Dream of: 29 November 2003 "Alzheimer's"
I was telling Carolina about an idea I had: starting up several small businesses. Running several small businesses at the same time would be more interesting than simply running one business. I might start with a used car lot, with no more than 10 cars. I might also run a small book store. I already had some experience with a book store because I had been working in one for someone else for a while. Even now I was sitting behind a desk at the front of the book store, looking around at the aisles of books. Quite a few people were browsing in the aisles. At the farthest aisle against the wall several young men were stacking up books on shelves which had been brought into the store.
If I ran my own store I would have to deal with many problems. I would need to find a source of books. Maybe I could trade one book for two books. Maybe I could even find a book store which was already set up and buy it. I would also have unpleasant tasks, such as detecting shoplifters. I would have to set up some kind of system to detect them.
A woman walked up to the desk with some books she wanted to buy. She had brownish-blonde hair, was probably about 30 years old and quite attractive. She laid three thin hard-back books on the table and one thick hard-backed book. I picked up the thick book; it was titled Black. She spoke how she needed the book for a class she was taking. I didn't pay much attention to her because I was busy looking for the price. Finally I found the price, $7.00, written in pencil on the inside cover.
I laid the book aside and looked at the thin books. They all had the same price, a dollar something. I pulled out pen and paper, wrote down the number and multiplied it by three. My calculations, however, became quite convoluted – so much that I couldn't seem to reach the answer. The woman was looking at me; I told her I should have a calculator. Finally I simply approximated the answer in my head. She handed me a $10 bill and I gave her the change. She turned and walked out the door. I felt like saying something to her to show her I was interested in her, maybe even asking her out; but I didn't.
After she had left, I realized I might have made a mistake and charged her 15 cents less on each book than I should have, for a total of 45 cents. This realization bothered me. Was I losing my ability to use mathematics? Maybe I had Alzheimer's. My mind didn't seem to be functioning as well lately. I felt foggy and hazy. Maybe this was the beginning of the onset of the disease.
Copyright 2005 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
