Years ago, while working as a Union Carpenter for Findorff Construction, on Block 89, in Madison, Wi., We were preparing the second floor of this multi story building, I was assigned the task of preparing the shut off, to contain the concrete pour, along one side of the building. It consisted of 12" x 8' panels joined in a straight line. With the aid of a dry line, the shut-off was anchored and braced, ready for concrete the next day. As I climbed down to the first floor at the end of the day, I saw the Job superintendant, and 2 workers, using a transit to assure the deck above was level for the concrete pour the next day. I thought no more about it as it was the end of the work day.
The next day, the concrete trucks arrived and the pour commenced. That afternoon, the Carpenter Foreman came to me and chewed me up one side, and down the other, claiming the shut-off I had prepared the previous day was a complete mess. The shut-off was a wavey line, and he derided me for not having the shut-off straight.
I was completely flummoxed as to how this could have happened because when I left the day before, the shut-off was straight as an arrow. Now, however it was a mess. I was beside myself, wondering if a co-worker had sabotaged my work for some reason.
That night, as I went to bed, the situation bothered me to no end. I finally fell into slumber, and as the night progressed, I started to dream. About 3 A.M., I woke with a realization of what had transpired the last few days. Of course, I could not get back to sleep and got dressed. I normally got up at 5 A.M., so had 2 hours to stew about what had happened. I left for work about 1/2 hour early, and went directly to the superintendants office trailer. There I found to my surprise, the Superintendant, and the Carpenter foreman having coffee and talking about the coming day. I told them that I now knew how the shut-off came to be out of line. I explained to them that the Superintendant was to blame for the mis-aligned shut-off because after I had finished, and began to climb down, I noticed he, and 2 workers were re-aligning the deck, which is raised or lowered by a screw jack. As the Superintendant read the transit, the 2 workers raised, or lowered each screw jack, to make the deck above level. They came to the area, underneath where I had installed the shut-off, and raised and lowered each screw jack to make the deck level. That action is what caused the shut-off to be forced out of line. They said, almost in unison, "How do we keep it from happening again?" I told them, "Level the deck before critical shut-offs were installed." They agreed. The rest of the day was a joy to work, although I kept thinking about how that dream the night before had vindicated me. So when I read the Wiki-how article about dreams, posted below, I just had to respond with this this post. There have been other dreams that have helped me out of problems, so I encourage others to use the wiki-how article below to enhance your ability to interpret dreams.
Labels: dreams, problem solving