Optical Illusions Cheech & Chong Optical illusions are some of the coolest things you can experience. Performing an optical illusion on yourself is one of life's greatest challenges. In my early twenties I would frequently witness my good friend Bruce helping out with some of the more awkward tasks around his house. On one occasion shortly after Bruce had purchased his first car his Mom asked him if he could refinish the garage door. Like all houses in this northern climate the paint had started to peel and fall off. No matter what, we end up having to paint the outside of a house every four or five years. That is if you care enough... Now Bruce is what I call a do-er. He gets right on the job and wastes no time. The draw back to this approach is the limited amount of thinking that goes on prior to the execution of most anything. I passed by on my bicycle on day one and Bruce was scraping and using a blowtorch to remove the many layers of oil based paint. We talked, I helped a bit and then went on my way. On Friday (day two) I stopped by... Talk about getting things done? Bruce was putting the finishing touches to an incredible dark brown garage door. What a change! For years that door had been white with a light brown trim. It was looking excellent and Bruce knew it. I helped him clean things up and we went in the house. His Mom was incredibly happy with the Job and while Bruce washed up his Mom and I went on about what a terrific guy he was. Bruce and I then went out for a couple of beers at the local watering hole. Bruce was feeling good about himself as he should have and I recall sitting in his car thinking "this car is cool!" It was a 197X Monte Carlo. It had electric everything and a gigantic motor. (You can tell I am really knowledgeable about cars can't you?) The best thing about the car was it was this obscene mustard yellow. At the end of the evening, which was around 1:00 AM, Bruce drove me back to his place to get my bike. When we arrived Bruce was chugging along through the back streets like a very confident maniac. This was quite normal. We turned to corner to approach his house, which was on the right. He swung into the driveway at a good clip. Then drove straight through the closed garage door. With debris still falling on the car, he calmly looked over at me and said... Nothing. Not a word. He had to back the car up for either of us to get out. When we did get out his Mom was standing there in her night robe. "What happened?" she asked. Bruce's words said it all. "Brown is a VERY dark colour Mom". After a few months Bruce repaired and repainted the garage...white! Thus avoiding the "garage door looks open" optical illusion.