Useless facts

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I was lying in my bed the other night thinking about stuff, as I do when I can’t sleep – my mind wanders into and around all sorts of inane and and strange topics. I wonder how things were made, why some things were invented at all, and how much money I might have made if I had thought of something as non-descript as Velcro, a clothes peg, or even the sticky note first.

Admittedly, these are not the only things that I think of, I often ponder the meaning of life and why I am here – or anybody else is, for that fact. I have read all sorts of books on evolution and studied palaeontology as an extra at university. My mind ticks over constantly about what, when, where, how and why – coming up with all sorts of scenarios and nonsense that would make Stephen King proud. My dreams sometimes take on the flavour of an epic novel as I find myself lost in the jungle searching for holy grails and being thwarted by creatures of unspeakable horror.

My husband thinks it’s my hormones, and the drugs that I take that give me my ‘sleeping psychedelic’ episodes, and wishes he had some of that ‘stuff’ too. While this may be a contributing factor, it doesn’t explain my brain’s nocturnal activity while I’m still awake, and the fact that am even interested in why things are the way they are.

I sometimes find myself on the net, that marvellous information superhighway, trawling for information on things of question that others probably don’t even bother to question, and it’s amazing what type of information is actually out there. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not the only one who wonders why bees can fly, even though aerodynamically they aren’t supposed to be able to even get off the ground. I’ve found all sorts of strange things, from who invented scissors and parachutes, to shadow stealing myths. Did you know that a group of 12 or more cows is called a flink?…I thought it was a herd. (Leonardo Da Vinci invented both the parachute and scissors).

You are probably thinking by now that I don’t have much of a life, I have a borderline mental condition, or I should be using my unusual talents to do good for the community. Well, I think I am ….using my talents, that is…and maybe a touch of mental eccentricity added into the mix doesn’t hurt either.

Life would be pretty boring if we were all the same. And although I’m amazed that I have made it this far on the amount of sleepless nights I endure, I’m equally amazed that I haven’t come up with ‘the next big thing.’

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