Last night I was working as a quality control inspector in a factory that makes moulded rubber parts for the automotive industry. I needed to find the temperature sticks to check the temperature of the moulds. There should have been a set of six colour-coded sticks which I could rub on the mould and the mark that melted would tell the temperature of the mould. They went from 150° to 166° C in steps of approximately 3°. I could only find three sticks, and they weren’t the ones I really needed.

There was a form I needed to record information on the parts from each mould. I couldn’t find them. There was another multi part form that was needed for traceability, where I would record the batch number of the rubber compound and metal parts being used, plus date, time, press number and operator. I couldn’t find those either.

I needed a durometer, a little tool to test the hardness of the moulded rubber. I couldn’t find it. I was given something that needed to go into my locker. I couldn’t find that, either.

I began to wonder when I had last received a pay cheque. Had I even punched the time clock when I came in? About that time I drifted to a semi-conscious state and realized the reason I was wandering about the factory floor like a ghost or a zombie was that it was all a dream. It has been thirty years since I last worked in that place, yet it shows up regularly in my dreams.

Another recurring dream that I had when I was 50 or 60 years younger was that I was walking to school and was about half way there when I looked down and saw I was still wearing my pyjamas.

None of the things that keep coming up in these dreams ever happened in real life. But I do have a vivid imagination that spends far too much time thinking of things that might go wrong. The things that actually have gone wrong in my life were always unanticipated and never seemed worthy of a dream after they happened. Is my subconscious trying to find some rest for my imagination?