A Dream on a Cold Winter Night

17° below zero out last night, and as I lay warm beneath two heavy wool blankets, I had a dream...

I bid the others farewell. We were standing in something like a high school cafeteria. I would see them again later. Now I turned and walked off down a long hallway, with tiled floor.

As I walked down the hall, I came to some tables set off along one side. These tables were piled with all sorts of junk, which was being given away for free, otherwise it would be thrown out. I stopped to inspect.


On one table I found some large plastic trays full of slide rules. I checked them out. There were some Chinese slide rules, marked with curious characters in Chinese. There were some circular slide rules. There were even some circular Chinese slide rules.

I was thinking of how many of these slide rules I could add to my slide rule collection at home. But I didn't want to seem greedy, so I only picked out two slide rules to take with me. I also found a deck of playing cards from China, with a back design something like Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.


Then I walked off down the hall. But before I had gone far, I decided to go back. I went back and started picking out more slide rules, one of every different design. People were walking by down the hall, seeing me standing there by the tables, the glutton for slide rules. I didn't care. If I didn't take these slide rules, they would only be thrown out anyway.

And then I woke up.