I noticed this kind of sweet smell in the bedroom like a candle had been burning. But I brushed it off, maybe one of the kids had dumped a bottle of perfume on the rug. It could happen.

I turned my bedside light on. I turned it off. I turned it on again. Eventually, I turned it off and tried to go to sleep. But, the lamp was making this strange ticking sound.

I have to explain I love this lamp. It's this black and white circle square pattern straight out of the sixties. Literally. It was John's as a child, and when his parents moved out of their big house last year, I begged to have it. They very carefully packed it up and shipped it 3,000 miles. David, in his over enthusiastic attempts to crawl into bed with us, immediately broke it, but I refused to part with it crack and all.

So, it's ticking away and I'm fumbling with it in the dark trying to make the hard plastic shell of the frame stand up straight. I can't do it and I can't do it, and finally I turn on the overhead light and see I can't do it because the bulb has melted through the frame.

There's a bulb sized bulge in the frame as well as a hole and that sweet smell was fifty years of service to the home decor melting away. At least it didn't take the house with it.