soi.disantra
04-26-2006, 04:52 AM
October 25, 1991 - Philadelphia
I needed to get up a little bit earlier than usual that morning, as I had to pack my bags for a weekend trip I was taking to Richmond. So the night before, I set my alarm clock ahead 20 minutes. Instead of doing it the sensible way, changing the alarm time from 7:00 am to 6:40, which would have taken a bit longer, I simply set the time on the clock ahead 20 minutes. (Trust me, this is important to the story. Also, you should know that I'm a little obsessive when it comes to keeping my clocks and my wristwatch set accurately. I have TIM-1212 programmed into my telephone's speed dial.)
So the long and short of it: my clock was set 20 minutes ahead of my wristwatch. Well, that morning my alarm went off and I rose sleepily from bed. I'd been up quite late the night before reading a pop-science book about quantuum physics and had been excitedly speculating about its implications regarding time, causality, "objective" reality, etc. It seemed to be confirming my belief that "time" is perhaps a concept we impose on the world, not one which is inherently "there." A local, if not entirely subjective, phnomenon. I rose from bed, turned the alarm clock off, and stretched lazily. (The clock read 7:00; it was "really" 6:40.)
Just then I heard a noise from the other room of my apartment. A hollow, wooden striking, followed by the unmistakable sound of the 4 highest strings on my acoustic guitar ringing open. I was struck with fear. Was there someone in the other room? I lived alone. I had no dog or cat. An intruder? I stood still and listened. Still the notes of the guitar strings rang, fading now. I pushed the door open and peeked into the front room. Sunlight was beginning to stream in the windows. No one there. Door locked, windows shut tight. My acoustic guitar was lying in its open case on the floor in the middle of the room. There was nothing near it that could have caused the sound I'd heard. Weird. I shrugged it off, chalked it up to some kind of audio hallucination, and got in the shower.
After a nice long shower, I toweled myself off and began dressing. I'd forgotten all about the odd noise I'd heard. As I buckled my wristwatch, I walked into the front room to turn the radio on. My fingers fumbled with the buckle of my watch, and it slipped from my grasp as I crossed the room. The watch fell. It struck the soundboard of my guitar and the strap whipped lightly across the treble strings. A familiar noise! The exact same wooden thud and ringing sound I'd heard come from this room, earlier that morning. As I picked up my watch, the notes from the guitar strings still hanging in the air, I glanced at its face. My skin rose in goosebumps. The watch said it was 12 seconds past 7:00. That was exactly the time the clock in the other room had read when I heard the sound the first time. And I had inadvertently(?) created the noise, using a timepiece as the actuator.
I don't know what happened that morning, but I'm certain I didn't imagine it. It was actually a wonderful confirmation that the world is very strange, and that if there is a God, he likes to play jokes on us. I'm not sure if anyone else can understand what a weird experience for me...
Thanks for reading.
[ April 26, 2006, 05:53 AM: Message edited by: soi.disantra ]
I needed to get up a little bit earlier than usual that morning, as I had to pack my bags for a weekend trip I was taking to Richmond. So the night before, I set my alarm clock ahead 20 minutes. Instead of doing it the sensible way, changing the alarm time from 7:00 am to 6:40, which would have taken a bit longer, I simply set the time on the clock ahead 20 minutes. (Trust me, this is important to the story. Also, you should know that I'm a little obsessive when it comes to keeping my clocks and my wristwatch set accurately. I have TIM-1212 programmed into my telephone's speed dial.)
So the long and short of it: my clock was set 20 minutes ahead of my wristwatch. Well, that morning my alarm went off and I rose sleepily from bed. I'd been up quite late the night before reading a pop-science book about quantuum physics and had been excitedly speculating about its implications regarding time, causality, "objective" reality, etc. It seemed to be confirming my belief that "time" is perhaps a concept we impose on the world, not one which is inherently "there." A local, if not entirely subjective, phnomenon. I rose from bed, turned the alarm clock off, and stretched lazily. (The clock read 7:00; it was "really" 6:40.)
Just then I heard a noise from the other room of my apartment. A hollow, wooden striking, followed by the unmistakable sound of the 4 highest strings on my acoustic guitar ringing open. I was struck with fear. Was there someone in the other room? I lived alone. I had no dog or cat. An intruder? I stood still and listened. Still the notes of the guitar strings rang, fading now. I pushed the door open and peeked into the front room. Sunlight was beginning to stream in the windows. No one there. Door locked, windows shut tight. My acoustic guitar was lying in its open case on the floor in the middle of the room. There was nothing near it that could have caused the sound I'd heard. Weird. I shrugged it off, chalked it up to some kind of audio hallucination, and got in the shower.
After a nice long shower, I toweled myself off and began dressing. I'd forgotten all about the odd noise I'd heard. As I buckled my wristwatch, I walked into the front room to turn the radio on. My fingers fumbled with the buckle of my watch, and it slipped from my grasp as I crossed the room. The watch fell. It struck the soundboard of my guitar and the strap whipped lightly across the treble strings. A familiar noise! The exact same wooden thud and ringing sound I'd heard come from this room, earlier that morning. As I picked up my watch, the notes from the guitar strings still hanging in the air, I glanced at its face. My skin rose in goosebumps. The watch said it was 12 seconds past 7:00. That was exactly the time the clock in the other room had read when I heard the sound the first time. And I had inadvertently(?) created the noise, using a timepiece as the actuator.
I don't know what happened that morning, but I'm certain I didn't imagine it. It was actually a wonderful confirmation that the world is very strange, and that if there is a God, he likes to play jokes on us. I'm not sure if anyone else can understand what a weird experience for me...
Thanks for reading.
[ April 26, 2006, 05:53 AM: Message edited by: soi.disantra ]