Mood:
surprisedTopic: "Dimmer Switch" (6)
Regular readers know that Frodo has not been near the top of his game in recent days. Frodo understands, obviously for different reasons, how Tiger Woods must feel in these, the halcyon days of his gamesmanship. That fact came home to roost for Frodo but a fortnight ago, as he mechanically piloted his motorcar between destinations in the darkening hours beyond Mount Doom.
Approaching traffic caused Frodo to react without a second thought, he needed to dim his headlights for the benefit of drivers in the opposing lane. His left foot pressed against the floorboard, searching for the dimmer switch. Suddenly, he took note of the fact that his lights remained on bright, and that his foot had failed to connect with the little piece of metal that controlled the exterior luminesence. Frantically, at first, he jerked his foot first left then right, in order to dim the beam. All to no avail. More than one driver honked at Frodo and presented him with an appropriate salute as a comment upon his procreational expertise.
"Where's the damn dimmer switch?," said Frodo to no one in particular in his otherwise empty motorcar. "Did somebody. . ."
Pregnant pause.
Frodo realized that his motorcar had its headlights controlled by a lever on the steering wheel column. In fact, Frodo came to realize, he was unable to remember when last he had even been in an automobile that had a dimmer switch on the floorboard. Of course, every car had a dimmer switch when Frodo learned to drive, but he, even now, is unable to recall when that changed, or why.
It is probably a good thing that Frodo had not been riding a bicycle, he thought, as he touched the lever in order to dim his headlights.
His face grew flushed as he considered the implications of this toss-back to the golden days of yesteryear when every car had a dimmer switch. Has he been so preoccupied with responsibility that he has failed to keep the present in focus? Have his neuropathic passages become clogged with the detritus of, hopefully premature, cognitive disability? Frodo does not know for sure.
What he does know is that he would prefer a motorcar with a dimmer switch.
