Nightmares Helicopter Ice Rescue, Bus Accident, Uneasy Show Dream.

            I had multiple nightmares, all involving fire or ice, or both. The first one found a pair of scientists out mountain climbing when the senior member revealed he was a mutant with the power to spew fire. This was not a good time to rejoice in this ability, he was melting the ice shelf that his companion was trying to set climbing hardware into. I was on the helicopter that was following their progress and monitoring the devices they were planting to monitor the movement in the icy crevasse.  We flew in to rescue the two.

            The Mutant tossed a fireball at us, catching our tail rotor. The woman had already attached herself to our safety line, so we lifted her off the face of the cliff just before tons of melting ice crashed through the place where she'd been hanging. The ice had been artistically melted to look like an arched colonnade; it collapsed under its own weight almost taking us with it. The mutant was still connected to us by his safety line, but didn't want to swing out and be pulled out. Instead, he made a fiery jump to the skids of the chopper. It suddenly got very warm in there.

            The woman climbed up into the chopper with us but the scientist insisted on riding below us while shooting fire into the air behind us. I tried to talk him into shutting it down so we could land safely, but he was just manic. He melted the metal on the skid where he was hanging on and dropped down to the safety tether, which, having been exposed to severe heat just necked out twenty or thirty feet, then snapped.

            He jetted flames towards the ground, but there apparently wasn't enough thrust to slow him down significantly. He smashed into a carport of a remote mountain home and burst into flames. The pilot of the chopper headed to ground. “What are the odds of hitting anything way up here?”

            He dropped us off so he could deploy the water bucket and help put out the fire, it would be 25 minutes or more before any fire units could get there. I took the other scientist to the house with me to warn the occupants, and to see if we could help move vehicles and possessions out of the flaming mess. She was not too happy about helping out, as she would have to see the remains of the splattered doctor. We also started a bucket brigade, but the metal of the carport roof itself seemed to be on fire. When the helicopter arrived with the bucket it did put out the fire, and drenched us as well in water that was alternately steaming and nearly frozen (having come from the lake at the base of the glacier.)

 

            My second dream involved sliding in a bus on an ice covered road. The bus went over the steep hillside and crashed through several trees, snow piling in on top of us. I can’t imagine that anyone survived. I know I didn’t.

 

            The third dream of the morning found me on stage, performing in an improv troupe. We decided to replay the "You Can't Take it With You" play, so I took my role as Mr. DePinna. Unfortunately we decided to start with the second act, in which I have one of the first lines, expository, explaining that the family’s basement business was completely ruined, and, though I know it, I couldn't remember it in the dream. It is very weird to remember your lines but not be able to say them, almost like I wasn't actually myself; I was just along for the ride. No one else, though, knew any of the lines, so I started feeding them hints to get the action moving. I went to the printing press, which for our improv had been replaced with a welding rig. Unfortunately, it wasn't just a prop. The gas was on and I didn't know it. I hit the starter and flames shot about 5 feet into the air. I'm glad it wasn't aimed at anyone. "Now that's a pipe lighter." I covered, but having live flame on a set is a real nightmare and inside I was terrified.

            "Haven't you had enough of playing with fire?"

            "Yeah, your smoking habit has nearly killed us all!"

            "Everything is burned up, even my pipe!"

            And we were off on an anti-smoking intervention for Mr. DePinna. Now that's comedy, though not what George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart were thinking of when they wrote it.

 

Ad astra per technica,

Douglas Nicoll

LAN Administrator

ITS Helpdesk 8801 2260