Disappearing People

 

Disappearing People and Disappearing Things happen more often than we like to think about, and more often than we probably notice. Our brain only processes things that are important to us. Where to place our foot for the next stair step, a dog approaching, and so on.

People suddenly disappearing has happened to me over the years, usually walking in the city or in neighborhoods. Once when I was in England on an old country road, it happened in the middle of a large mustard field.

I was driving on a class C road, which was sunken about eight feet into the earth as these small roads sometimes are in that part of the country. 

A middle aged woman in a dark dress, bonnet and shoes  was peddling along on her bicycle with grocery bags in her back basket about thirty yards in front of me. Class C roads are too narrow to safely pass on. I was in no hurry, so I followed along behind her. We were going up a slight hill. 

She crested the peak of the hill, went over and out of sight. I crested the hill - and she was gone! I'm driving in the middle of a mustard field with the banks of the field  six to eight feet above me on each side of the road, and she has disappears! I stop and look around and there was nowhere for her to have gone to. She, her groceries, and bicycle vaporized into thin air.

A few months back, I exited a building and was walking down a curving cement walkway on a small hillside to the parking lot across the street. There was a hard right turn about the halfway down the hill, like a mountain trail switchback. The switchback was about about forty feet away from the street.

An older man dressed like a farmer was walking about twelve feet was walking in front of me. He had grey hair, wore a feed store baseball cap, worn jean jacket, tired, baggy jeans, and old brown work boots. I followed him for about for about fifteen seconds with both of us walking at the same speed. I walking slower than normal to keep a distance between us of about fifteen feet or so (COVID).

He walked like he had or maybe still milked cows. You need to be around farmers who own a small farm with milk cows to understand how they walk. They almost walk like Post-Men of old who carried heavy mail bags of mail on one shoulder as they walked the sidewalk of their route. Sort of a bowlegged hobble-walk.

The old farmer turned at the downhill right turn of the sidewalk switchback, and continued walking out of my line of sight. I was still maybe ten steps behind him. The switchback was such, that we never made eye contact and I never saw his face, nor he my face.

I made the turn, and he was gone! The Old Farmer had disappeared into thin air! The closest hiding spot were moving cars over forty feet away on the road. Him hiding is a silly idea, but the only obvious  explanation. Yet, disappeared he was! As I walked on, he was gone and not hiding.

Another time walking across the sidewalk of a town square, two teenage girls were walking towards me and suddenly transformed into gaunt starving werewolves. They walked about four steps and then vanished in mid stride from the sidewalk! One Mom almost ripped her daughter's arm off pulling her back from the apparitions. Other people walking behind them also saw them and saw them disappear. We asked each other for conformation of what we saw, and we all saw the same thing, though no one was sure exactly what those 'things' were.

I rarely notice 'things' that may appear and then disappear. There may be things popping out from nowhere and other things disappearing, but my brain decides they are not important.

Sometimes driving on rural roads, it seems cars appear and vanish in a totally random manner. Imagine  have been driving along with a blue car following you for the last twenty minutes on a rural highway. Suddenly it is not there, even though there was no road for it to turn off on. These things and other events seem to happen and usually we are not even aware of them happening. 

I am sure almost everyone has had these experiences, though we never talk about them. I first experienced this happening as a kid. Back then I thought it was normal. As I grow older I realize if it is normal, it is secret normal.

Surreal Choice, Real Life Decision

I was five years old, going down the stairs, then out the door to meet my friends when she appeared. If I had known the word, I would have called her an apparition or illusion. How can a very tall woman, stand in the door, above the door and in the wall, and make it look normal?

I immediately knew who she was, yet I did not know who she was. She was dressed in a brown pants suit with thin, vertical, darker brown stripes and a brown hat. She had brown hair and kind of a housewife appearance, though I knew she was not a housewife. She was not someone to trifle with, if for no other reason than her sudden appearance scaring the heck out of me. To this day I do not remember her eye color or if she wore nail polish or not. She did have a purse of brown leather and brown shoes.

Her voice was stern. "Well", she said, "are you going to do it or not?" As I did not have a thought in my head other than finding some friends outside to play with, it was not obvious to my child’s mind what her question meant. I did know by the tone of her voice, that this was a very serious question and my answer should be carefully thought over.

She repeated, "Are you going to do it?" It was the most awkward thing, trying to come up with an answer when there is only fog surrounding the question and a blank for an answer. I found myself thinking back to an earlier time, before I was here, before I was born.

I was an adult somewhere standing around with a few other people,  talking about what was next for all of us. I declared I was going to create a technology that would change the world in unimaginable ways. It would be the greatest gift for mankind ever known. Someone asked if I was sure. Of course I am sure. Now, I am here in this world, a child being asked if I am sure?

I was barely enough to know that two and two equals four, and here I was being asked a question I didn't really understand. It wasn't even a thought until this moment when she asked her question. Me standing on the third stair from the floor, my descent blocked by this woman who simply appeared and blocked the way.

I knew I had to give her an answer and what ever answer I gave her was binding. In this moment I had a choice. After my answer, there would no longer be a choice. It took no more than a few seconds, but took decision making to a level that was beyond abstract for a child's mind, to put it simply.

"No", I said, "I am not going to do it."

I arrived at this answer by thinking of everything I knew about modern technology and what we (mankind) has done with it. Everything firstly had been used for the destruction of other Humans in one way or another. I was not going to be part of a perpetual world killing machine.

She stared down at me, and asked if I was sure. "No, I am not going to do it." "Very well, your life plan is erased." In an instant she was gone.

More than six decades later, I can still visualize the scene. This giant Woman standing where it was impossible to stand. Blocking my exit and demanding an answer to a question that had no meaning until that moment, when a before being born memory came flooding in from a place I could not remember being at, talking about something I did not until that moment remember.

My decision on that spring morning changed my life in ways lives are rarely changed. My life path was erased. My only direction my life was the direction I applied it to each day. It was akin to a sail boat with no rudder. I listened to other kids tell me what they were going to be when they grew up. I felt as if I only had two vague choices for my life, do good or do something else.

Now I am still at peace with my decision. I could not have lived with the guilt and horror I may have brought to this world, and the people that would have died as a result of my trying to do improve the world.

Surreal as it seems, this was an event that fashioned my life in ways I never could have imagined. I have the freedom to follow whatever life direction, randomness and chance send my way. Mine has been a difficult, frustrating yet liberating life. Made possible, by an event that perhaps did not exist.

Striped Bed Sheets Save You Time

Colorful flower patterned sheets can really brighten up a bedroom. Flower patterns and solid colors reign when it comes to sheet patterns. For me, I prefer to spend as little time changing sheets and making the bed as possible. I use sheets having a striped pattern.

A striped pattern makes putting fresh sheets on the bed really simple. Stripes either go vertical or horizontal, so either way it is easy to align the fitted sheet and top sheet to the mattress. No thinking, no putting, pulling up and turning ninety degrees because you were not paying attention to the little tag, if you are lucky enough to have one to tell the long side from the short side.

Putting sheets on a bed is not a time consuming project. Putting striped on takes little or no thought about which way they fit the bed, and saves a minute to two each time the bed is made and the sheets are changed. In this day and age when many of us are going without sleep to squeeze in a few more minutes, saving a few minutes a day is saving a lot. 

Add all those saved minutes up over a year, add in the lack of frustration over having to pull up, rotate, and pull the sheet [again] down over the box spring, striped sheets make changing sheets a painless task.

During non sleep hours, no one I know goes into their bedroom to admire their sheets. When the lights are out, your sheets could be the most garish colors you can imagine, and it doesn't matter, you do not see them. Consider for the most part, you and perhaps one other person see your sheets, and then for only a few minutes, so why not stripes?

For those few minutes in between, considering the time and frustration of patterned sheets, stripes make sense. Broad stripes, pin stripes, multicolored stripes. The idea is to make one little task a little faster and simpler. Save those beautiful sheets for when company is coming. Too bad all tasks can not be so easily simplified.

For the curious, the sheets in the picture are, "breathable microfiber". The most comfortable sheets I have found to date, and the price is reasonable too.

Time Change Improved

 It's day something of the Day Light Savings time change. Does the time change make you feel good? Will you feel good by the end of the day or does it feel like you are working late? Do you feel off already, and you know it is only going to get worse until the time changes back again?

Twice a year we have dead horse discussions about daylight savings time. We talk around the idea of should we have daylight savings time or not. Some people are all for changing to the spring time setting. Others for the fall back time. A smaller third group is happy with the way things are.

It is obvious the way we manage the time swings right now is not working well for most people. When we fall back in the fall, I for one spend weeks adjusting. Then waking up at four in the morning in the Spring when we spring back.

As I was listened to yet another podcast about time change issues, I had a flash of insight! Why do we need to pick either one hour this way or one hour that way? What is wrong with making a change we will most benefit from? We simply fall back one-half hour in the fall, and spring forward one-half hour in the spring.

Changing one-half hour every six months, or changing the time one-half hour and leaving time change alone for the foreseeable future is reasonable. This time flipping is too hard on too many people.

There is of course the problem with the rest of the world, trying to figure out the time in the United States is on, but in the digital age, when business runs twenty-four hours a day, it really does not matter if our time is 30 or 60 minutes different because of the time zone differences. The world already adjusts to our twice a year time flops.

Of course, it is possible that the seventy countries who do observe daylight savings time, could follow our lead, and change their time by thirty minutes also. The countries who do not follow any time change pattern may also decide changing their national time by thirty minutes is a good idea for them too.

Time change is archaic and doesn't make sense in the 2000's. It was signed into law in 1966, when it felt right. In the 56 years hence, it doesn't feel all that good to most of America, and probably a large portion of the world. Let us make a time compromise by applying the Nash equilibrium to cure a nation wide time problem.