Weird Orange Cheese Grater Road Cone Thing

Drawn with ProCreate on iPad

This brief dream fragment appeared as I was falling asleep: As I consciously went from waking space to sleeping space, I watched my drifting thoughts stitch together this image. It lasted for only a few seconds.

I am half-present in this stormy setting. There is a black granite rock cliff-face lining a rough ocean with turbulent dark skies. I see a very orange object sitting on the granite rock. It is a little over a foot tall, four-sided with rounded corners, tapering slightly to its top. It has lateral slats through two of its four faces, and a handle which is designed to slide across these slats. The handle has black metal springs and struts with white plastic pins lining the inside area. They are connected to other, similar mechanics inside the object that I can’t see very well. I think I am supposed to pull this handle, and I do so. It moves smoothly with a pleasant, mild resistance, and a satisfying springy click at the end of its run. It is like pushing a return lever on a typewriter. The handle returns back to its original position. The whole experience fades as quickly as it came, and I am awake again.

After waking back up, I thought about the object and how odd it was. It looked and felt like a road cone: It was the signature construction orange color and the feel had that strange texture between rubber and plastic. But it was also reminiscent of a cheese grater and a powdered sugar sifter. But it also felt more durable and better constructed than any of these things. I don’t know what its function was, or what was accomplished by pulling the handle over. It felt significant to do so, but I don’t know why.

I am particularly interested in how my thoughts came together in imagery as I fell asleep. I wasn’t thinking of anything like this as I drifted off, but my passing thoughts turned into this road cone cheese grater thing in this stormy setting as I did.