When my neighbor wouldn’t turn off his bright floodlights at night, my husband and I needed a clever solution to keep the peace.
When the Thompsons moved in next door, they seemed friendly. My wife, Gia, and Susan, the neighbor, quickly bonded while chatting over unpacked boxes. We thought we finally had some neighbors our age to socialize with. Mark, the husband, was often away for work, while Susan stayed home and had a long list of phobias, including fear of the dark, thunderstorms, snakes, clowns, and spiders.
As time passed, Susan’s fear of the dark created an issue that affected Gia and me. Their floodlights, installed soon after they moved in, were excessively bright, like those outside prisons. Gia joked that they could probably be seen from space.
Despite our attempts to address the issue, Susan insisted she needed the lights on for safety when Mark was away. We tried thick curtains and rearranging our bedroom, but nothing helped. After a week of sleepless nights, I approached Susan, asking her to turn off the floodlights after midnight, as they shined directly into our bedroom. She explained her need for safety and refused my suggestion to install a timer.
After several attempts to reason with her and Mark, who felt similarly protective of Susan, we continued to lose sleep. Frustrated, I considered drastic measures, like unscrewing the bulbs or using a pellet gun, but Gia reminded me to stay calm. Instead, she suggested a harmless plan while she and Susan went out for nails.
The next day, I climbed a ladder and slightly unscrewed each bulb to disrupt the connection. That night, when Susan turned on the lights, they flickered and went out. Gia and I finally enjoyed peaceful sleep. Surprisingly, days turned into weeks, and the lights stayed off.
However, one day, I saw Mark fixing the bulbs again. The floodlights blazed back to life that night, and I knew I had to repeat my trick. This cycle continued for months—every time Mark tightened the bulbs, I loosened them.
Then one Saturday, as I trimmed the hedges, Mark approached me. He mentioned his floodlights kept going out, and I managed to keep a straight face while agreeing it might be due to vibrations from the street. I suggested he could leave them off, and he seemed to consider it. After that conversation, Gia and I enjoyed our peaceful, dark evenings once again.
The Tragic Reason Why One Man Actually Turned Blue Forever
The world’s most famous blue man, Paul Karason, also dubbed Papa Smurf, was born as a fair-skinned, freckled boy with ginger hair. In the 2000s, he became an internet sensation and made many TV appearances, openly talking about his condition. Let’s find out together why Karason turned blue and how he became a cautionary tale.
Paul Karason had a skin condition that made his skin flake, as well as acid reflux and arthritis. Doing his own research in order to improve these ailments, he found out about a solution of silver in water, also known as colloidal silver.
Colloidal silver was widely used as an antibiotic back before penicillin was invented in the 1930s. It was banned in 1999 in over-the-counter medications after scientists found that it can severely damage internal organs.
The late Paul Karason and his wife, Joanne
Karason drank what he believed was a miracle cure for over 10 years. Moreover, he even began to apply a silver preparation directly to his skin; he claimed his acid reflux and arthritis just went away. “I had arthritis in my shoulders so bad I couldn’t pull a T-shirt off. And the next thing I knew, it was just gone,” he shared.
Due to the silver accumulation in his skin, he started to turn blue and suffered from a permanent and rare condition called argyria. Only when Karason met an old friend who asked him, “What have you done to yourself?” did he begin to realize he’d become blue.
Karason claimed his blue skin had many advantages — he never got sunburns or had to wear sunglasses. There were some side effects he did not appreciate, however, such as folks “being less than polite” to him. Moreover, Karason confessed he couldn’t get a job because of employers’ resistance to hiring “people that are blue or that are noticeably different.”
Sadly, Paul Karason passed away in 2013 when he was 62 years old due to heart complications.
Papa Smurf’s story serves as a valuable lesson about the importance of being careful when it comes to at-home remedies. While it’s natural to want to find easy solutions to health problems, it’s important to be aware that such remedies can sometimes pose serious risks. It’s always better to consult a doctor and follow their advice for a safe and effective treatment.
Preview photo credit Inside Edition / YouTube
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