Dream: Something Here Ain’t Quite Right…

Something Here Just Ain't Quite Right...

Introduction:

Everybody dreams. Have you ever tried to write down accounts of your dreams? There was a time when I conducted a little “experiment of the mind”, where I would make it a point to try to write down what I could remember of the dreams that I had, shortly after awakening, while the memories were still fresh in my mind. After a while, I accumulated a number of written accounts of the dreams I had.

This is an account of a dream I had on the night of November 24, 2009:

The Dream:

Something Here Just Ain’t Quite Right…

In this dream, there was a watch repairman or salesman visiting our house, and showing my mother a watch. As is often the case, my mother wanted me to be present while the salesperson made their presentation. I believe the watch salesman had opened up the watch to show the inner mechanisms of it, and there was something about it that somehow did not seem right to me. There was what appeared to be a band of brassy metal that had been installed in it, maybe as a repair or modification, and it just seemed a bit out of place, or something. It seemed to be a little tarnished, not shiny and clean as you would expect to find in a supposedly delicate mechanism such as a watch. It also seemed to be a little large compared to the gears and parts of the watch mechanism. There was also a similar piece of metal wrapped around part of the wristband of the watch. Somehow, something about these just seemed to be “out of context”. But the watch salesman seemed to be trying to assure my mother that it was OK, that it was part of the workmanship…

I was skeptical, and said that he as a salesman was of course trying to promote his goods. I may or may not have had a tinge of sarcasm in my voice when I said that. That may not have sat well with him, and he began to make what seemed to be catty kinds of remarks. I asked who was he doing this for, and he said “For you!” with just a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. The others in the room who were listening to him may or may not have caught that.
It did make me wonder whether I had been a little too “blunt”, or if the suspicion I had was reasonable, and I had to show a skepticism…

I don’t know if I woke up from the dream at that point, but that is all that I seem to be able to remember of it.

NOTES: Following is an account of an incident which actually occurred in real life. The account of the dream sort of reminds me of it. I have left out the names of those involved:

On reading the above, I am reminded of the time I bought a scanner on clearance from a computer store as they were preparing to start closing the store down.  There was supposedly just one left of the advertised model that I wanted, but the box looked a bit like it may have been “crushed just a little” on one end.  This made me feel a little suspicious, so I asked a sales person on the store floor if there might have been any more of the item, perhaps in the store warehouse; but I was told that there were no more of those units in storage. I then asked the salesperson about returns or exchanges in the event of a damaged item, and he told me that they were permitted under those circumstances, but otherwise, it was understood that all sales were final. Then I asked some store employees, in the presence of the manager, to open the box. They opened the box “a little bit”, and there was a little bit of crushed styrofoam packing on one end. The worker who had opened the box said “Oh, that’s just crushed styrofoam” in a bit of an impatient manner. The part of the device that was visible seemed OK. There was not much space in that crowded store to pull the whole device completely out of its packing to inspect it, and feeling just a bit under pressure, I decided to take a chance and get it. “All sales final”, they said – but I had in mind what the floor salesman had supposedly assured me of…

When I got it home, and pulled the entire unit out of the box, I was shocked to find that a glass part of the unit, which had not been visible on the partial inspection, was cracked! When I called the store and told them about it, and also how their floor salesman had assured me of exchanges for damaged units, they said that all sales were final, even for damaged units! Although I was tempted to start arguing my point, I politely ended the call, and set out to “do my homework on the matter”, just in case the situation got sticky.

I called a state agency regarding the matter, and they said that they would mail some complaint forms to be filled out, if such an action became necessary. I was really hoping that I would not end up actually having to use them. The next day, I anonymously called the store and asked if they had the same kind of scanner that I had purchased in stock at that time, and they said that they did. (I think I would be reasonable to say that this contradicted what the salesperson in the store had told me just the day before.) So I packed up the damaged scanner and took it to the store. I asked to see the manager regarding the unit, and the security guard directed me to the customer service, but said that I would end up being disappointed, as all sales were supposed to be final, period. I showed the unit to the personnel at the desk, saying that just the day before, one of their salesmen had assured me of an exchange in the event of a damaged unit, and he said “Yes, and I think I know who he was”, and he then took the unit to a back office to show his superiors. However, he did seem to express uncertainty as to what would be the actual outcome of this matter. Then he came back and told me to pick up a new unit. There were a couple of them on the shelves in the store. This time, I took the time and trouble to open the entire box up completely, and pull the entire unit out of all its packing, and look it over very carefully in a rather crowded store with little space to do such a thing, as I did not want to come away disappointed again. This time, the unit was in good condition. And it has since then served me very well. (As a matter of fact, many of the images that you see in this website are scans of my artwork, taken from that scanner!)

Something Here Just Ain't Quite Right...

NOTES ON THE POSSIBLE “MEANING” OF THE DREAM: So, what does this show? Are there times when you have to risk looking just a little bit “obnoxious” in standing up for your rights? Where’s the balance? If a salesperson or store employee shows resistance or impatience, or gives out “negative vibes”, would that serve as a caution flag for something?

The account of the dream somehow reminds me of the real life experience. Now, the real life experience actually occurred close to a couple of years before I had that dream, but I can’t help but feel tempted to think that there is a kind of “moral” to the story in the dream, which could be applicable in real life contexts, such as the one referred to above.

I do not usually take dreams too literally or seriously, but every once in a while, I have dreams which cause me to sort of pause and think about them for a while, and this was one of them…

Something Here Just Ain't Quite Right...

Something Here Just Ain't Quite Right...