It was amazingly easy to get into this previously hidden room. In a strange way it felt like what I remember conciously thinking last night before sleep grabbed me. I was thinking about compiling C code, specifically the compiler command line switches -g and -Wall. At one time those were complicated to me. Part of the great impenetrable mystery of building applications from source.

Last night I felt that I fully understood it. Not just the obvious level, but some deeper level. I was probably dreaming. Heather has a coffee mug that says "I dreamed that my whole house was clean." I need one that reads "I dreamed that I understood C." But getting into that room felt the same way, it was just there, perfectly understood, all I had to do was to look for it.

Getting out of the room was harder. It required climbing a steep ladder. Completely possible, but more precarious.

I developed a sense of responsibility for the child that lived there. A sense that I could, and therefore should, do things to help it.