2002-09-23 - 10:34 p.m.
I think I just had an encounter with the other 90 percent of my brain. I always wondered what went on up there. Or, I don't know, maybe it was something even stranger than that. Here is what happened:
My son Cary is working on remodeling a house, as an income project. He has been working so hard, and seemed so tired when I saw him Saturday. He has a full time job, and then goes to the house when he gets off and works until 11:00 three nights a week and all weekend. When he asked me if he could borrow our benchtop table saw to eliminate some of the running back and forth with boards to rip, I was more than happy to lend it. Of course he has a big expensive manly table saw in his shop at home, but that wasn't doing him much good.
Sunday morning he came over and we carried out the little table saw on its stand and loaded it into his SUV. Not long after that we got a call from him. Where was the safety lock key that turns it on? I had almost forgotten about that feature. The saw has a little plastic switch "key" that can be removed to make the saw inoperable, just as a safety feature. Since there are no children in our household, the safety key has been in place on the switch since the day the saw was purchased. I had absolutely no idea.
Had it fallen off in the process of moving? Cary searched his vehicle, we searched the basement, steps, yard and street. Several times. No sign of the little yellow plastic key. I talked to Cary again and they had figured out how to make the saw work by jamming a nail into the switch, but it was awkward and inconvenient. He was frustrated and I felt bad that the saw wasn't as much help to him as it could have been.
I was tired last night and fell into a sound sleep soon after going to bed. Then suddenly I was awakened in the middle of the night by what I can only describe as a FLASH OF LIGHT. And these words (heard?): "IT'S IN THE SHOP VAC." I knew immediately this was about the saw key. In the shop vac? Why? I pondered this strange revelation for a few minutes before going back to sleep.
Monday is trash day in our part of the world, so this morning I got up and started collecting our trash to take out to the curb. In the basement, I saw the shop vac and remembered my middle-of-the-night flash of inspiration. I had to check. I popped the top off the big canister and looked inside. Feeling rather sheepish, I gingerly poked around in the big pile of dirt and.....you guessed it......THERE IT WAS.
After finding it, I tried to reconstruct some scenarios as to how it got there. Maybe it got knocked off and vaccumed up with some sawdust. Or maybe the powerful shop vac sucked it right off the switch without my even noticing. In any case, I don't think the "regular" me would have ever thought of looking inside the vaccuum cleaner.
Whatever happened, what freeks me out is: what part of my brain knew where it was....or was busy thinking of obscure possibilities while I was sleeping? And why did it wake me up with the answer? Or was it some kind of psychic moment? If that is my 90 percent in action (the part of the brain they say we don't use), then I wish it would come forward a little more often. I wish it would direct me to my favorite gloves, and those two pairs of prescription glasses I have managed to lose.
I e-mailed Cary first thing this morning, and he was as amazed as I am. His idea was that maybe my subconscious mind registered an unusual "clink" in the vaccuum cleaner, even though I don't consciously remember it. And that might be even more amazing, because I haven't vaccuumed the basement since last Christmas vacation.
I have a whole new appreciation for the.... whatever it is.....that makes the human experience more than we expect it to be.
�
