My Path to Illumination

Phil

Master Satyr
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
6,508
A few nights ago, I woke in the wee hours of the night with a powerful thirst that could not wait until morning. I hate getting up in the middle of the night, especially when I have a good sleep going, but I opened my mouth and a tumbleweed actually rolled out onto my pillow. That’s how dry I was, so I pretty much had to get up.

Anyway, I rose from my warm comfortable bed growling and grumbling and groggy, and doing many other things that start with ‘gr’, and I headed for the kitchen for an ice cold bottle of water. Lately I’ve kept cases of bottled water in my fridge, due to a World Cup soccer practice mix-up that I won’t go into here. It’s just too gruesome. Suffice to say, the Mexican national team got many beers and had a very fun practice when they came to Houston, and I was left with several cases of water and a few cases of Powerade.

But as I stumbled out of my bedroom without turning on any lights, eyes half closed, I tried to watch where I was going, because I didn’t want to do one of those “pinky toe, meet the coffee table” things. You know, one of those minor bumps with a piece of furniture that nonetheless feels like your lower leg has been shoved into wood chipper. So I kept my admittedly blurred vision on the floorboards in front of me.

Well, when I came out of my bedroom and into the dark living room, I saw something unusual. The section of the floor that I crossed, from the bedroom to the living room, only takes about four steps, but as I walked on my way to get a drink that night, those four steps lit up! That’s right. Each time my foot touched the floor, the floor around my foot creaked a bit and lit up! Think the old Michael Jackson video for “Billy Jean”, where the sidewalk lights up with each of his steps. That’s what my apartment floor did.

In my half conscious state, I just let go an amused chuff, and continued to get my drink. Upon returning to bed, crossing the same section of floor, each of my three or four steps once more lit up. Another amused chuff, and I collapsed back into bed, ready to return to my pornographic dreams.

But as I was getting comfortable again, it dawned on me that I had just experienced something unusual --- twice. And though I thought it interesting, I was too tired to get up again and to try to explain what had happened. I was soon asleep.

When I got home last night, I remembered my trip to the refrigerator, and decided to try to figure out what had happened. So I drew the blinds in the living room, turned all the lights off, and traced the same path as before.

I laughed at what I discovered. The cause of my strange experience was anything but unusual, but I could see how a person might be fooled into thinking something paranormal was taking place.

Anyone want to venture a guess about the true nature of my path of illumination?
 
Cheap floorboards, bright lights downstairs?



Phosphorescent foot fungus?



Scattering of wintergreen lifesavers on floor creating piezoelectric sparks when you tread on them?


Neighbor with laser-scope rifle and a grudge?


Hypoxia?


The real reason behind admonitions of "don't drink the water", given that it may be Mexican water?
 
Cheap floorboards, each footstep creates a concave reflective surface focusing what little ambient light there is in the room on one spot.


Or...


Real reason for dehydration is half a case of tequila the previous night. nuff sed.
 
Mercutio said:
Cheap floorboards, each footstep creates a concave reflective surface focusing what little ambient light there is in the room on one spot. . . .
Damn it. You are too smart for your own good.

The blinds were drawn, but enough light from the streetlamp across the street made it into the house, and my weight was enough to depress the wood slightly in that section of floor --- which is directly across from the window --- to where the steps appeared to light up.

Sorry, Merc, but I have no prizes for you, but I will always marvel at your intelligence and your personal hygeine.
 
Phil said:
Damn it. You are too smart for your own good.

The blinds were drawn, but enough light from the streetlamp across the street made it into the house, and my weight was enough to depress the wood slightly in that section of floor --- which is directly across from the window --- to where the steps appeared to light up.

Sorry, Merc, but I have no prizes for you, but I will always marvel at your intelligence and your personal hygeine.
It's because you are at some considerable distance from me. The further away I am, the smarter I appear. Just ask Mrs. Merc and the kids--up close I am a complete idiot. And I stink.
 
I had a similar incident a few weeks ago but without the satisfying conclusion.

Every weekday morning I have an exact routine. I get up, go into the bathroom, take a shower, exit the shower to brush my teeth, then move back into the bedroom to get my clothes from the closet. I do this every single workday.

A few weeks ago, I had just finished brushing my teeth and returned to the bedroom. To my great surprise, the closet door was standing open and the light was on. I had no memory of opening the closet and turning on the light and it was outside of my usual routine. I woke my wife up (!) and she said she didn't do it. Both kids were asleep as well. I considered that I may have left the closet open and the light on all night, but as I sleep my face is pointed towards the closet so certainly I would have noticed.

If I were not a critical thinker, I can imagine I would have attributed the event to a ghost or some other supernatural event. As it is, ruling out all other people as the culprit, I must conclude that I returned to the bedroom and opened the closet before brushing my teeth. I have no memory of doing it, but given the earliness of the hour, I guess that's not too hard to believe. Still, it was a very weird experience.
 
I had a strange experience last night that took me a while to figure out.

I often go out in my back yard at night after all the house lights are off just to look at the stars. Last night, as I was attempting to stargaze between the holes in the clouds I became aware of a ghostly, dim, purplish glow deep in the bush behind my house. It was so dim that I couldn't quite see it unless I used averted vision. Walking from side to side I could get a rough idea of how far in the bush it was - about 40 or 50 feet. I thought it must be a reflection off something hanging on a tree although it was not in the path of a streetlight and it didn't seem to change as I moved around except to "flicker" behind branches.

When the moon went behind a cloud and the light didn't change I decided it had to be something that emitted its own light so I made my way down the little trail to investigate. When I got within about 10 feet I saw what it was. It was a mosquito trap.

My son's summer job is to collect data for the local health unit as part of their West Nile Virus study. He collects dead crows, ravens & blue jays, dips storm drains and ditches and sets mosquito traps. He never mentioned he was setting one in our bush. It was a battery powered device that has a small "black light" tube and a hunk of dry ice to attract mosquitoes and small fan to suck them into a trap when they approach.

Case closed.
 

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