Yellow

[simont]

Something that's come up in conversation a couple of times recently is my habit of looking out of the window shortly after I get out of bed. I don't feel quite comfortable until I've had a look at the world outside; but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for. There doesn't seem to be any specific thing I want to know when I pull back the hallway curtain and peer out.

It's at that point that I get my first idea of what the weather's like (unless it was audibly raining even before that), but I don't generally need to know that for another half hour or so, and don't feel any particular curiosity about it. So I don't think that's it.

It also grounds me in reality; if I've been having a weird and realistic dream set in some other world then it reminds me which of Cambridge and the dream-world is … well, I hesitate to say real because I probably look out of the window in some of those dreams too, but it tells me which world is the one I currently have to deal with. But although weird and immersive dreams set in other worlds are not unheard of in my dream-life, they're not common either, and my need to look out of the window isn't conditional on just having had one. So that doesn't seem like it either.

It also has the effect, I suppose, of reassuring me that the world outside still looks as I expect it to, that there's been no large and sudden change while I was asleep. Perhaps this is a natural consequence of having a brain that needs to be powered down for eight hours on a regular basis: I want to have some confidence that it didn't stay powered down for longer than that by accident.

But then, I thought, hang on a minute. What sort of large and sudden change might I be expecting or fearing? What sort of large and sudden change even makes sense?

And at this point an altogether more plausible answer occurred to me. As befits someone like me, I was of course raised on Hitch-Hiker's Guide from a very early age. So it's entirely possible that the true reason I feel a need to look out of my front window shortly after getting up is a subconscious desire to reassure myself of the absence of big yellow bulldozers.

I think, perhaps worryingly, that that answer is a lot more likely than any of the previous ones, or even all of them put together.

Comments

[deerfold.livejournal.com]

Rather more worryingly for me was I was thinking of bulldozers from your first sentence.

I don't have your problem as I take an active interest in local planning issues ("beware of the tiger" sign and all).

[simont]

Rather more worryingly for me was I was thinking of bulldozers from your first sentence.

The post title could have hinted it to you, perhaps? You might not need to be worried immediately...

Surely in reality they couldn't just drive a bulldozer on to your property and knock it down? They'd have to slap a compulsory purchase order on you in order to buy the land back, and then you'd be sure to know about it in advance because you'd have the money, the convenient accessibility of planning notices (or lack thereof) notwithstanding. The Hitch-Hiker opening scene is a masterpiece of comic fiction, no question about that, but it is fiction :-)

(I suppose as a renter there is conceivably the possibility that the landlord might have gone through all the compulsory-purchase paperwork and have forgotten to let the tenant know, but it doesn't seem likely; in reality I'd receive my n months' notice just like any other reason for terminating the tenancy.)

[simont]

Also, it was a leopard! :-)

[deerfold.livejournal.com]

I think that depends on which is your local planning office.

And how long it is since you last watched/listened.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

I tend to sleep with curtains open, so I can tell approximately what the weather's like by how light the room is when I wake up. :p

[simont]

All right for people who can sleep through a 5am sunrise in midsummer :-P

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

When I look out of the window in the morning, it's usually to check for the absence of delivery vans.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

I just want to see the sky really; find out waht sort of day it is. I don't really feel right unless I've been in touch with the great outdoors at least a little bit.

I can believe the bulldozers thing coming from you though :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

I like to immediately reassure myself that there hasn't been a zombie apocalypse during the night. I think that it's quite possible to sleep through Night of the Living Dead, and come in at Dawn of the Dead.