The Lamppost Oracle.

Every now and then you drive along and suddenly the streetlight above you dims. Immediately the animal part of your brain asks "did I do that?" Of course the logical part understands that there is a short or loose wire and the vibrations of your automobile have jarred the mechanism interrupting the current to the lamp.

We have such a light on our street. It's the one at the end closest to my house. The lamp has a perennial problem with its wiring. If the light is on and you drive past, it goes off. If it is off and it has been off for an inderminant period of time (undefined because I already leave before 6am to go to the gym and I don't need to get up earlier to figure out what crack-headed time of the morning my neighbor goes to work) it goes back on. [If it just went off it doesn't come back that fast, for some reason it must contemplate the dark before relighting.] The temperature affects the light too. In freezing temperatures the on/off effect happens from greater distances. After about a week of freezing I only have to back out of the garage and it will dim. Cold but not hard frozen, the bump down the driveway curb will do it. Warm days require passing underneath.

I know all this. Eight months of leaving the house in the dark have taught me this. Still, there's that little primal piece of brain that wonders if it is a commentary on my future. Is the light an omen of my day to come? Will days I turn the light on be brighter than the days I inadvertantly dim it? And what was it trying to tell me this morning when it flashed twice on the way to the gym and thrice on the return?

Should I be worried?