Shades of Grey

The mind plays tricks, especially mine. Things we see every day we tune out, or make incorrect assumptions about.

Example one: A while back, one of our kitchen eyeball downlighters collapsed and hung from its cable forlornly ((previously blogged about)). The plastic spring clip that held it in-situ had gone brittle with age and deceded to fracture. On replacing it, I took the opportunity to get a slightly bigger style of fitting as the type of lamp we now used was a little too big for it.

Last week another one collapsed in the same manner. This shocked me somewhat as I thought the problem had been resolved. The thing is, though, I was convinced that I had replaced all three, but in fact had only replaced one and thought it would would be a good idea to replace all three, not the same thing at all.

Example two; My workplace is full of art, some of it excellent, others less so. On our main staircase, up near the top of the building, there is a very large painting (about 8′ x 6′ wide) which features a woman in profile. For several years now, I have glanced at it, thinking what a shame that it was damaged. On the woman’s neck, there was a square of canvas that didn’t match the skin tone correctly, presumably there to repair a cut in the picture.

Yesterday, I was going down the stairs with someone else and he commented what a striking painting it was. I said indeed, but a shame about the repair patch. He stared at it for a few seconds, then said “It’s an earring”. I looked- and suddenly I saw that it was an earring as well.

Example three; I put my phone on charge the other night, when Karen was late back. In the morning, I rescued it from the charger, impressed that i had remembered it. (Sometimes I leave it at home if it isn’t next to my wallet and loose change).

Later that day, I received a stern phone call from BloggerWife. “How many phones do you have?” I checked my pocket- I had two phones! When she got in late, she put her phone on charge, returning mine to where I leave my wallet and loose change. The fact that i had already put a phone in my pocket was tuned out as banal nomality and finding the other one on charge didn’t ring the littel bell. (Well, maybe it did, but not much).

No wonder I think that A & B are the same shade.

(Graphics from Wikipedia optical illusions entry)