping the object in the middle use the "clock" to watch outside the center, moving from point to point in a circle. It takes practice, and I don't expect many people besides pilots and "Ninja" to do it. Rant over, just felt I should mention it.

Dabull · January 23, 2012, 11:21 PM

This might not pass a doctors muster, but it's pretty close:

The blob was an artifact of your night vision. Your retinas have rods and cones on their surface that allow you to see. Cones are for "day vision" as they are activated by light and allow you to see fine detail and color. Cones are predominately located in the center of your retina, so under day vision conditions, you can see with great detail what you are looking directly at. In the absence of light, your rods take over, but they see mostly black and white and less detail. Because rods are located on the periphery of your retina, you see "best" in the dark when you don't look directly at what you are trying to look at. Since this is so annoying, the best night vision technique is to move your eyes back and forth or around the thing you are trying to look at. Your brain will fill in the details and allow you to see the object as if you were looking directly at it. It will still be largely black and white and fuzzy, but at least you won't see a black hole (or blob) where your cones are failing you.

Rusty35 · January 24, 2012, 08:09 AM

I had a similar experience with a fan.

We had a pedestal fan about 4 1/2 foot tall setting about 3 feet from the foot of the bed.

I woke one night for some unknown reason and saw that fan when my eyes first opened.

I finally awoke fully to a strange thumping sound and my wife yelling "HONEY DON'T KILL IT"

I had tackled the fan and was in the closet floor choking it to death.
The strange thumping sound was my fingers pushed through the wire cage and the plastic blade still turning.

Willie Lowman · January 24, 2012, 08:58 AM

Thank you for that one, Rusty. Made my morning.

Rusty35 · January 24, 2012, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Willie Lowman
Senior Member

Thank you for that one, Rusty. Made my morning.

The good thing about this incident, my wife says she feels safer knowing that I am willing to put my life on the line to protect her from "Pedestal Fans" while she sleeps.

Dwight55 · January 24, 2012, 10:32 AM

Thanks, Rusty35, . . . my wife was equally impressed on night as I listened to someone removing the cover from my motorcycle so he could steal it.

Went out the back door in a rush, . . . my trusty .38 detective special in my hand, . . . came all too close to shooting the part of the cover that had come loose and was flapping in the breeze.

She hasn't brought it up in a while, . . . and I have been content to do likewise.

May God bless,
Dwight

nmg · January 24, 2012, 11:13 AM

That's why I'm hesitant to have a gun in arm's reach of my bed. It usually takes me a few moments to transition from dream to reality when woken.

Sponge14 · January 24, 2012, 01:23 PM

Quote:

That's why I'm hesitant to have a gun in arm's reach of my bed. It usually takes me a few moments to transition from dream to reality when woken.

Exactly why mine is in the dresser a few feet away from the bed, and I don't leave a round chambered. I want to have to think about what I am doing before I can fire a single round. It's also the reason the Mag Light is right by the gun too. I have 5 dogs and they don't bark unless something is wrong, and when something IS wrong, I know they will let me know.

MarineCorpsAT · January 24, 2012, 02:44 PM

Never attempted to kill the fan at night but did come face to face with a deer looking in the bedroom window, I still do not know what stopped me from emptying a full magazine into that thing.. I scared the crap out of bothmy wife and I.

papa shooter · January 24, 2012, 02:46 PM

It was 0300 for me when the house alarm went off. Oh what a thrill it was. My son was communicating to me as he came down stairs and I came from the master bedroom across the house. At that time the alarm panel was located in the kitchen. A frightfully log way when you hear the alarm. Anyway as I made it to see what set the thing off my son thought he saw something move on the back porch. By the way it was set off by the back door being pulled on. There was wet foot prints coming and going on the sidewalk leading to the door. He went looking into the night for a boogie man but I new whoever it was, was long gone from there.
Now there is a second control in my bedroom so I know instantly what has set the alarm off. There is also a nice new Remington 12 gauge pump sitting by the bed.

papa.

Stevie-Ray · January 24, 2012, 06:16 PM

I had one dream that was a violent nightmare, some particular creature was after me and I started myself awake. I could clearly see my room all around me, yet the creature was still coming. As it reached me, it slowly dissolved into nothing. I sat awake for a half-hour wondering why my dream and reality had seemingly melded with each other, something that has never happened before then or since. About twenty years ago.

hikingman · January 24, 2012, 06:21 PM

The OP made a good point!

You can talk about the dogs, or the flashlights if you want. Not every person is going to have a flashlight within reach (a flashlight can drop on the floor-out of reach), reliable dogs with teeth are not going to be living under every roof.

Let's be a bit more realistic concerning this topic, and discuss life outside your perfect world.

AK103K · January 24, 2012, 06:52 PM

Quote:

...reliable dogs with teeth are not going to be living under every roof.

Let's be a bit more realistic concerning this topic, and discuss life outside your perfect world.

Hey, for me it is reality. We have two 125# Rotties sleeping with us, and unless youre a Klingon beaming in, youre not getting in the house without a fight, let alone anywhere near the bedroom. Even if they did, they'd do the Klingon's proud.

Dont rag on me because youre not prepared.

briandg · January 24, 2012, 08:00 PM

the idea of using the peripery of vision at night is something I've used since I was a child.

It would behoove everyone here to learn how to do it in night driving, as I do. cast your eyes off 20 degrees as an oncoming car is in your eyes, and you will not have any problems with headlights.

The trick is to keep that intense beam of light off of the center of the retina, as was already stated.

ltc444 · January 25, 2012, 06:38 PM

One of the benefits of being color blind is excellent night vision. Failing to have that a night light in the hallway, the kind my mother used when we were kids, would have backlit the area and eliminated the Blob.

You have experienced what Skeeter Skelton desfined as a miss in his book on misses.

TXAZ · January 25, 2012, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltc444

One of the benefits of being color blind is excellent night vision.

ltc444, I & others have a very distinct advantage at night, more likely with good results. I've always been able to see much fainter stars and people walking in dark areas where others didn't see them. The problem is if someone says 'shoot the bad guy in brown but not the good guy in green" or the officer asks what color shirt they were wearing ...

Another reason we have full perimeter low light cameras on-property.

We might not have been able to tell what color the fan was but sure as heck wouldn't have tackled or drawn on it.

Skans · January 26, 2012, 08:29 AM

If no one other than me and my wife were residing in the house, I would have fired off a couple rounds at the big black blob and asked questions later.

larzb93 · January 26, 2012, 10:58 AM

a good something to keep in the back of my mind... thanks

EvilGenius · January 26, 2012, 02:10 PM

Dealt with this last night.

BOOOOOOM! Right outside of our bedroom door at 3am. Wasn't my GF since she was working overnight security and my son is with the ex this week. Rolled over and grabbed her S&W and waited a couple of minutes. Eventually cracked the door open and stood back for a few min. Then peaked. Some one knocked a mirror off the laundry room door.

I dont wake well attitude wise. I was ready to put 5 rds in someone's face and call 911 in the morning.

Instead I just hosed down some punk cats with the squirt bottles.

Quote:

I had one dream that was a violent nightmare, some particular creature was after me and I started myself awake. I could clearly see my room all around me, yet the creature was still coming. As it reached me, it slowly dissolved into nothing. I sat awake for a half-hour wondering why my dream and reality had seemingly melded with each other, something that has never happened before then or since. About twenty years ago.

This is something that's in the back of my mind a lot about nightstand guns.

While I understand the OP's "blob" I often wonder about night terrors or whatever folks call them. Apparently it's actually really common, even a condition for some folks, for the various chemicals and nervous system components that cause us to dream (and our voluntary muscles to paralyze) to have trouble "turning off" when we wake. It causes visions and various other hallucinations and things that can be frightening and confusing.

jjyergler · January 28, 2012, 08:30 AM

I was staying over at a friend's apartment. I was sleeping in his living room, he was in his bedroom. There was a loud crash and glass breaking from his other bedroom. He came through with his .45, I grabbed my .357. In the bedroom, he was barking commands at the silhouette in the window. The man in the window didn't move.

I flipped on the lights, and we both collapsed laughing. We had drawn a bead on George Bush. You know, one of those life size cardboard cutouts that people take pictures with? At a party that weekend someone had brought one over. We put a cowboy hat and bandana on it. The crash was the garbage pickup that had hit the dumpster.

Here we are, two guys in their underwear with pistols with "President Bush" well and truly covered.

markj · January 30, 2012, 05:05 PM

The "perfect world" is one I made for myself to keep my family safe. To not take certain precautions is foolish to say the least. A gamble in other words. Simple to do, secure a house or apartment, to give you a early warning if someone tries to get into the place. Or not. It is everyones choice, to set the level of security.

Willie Lowman · February 2, 2012, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skans

If no one other than me and my wife were residing in the house, I would have fired off a couple rounds at the big black blob and asked questions later.

Skans, kicking up a notch! Forget shooting an intruder in the dark. Just shoot the dark!

mo84 · February 2, 2012, 04:34 PM

Sounds like you followed one of the many important firearm rules. "never fire unless you are sure of your target" This is just a great example as to why it was pounded into our heads at hunting safety class.

I could never sleep with a gun right next to me, when I was a kid I would routinely sleep walk and have HORABLE night mares that played out while I walked around the house in a half daze. Once woken I could remember everything, was almost like I was in a trance. Sometimes I will sit up and be in a dream but I do not seem to walk anymore, just sit there talking, looking crazy to my wife lol

There have been a few times I have woken in the night and checked my house out. Not haveing a irearm avaliable at the time I grabed the next best thing, a very large knife that is kept in my room.

January 23, 2012, 10:25 PM	#1
B.N.Real Senior Member Join Date: February 22, 2008 Posts: 4,092	The Big Black Blob at the Bedroom Door About twenty three years ago,my wife ( girlfriend then) and I were sleeping in bed when I was woken up sudennlty by a load sound near the foot of the bed. It was like something clanking and rattling like someone trying to get in our apartment. On reflex,I leaned over to the side of the bed,grabbed my 357 mag Dan wesson six inch barrel revolver,aimed it at the bedroom door opening and looked up at where the the bedroom door was wide open ( as we left it). Where I saw a huge black blob in the doorway. I had a bead drawn on the doorway and the blob never moved and as I leaned in my bed,gun drawn oin the door the blob simply melted away and the door way was seen in the dim night light clear and open. The noise was a fan we had at the end of the bed that the bearings had failed in and the fan had simply gone nuts when the motor went bad. That blob was a phenomenon caused by my suddenly waking up in a hurry and looking as hard as I could into a darkened door opening looking for a potential bad guy. Thankfully,I never let a 357 158 grnr fly into the open doorway that night. It was a sobering thing to have happen and it taught me to indeed wait until my eyes adjusted to the light before I ever engaged my weapon again. My wife likes to talk about the night I almost shot the fan in our bedroom but I like to think of the night that I did'nt discharge my weapon until I knew there was a reason. I am telling you this story so that you might try yourself at night-suddenly opening your eyes and see if you see the same dark blob I saw. It's a optical illusion you need to know about when dealing with light changes and eyes trying to adjust to that. And train yourself accordingly to not engage until you can truly see what is in front of you.

January 23, 2012, 10:51 PM	#3
BlackFeather Senior Member Join Date: May 12, 2009 Location: West Coast Posts: 450	A good reason for a flashlight. In my martial arts studies we did a fair bit of night "scouting" and fighting. The most important part of seeing in the dark is NOT staring directly at the "object", but to the side. Keeping the object in the middle use the "clock" to watch outside the center, moving from point to point in a circle. It takes practice, and I don't expect many people besides pilots and "Ninja" to do it. Rant over, just felt I should mention it. __________________ "Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men." - Miyamoto Musashi [Insert random irrelevant religious quote here]

January 23, 2012, 11:21 PM	#4
Dabull Senior Member Join Date: February 15, 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 380	This might not pass a doctors muster, but it's pretty close: The blob was an artifact of your night vision. Your retinas have rods and cones on their surface that allow you to see. Cones are for "day vision" as they are activated by light and allow you to see fine detail and color. Cones are predominately located in the center of your retina, so under day vision conditions, you can see with great detail what you are looking directly at. In the absence of light, your rods take over, but they see mostly black and white and less detail. Because rods are located on the periphery of your retina, you see "best" in the dark when you don't look directly at what you are trying to look at. Since this is so annoying, the best night vision technique is to move your eyes back and forth or around the thing you are trying to look at. Your brain will fill in the details and allow you to see the object as if you were looking directly at it. It will still be largely black and white and fuzzy, but at least you won't see a black hole (or blob) where your cones are failing you. __________________ "Its better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it." -- Clarence Worley in True Romance

January 24, 2012, 08:58 AM	#6
Willie Lowman Senior Member Join Date: March 5, 2009 Location: Uh-Hi-O Posts: 3,006	Thank you for that one, Rusty. Made my morning. __________________ "9mm has a very long history of being a pointy little bullet moving quickly" --Sevens

January 24, 2012, 10:32 AM	#8
Dwight55 Senior Member Join Date: June 18, 2004 Location: Central Ohio Posts: 2,568	Thanks, Rusty35, . . . my wife was equally impressed on night as I listened to someone removing the cover from my motorcycle so he could steal it. Went out the back door in a rush, . . . my trusty .38 detective special in my hand, . . . came all too close to shooting the part of the cover that had come loose and was flapping in the breeze. She hasn't brought it up in a while, . . . and I have been content to do likewise. May God bless, Dwight __________________ www.dwightsgunleather.com If you can breathe, . . . thank God! If you can read, . . . thank a teacher! If you are reading this in English, . . . thank a Veteran!

January 23, 2012, 10:39 PM	#2
AK103K Senior Member Join Date: May 1, 2001 Posts: 10,223	I dont engage the blob until the dogs get done with it, cause thats likely all thats going to be left by the time I get there.

January 24, 2012, 08:09 AM	#5
Rusty35 Senior Member Join Date: August 25, 2011 Posts: 140	I had a similar experience with a fan. We had a pedestal fan about 4 1/2 foot tall setting about 3 feet from the foot of the bed. I woke one night for some unknown reason and saw that fan when my eyes first opened. I finally awoke fully to a strange thumping sound and my wife yelling "HONEY DON'T KILL IT" I had tackled the fan and was in the closet floor choking it to death. The strange thumping sound was my fingers pushed through the wire cage and the plastic blade still turning.

January 24, 2012, 11:13 AM	#9
nmg Member Join Date: June 28, 2007 Posts: 25	That's why I'm hesitant to have a gun in arm's reach of my bed. It usually takes me a few moments to transition from dream to reality when woken.

January 24, 2012, 02:44 PM	#11
MarineCorpsAT Member Join Date: October 4, 2007 Posts: 81	Never attempted to kill the fan at night but did come face to face with a deer looking in the bedroom window, I still do not know what stopped me from emptying a full magazine into that thing.. I scared the crap out of bothmy wife and I.

January 24, 2012, 02:46 PM	#12
papa shooter Member Join Date: August 20, 2007 Location: South Mississippi Posts: 66	alarm It was 0300 for me when the house alarm went off. Oh what a thrill it was. My son was communicating to me as he came down stairs and I came from the master bedroom across the house. At that time the alarm panel was located in the kitchen. A frightfully log way when you hear the alarm. Anyway as I made it to see what set the thing off my son thought he saw something move on the back porch. By the way it was set off by the back door being pulled on. There was wet foot prints coming and going on the sidewalk leading to the door. He went looking into the night for a boogie man but I new whoever it was, was long gone from there. Now there is a second control in my bedroom so I know instantly what has set the alarm off. There is also a nice new Remington 12 gauge pump sitting by the bed. papa.

January 24, 2012, 06:16 PM	#13
Stevie-Ray Senior Member Join Date: May 22, 2007 Location: The shores of Lake Huron Posts: 4,783	I had one dream that was a violent nightmare, some particular creature was after me and I started myself awake. I could clearly see my room all around me, yet the creature was still coming. As it reached me, it slowly dissolved into nothing. I sat awake for a half-hour wondering why my dream and reality had seemingly melded with each other, something that has never happened before then or since. About twenty years ago. __________________ Stevie-Ray Join the NRA/ILA I am the weapon; my gun is a tool. It's regrettable that with some people those descriptors are reversed.

January 24, 2012, 06:21 PM	#14
hikingman Senior Member Join Date: August 8, 2004 Location: Alabama Posts: 301	The OP made a good point! You can talk about the dogs, or the flashlights if you want. Not every person is going to have a flashlight within reach (a flashlight can drop on the floor-out of reach), reliable dogs with teeth are not going to be living under every roof. Let's be a bit more realistic concerning this topic, and discuss life outside your perfect world. __________________ NRA Life Member

January 24, 2012, 08:00 PM	#16
briandg Senior Member Join Date: May 4, 2010 Posts: 5,468	the idea of using the peripery of vision at night is something I've used since I was a child. It would behoove everyone here to learn how to do it in night driving, as I do. cast your eyes off 20 degrees as an oncoming car is in your eyes, and you will not have any problems with headlights. The trick is to keep that intense beam of light off of the center of the retina, as was already stated.

January 25, 2012, 06:38 PM	#17
ltc444 Senior Member Join Date: March 3, 2011 Location: Vernon AZ Posts: 1,195	One of the benefits of being color blind is excellent night vision. Failing to have that a night light in the hallway, the kind my mother used when we were kids, would have backlit the area and eliminated the Blob. You have experienced what Skeeter Skelton desfined as a miss in his book on misses.

January 26, 2012, 08:29 AM	#19
Skans Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2008 Posts: 11,132	If no one other than me and my wife were residing in the house, I would have fired off a couple rounds at the big black blob and asked questions later.

January 26, 2012, 10:58 AM	#20
larzb93 Member Join Date: December 20, 2011 Location: North Western PA Posts: 53	a good something to keep in the back of my mind... thanks

January 28, 2012, 08:30 AM	#22
jjyergler Senior Member Join Date: July 31, 2008 Posts: 295	Early one morning, I was staying over at a friend's apartment. I was sleeping in his living room, he was in his bedroom. There was a loud crash and glass breaking from his other bedroom. He came through with his .45, I grabbed my .357. In the bedroom, he was barking commands at the silhouette in the window. The man in the window didn't move. I flipped on the lights, and we both collapsed laughing. We had drawn a bead on George Bush. You know, one of those life size cardboard cutouts that people take pictures with? At a party that weekend someone had brought one over. We put a cowboy hat and bandana on it. The crash was the garbage pickup that had hit the dumpster. Here we are, two guys in their underwear with pistols with "President Bush" well and truly covered. __________________ Remington Nylon 66 .22LR - Squirrels Beware Browning BAR Safari II .270 Win - Whitetails Beware Sig Sauer P229 .40 S+W - Burglars Beware Hi Standard Supermatic Citation .22LR - Tincans Beware

January 30, 2012, 05:05 PM	#23
markj Senior Member Join Date: October 27, 2005 Location: Crescent Iowa Posts: 2,971	The "perfect world" is one I made for myself to keep my family safe. To not take certain precautions is foolish to say the least. A gamble in other words. Simple to do, secure a house or apartment, to give you a early warning if someone tries to get into the place. Or not. It is everyones choice, to set the level of security.

February 2, 2012, 04:34 PM	#25
mo84 Senior Member Join Date: February 27, 2011 Location: Michigan Posts: 257	Sounds like you followed one of the many important firearm rules. "never fire unless you are sure of your target" This is just a great example as to why it was pounded into our heads at hunting safety class. I could never sleep with a gun right next to me, when I was a kid I would routinely sleep walk and have HORABLE night mares that played out while I walked around the house in a half daze. Once woken I could remember everything, was almost like I was in a trance. Sometimes I will sit up and be in a dream but I do not seem to walk anymore, just sit there talking, looking crazy to my wife lol There have been a few times I have woken in the night and checked my house out. Not haveing a irearm avaliable at the time I grabed the next best thing, a very large knife that is kept in my room.