Time as a reality check

Lately, there have been occasions when I have looked at my watch and the numbers have been squiggles. As an almost perpetual watch-wearer (currently feeling like I have accidentally shaved off a limb), I've pressed the buttons and prodded the screen frantically demanding the time back, and only sometimes has it returned. I know this behaviour is not unusual for watches - I once grew fond of a watch that would tell me that it was the 0th day of the month, particularly when I had been drinking.

It was when I remembered that looking at a watch can be used as a form of reality check (popular among lucid dreamers), that I realized that lately a lot of activities that could be construed as reality checks have been failing. Light switches sometimes only cause a flicker, the taps on the bath won't stop the water flowing no matter how hard I turn them, and chairs are often lacking even a vague resemblance to stability. Whether I'm dreaming or whether my world has become increasingly dysfunctional and is wallowing in inconsistency, I still want a boat car, like in Waking Life (and my local cinema even acknowledged that Before Sunset is going to be showing there soon, which is cool).