Something happened to me a couple of weeks ago that gave me pause. I found a bright, green leaf in the middle of my driveway. This might not sound like a notable event, but it's the end of winter, and all the trees around me are barren, awaiting spring to create their buds.
Green leaf in winter
To me, this looks like a full, summertime leaf, maybe from a maple tree. It really disoriented me, I had to stop what I was doing and ponder what was going on. Is reality breaking? Is the simulation throwing exceptions? Is the increase in compute usage in our world (due to increases in usage of AI and crypto) causing our host reality to lag out and add sprites in the wrong places? These are the thoughts that flooded my brain.

I've been thinking about that leaf for a while. I finally realized I live in the 21st century and can identity the leaf with my phone, and maybe that would offer a clue to my mystery. And yeah, it's Common Ivy, an evergreen plant. Mystery solved.

While this was a silly, and to me, quite funny little freak out, it has me wondering what things other people have stumbled across in the world that seemed so completely out of place, that it could only be by some non-natural means. I'm sure this happens to every one at some point in their lives.