Auto Trouble

        I dreamed N and I were in Cecil (the old Plymouth.) We were both in the driver's seat, driving. We were up at MBMS driving around to the back lot. We parked next to one of the portables and a couple of guys came out and started pushing the car backwards. I couldn't get to the brake pedal; N's foot was in the way. Finally I got the idea to put the car back in gear. We skidded to a stop. I revved the engine, and the two guys looked at one another then ran off.

        We then had to work like crazy to get the car turned around but we managed once N gave me access to the brake and the accelerator both. She was still helping steer. Neither one of us wanted to get out of the car. The lack of a passenger side mirror made backing around more difficult than I remembered.

        I had dreams earlier, but only the naked babes posing on the large concrete block near a beach stick in my mind. I'm such a guy.

More found Poetry:

My rodent as execrate

his shakespearian a communion

Attempt to be king.

Unprincipled politician.

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Site Inspection, Passenger Seating Study

        I dreamed I was walking an elementary school campus, looking at the wiring closets and server spaces. The principal was on the walkthrough with us and wanted to talk about the sprinkler caused flooding. I kept trying to explain that the contractors I was working with only deal with the electrical and data wiring.

        I was back at my office opening up the tea ball. It was full of dried leaves, white and green. (This is actually what happened this morning. I would not call this a psychic experience, as this it what usually happens after a long weekend.)

        I dreamed I was in a passenger seating study. I was taking the part of the scary long-hair "caveman" type. People were allowed to take their own seats and we were taking photos of the process for analysis later. In some tests I was supposed to smile at people as they approached, in others I was supposed to just look out the window, and in others I was to scowl without making more than short eye contact. There were several other "types in the test.

        After a couple of days of testing I was talking with a lace gloved Asian with a fur purse. There was some business about getting rid of the evil fur purse, until I managed to dig it out of the trash basket and determine that it was fake fur. Suddenly this was no longer a problem, so I ended up pulling a half dozen fake fur items out of the trash basket. The Asian girl and I ended up sitting on the plane together for the trip to our next airport; she let me feel the lace on her gloves. They were so sheer as to be almost undetectable to touch, even though the black lace was visually rich.

        At this point things became very odd. I knew we were running the cameras for the test even among us testers. I wondered how that was going to turn out. Just to mix things up I suggested that we all get up and start moving around, taking turns sitting with one another and chatting. The Asian Girl and one of the black passengers got right into it. Pretty soon we had everyone hopping all over the place and introducing ourselves, chatting and having a good time. We all ended up in the back of the plane talking and moving around.

        The plane went into a steep dive. It pulled out and bounced across the surface of the ocean. We managed to get out through the emergency exits and into life rafts where we paddled ashore.

        "Anyone thinking this suddenly looks like 'Lost' the TV show?"

        "I wish I'd watched more than twenty minutes of one, I don't even remember what I saw during that time, seemed like lots of running around and rope bridges collapsing." I really couldn’t remember any more of the episode, other than that I thought the heavy actor was very talented.

        "Wow that had to be an early episode."

        "OK." I looked around. "Let’s see what sort of shelter and food sources we have. Perhaps there are people living here."

        "Yeah, I guess it would be embarrassing to sit around here if there's a hotel on the other side of the island," said one of my fellow testers.

        “Some of us should stay with the radios in the life rafts, in case someone comes to get us.”

        I thought that was a good idea, and figured we were a large enough group to split up safely. I was a little worried that none of the pilots seemed to have escaped with us. I asked a couple of the other men if they would like to take a raft back out to see if we could spot another raft or people in life vests. I know the pilots had survived the crash because they had told us to use the over the wing emergency exits.

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Convention Horrors

       I dreamed I was talking with a bunch of people I didn't know and we were discussing getting into a Risus campaign game over the next few days. One of the men wanted to make sure everyone brought their trading cards and insisted that we use them to develop our characters and villains.
       "You will, of course, have to surrender your cards to the game master when you use them." The man insisted.
       About two thirds of the players (6 of them) were ready to call it quits at that time.
       "I'll round up some envelopes and I'll keep your cards separated. You can get them back at the end of the game."
       That seemed to calm everyone down. Everyone left except a dark-haired woman. She didn't seem right to me. She was somehow hollow. I resisted her advances until she became angry and shoved me into a hole under the stairs. She locked me in somehow bound me. I couldn't move or call out. I could only just barely see her through some slats in a ventalation grill. Every time the heater kicked in I could feel and smell the air being drawn into the little space I was trapped in.
       I could hear her being attacked by a couple of drunk fellows. Eventually the sounds died down and she appeared at the grill. She was hollow, her head had been filled with trash, plastic chip bags, soda cans. "They completely filled me with junk," she moaned.
       Despite the fact that she was by far the creepiest thing going, I felt bad for her. Embarrassed that she'd been so poorly treated by those who I'd thought were fellow gamers.
       "Your turn." She showed the the remains of those who'd been so disrespectful of her. Not gamers, their torn and shredded clothing marked them as gang members, or at least wanna-bes.
       "I'm sure they deserved to die!" I mumbled, or tried to mumble.
       "I think, since you didn't want me, that you should be eaten by the four year old."
       "I'm not really into children, and how horrible that you would corrupt a child."
       "Not a human child. One of our newest."
       For some reason I was thinking of a tiger, a four year old tiger would be able to consume me. I was worried about missing the game, "I have preparation to do."
       "After we're done with you."
       Now I was confused.
       With that she pulled me out from under the stairs, snapping the ventalation grille back into place. She tossed me on the couch, dumping trash everywhere and slowly returning to a more normal shape. She absorbed the bones of her assailants, that really brought her into solid form.
       "That will hold me for a long while." She said.
       "You certainly look less hollow, now."
       "Am I attractive enough for you, now."
       "You were attractive enough before, now you're scary. I just didn't want to get involved with a player before the game. It makes being fair too difficult."
       "Well, Julie here isn't in your game." The dark haired woman, now not hollow seeming at all, turned and left. She was very feminine in her hip swaying walk out of the suite.
       "Hello sexy man." I heard from behind the couch.
       Julie was a blue-eyed blonde with long straight hair and a dusting of freckles over her nose. Her face was unnaturally flat, like some air had been let out of a playground ball. Just enough to give an overall sense of wrongness about her.
       I wanted out, but was still frozen, unable to move my arms and legs. I could feel myself breathing faster. She stood up from behind the couch to reveal that she was only wearing a man's shirt. I realized it was the one plain blue cotton button down shirt I'd brought to wear at the formal dinner before the awards show. It wasn't buttoned. She was not big breasted, but her breasts were firm and well shaped. Her slender waist hinted at a more than natural hollowness.
       "How are you a four year old?" I asked, trying to distract her long enough that I might get some feeling back and begin to move.
       "I've been like this for four years, silly, what did you hope for."
       "I thought she was talking about a tiger, or worse, a child."
       "A child would be worse than a tiger?" She paused in her stalk around the couch.
       "Being eaten by a tiger isn't evil, at least not on the tiger's part."
       "So, don't you think I'm better than either?"
       "I'm not so sure about that." I looked over at the pile of clothing from my predecessors.
       "They didn't have to die, they could have been nice. Good things happen to people who fill us with good things."
       "And bad things?"
       "Happen to people who fill us with bad things."
       "How about people who don't fill you at all?"
       "Not an option, sweetie, at least, not now that you're here."
       I tried to break out of my paralysis.
       Julie dropped my shirt to the ground, "Don't you find me attractive, I'm not all stretched out, either." She turned, showing me her lips, both upper and lower. "I'm much more careful about who I bring into me. I need you to fill me."
       "With good things?"
       "Whatever you choose."
       "Give me a hint here, what would be a good thing?"
       She shrugged. Then leaned down over me, I could feel her hand rubbing across my chest. Then she settled on top of me, her flat face hovering over mine. Her nipples barely brushing against the silk Hawian print of my shirt. "Your shirt is so soft."
       "It's silk, soft like you." I managed to move my head up next to hers. "You are lovely, but I don't know you, or where this is going. Are you sure I couldn't just teach you how to play Risus or something, it can be very fulfilling."
       "Fill me, fill me with anything you like."
       I suddenly found I had the use of my arms and legs. I hugged her to me and sat upright.
       "Oh, that's good."
       Interesting, I was frightened. I had felt something go out of me, into her, but I didn't feel bad about it, I didn't feel like anything was missing from me. I'd come to the convention not only to play games, but to make friends and enjoy the people I met. I held on to that idea.
       "Let me tell you about the game I've invented for the convention, perhaps you'll join us?"
       "Give me more..."
       So with the slender and ever more sexy blonde in my lap I proceded to tell her all about the game I'd brought to the convention, and then about the Risus campaign I'd be running as well. After a while she started asking questions, focusing on areas where I hadn't done much thought or preparation.
       During our brainstorming, there was lots of holding and cuddling.
       All the while she seemed to be absorbing something. Her face became normal looking. He waist filled out to a more realistic proportion. She was very wet and her nipples were hard. I didn't know that game system discussions could have such an effect on a woman.
       "Are you going to kiss me?"
       "Even though you are sitting here naked on my lap, there is something, not natural, going on here, and you haven't explained the rules sufficiently for me to know if it is worth taking that risk. You are physically very attractive, and in listening to me talk about games and game design, and actually asking questions, you are intellectually re-affirming, and interesting in your own right."
       "Well I wasn't always hollow inside. I am a gamer chick, always was, you've helped me remember that."
       She looked over to the room where here suitemate was sleeping, or digesting, which ever it was. "She's a gamer, too, you know. Be good to her in the game."
       "I will be good to everyone. That is what making a good game is about."
       "I, I can't kiss you first. I can only give what I am filled with."
       "I think I understand, sort of. How could you sit here aroused and naked, then?"
       "You're aroused."
       "I'm not naked."
       "Yes you are," and with that I noticed that somehow I was naked, and pressed up against her. "Fill me with good things and good things will happen to you."
       "Can you be one of my good things?"
       "Oh! My..." was the last articulate part of her response.
       Somehow, I skipped the good parts in the dream to wake up to both women holding on to me. I got up, kissed each of them on the forehead. "Another few days like this and we will be whole again," commented the Dark Haired Hollow woman.
       I went back to my room and got ready for my first gaming session of the day. I felt more prepared and confident than I had ever felt about a convention game. I just knew the playtest was going to go well, and that I would find many GMs for blind playtesting over the next three days.
       

Convention Surprise

       I dreamed I met an Angelic Freckled Woman. AFW had shoulder length dark hair and light blue eyes. She was wearing a sun-dress cream or white with a diagonal grid of small flowers or another design in black, so it was almost like polkadots. I'd call it polkadots with character. It was lust at first sight.
       "You are painfully beautiful. To see you is to understand the full meaning of longing."
       That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Most people hate my freckles.
       She was so freckled that it made her face and shoulders look mottled with spilled ginger. Up close I could see that her eyelashes and eyebrows were also ginger colored, and the thinest band of her hair roots.
       I feel instantly and fully into infatuation. Oddly, for me, she seemed equally taken with me. We strode into the convention center arm in arm.
       The convention center is the same center from many dreams before. We enter the lobby near the stairs and are processed through registration. I wonder what sort of labyrinth has been cobbled together for us this time. I am pleasantly surprised to enter the dealers' room and see that it had been arranged as a single large room, with meeting halls around the outside edge of the room.
       "Nice, much better arrangement. It forces the seminar and panel traffic to go outside or through the dealers' room."
       "Very clever, I wonder if they charged extra for the booths facing the panel rooms," AFW asked.
       We hadn't gone far when I came across a dealer of old antique looking stuff. He spotted us and called us over. He showed me a drawing, a drawing of me and Sera Prim and AFW together. "I'm holding a purchase for you, from another convention. Here," He handed me a double scroll and a pair of tickets. "I was told to tell you to put the tickets inside your shirt and don't let anyone else touch them."
       He shrugged as I took the envelope from him and, unbuttoning one shirt button, put them in the pocket of the pocket T-shirt I was wearing underneath.
       "What's on the tickets?" I asked.
       The dealer looked uncomfortable a moment, then shrugged again. "I," he looked around, I think trying to see if Sera was around. "I couldn't bring myself to open the envelope, I promised your other lady."
       "Other Lady?" AFW asked.
       "Sera," I said, pointing to the drawing.
       "Oh," AFW puffed her chest up a bit to make herself look bigger than Sera in the drawing. I noticed that sometime during our stroll into the dealers' room that she'd unbuttoned a couple of buttons, also.
       I chuckled to myself. I'd all ready been won over, but then when she offered to buy the drawing, I realized the cleavage had other benefits. The dealer was really still just a geek like the rest of us, and her charms were persuasive. He took off the "not for sale" sticker and let the drawing, with its frame, go for twenty dollars.
       "I think I'd like to meet her, in person." AFW walked with me, looking at the drawing. All three of us seemed happy in the drawing. AFW's hair was drawn lighter than Sera's and somewhat longer than she was currently wearing it. In the drawing I could see that her freckles went down over the top of her breasts, as she was wearing something with a scooped neck.
       "I think that looks like a computer photo manipulation. It was a photo converted into a drawing."
       "Interesting, when was it taken?"
       "Sometime in his past, but in our future."
       "You believe in stuff like that."
       I thought a moment, then looked at the scrolls in my hand, felt the power surging around in them. "At the moment, yes. Yes I do, I don't have much choice, you see."
       We stepped outside the convention, walking through a nearly empty seminar room. The few people who were in the room were using it to sort through the fliers, buttons and posters they'd grabbed from the freebie tables. In the sunlight I held up the posters, and there, across the street on a previously blank brick wall was an opening with stairs leading up to a dark landing.
       I can't describe the symbol over the door, but I knew it meant that I needed to go into the place. AFW didn't see the entrance until I grabbed her hand to take her across the street with me.
       "Oh! I see what you mean. I guess we don't really have much choice other than to believe."
       We went up the stairs where the doorman searched us for weapons, making AFW take off the dagger that was hidden in a garter high up on her very freckled legs. I almost started to drool as she lifted her dress so only I could see her shapely calves and thighs with their spilled ginger decoration.
       The doorman took the dagger and placed it in a small tube and gave her the key from the top of the tube. He determined that I would have to leave the scrolls behind in a similar tube, they seemed, to him, to be magically unstable. That bothered me, but I decided we would be able to get out and get them if the people in this place weren't helpful.
       Inside the front room there was an orangutan, wearing glasses, a plaid vest and a kilt behind a sort of circulation desk. He turned to speak with us and in the process of turning I could see that he would appear as a normal, though large, red-headed man, which is apparently what AFW saw him as.
       "We're here to get some help on figuring out what's on a scroll we recently acquired."
       "Ah! good, then let's see it."
       "Your doorman has it." I realized that I'd wanted to say it was in a tube in the entry hall, but something in me knew that wasn't true, so the other came out of my mouth. Even though I wouldn't have normally come right out with such an accusation, allowing events to determine that obvious deduction by leading the Oranguman out to the entry way to find out for himself, I found I couldn't tell even the leading little white lie. I knew that we were under the effect of very powerful magic. I turned to AFW, thinking I would take advantage of this.
       I didn't get the chance as the Oranguman called us back into the entry hall. We followed him through a secret panel into a large sitting room. He had taken the scroll from the doorman and a couple of the rooms previous occupants were taking the doorman out through another door across the room from some very large windows that looked out to someplace not across from the convention center, where they should have looked. In fact, given the size of the room, we should have been in the furniture store that occupied most of the brick building.
       Oranguman saw me looking out the window. "It can be a little unsettling at first. You get used to it."
       "Dreamlands architecture." I said.
       "Or perhaps you are already used to it."
       "I'm not, but it is pretty cool," AFW said, going to the window.
       "Let's see what you have here." Oranguman unrolled the scroll and flipped the foldout open. He whistled, almost more of a hoot, really. "No wonder our poor doorman wanted this."
       "What is it?" I asked, moving to look at it. It looked, with the exception of obviously real-time moving photographs, like a college catalog and course listing. I said so.
       "Yes, that is it, exactly. Only in all of dreamlands (Another name was used, but that is what it meant) they only take three students a year." He looked at me. "You seem a little bit old to be a student," he looked at AFW, "But she doesn't."
       The room seemed to chill a bit. I could tell the vibe was changing to a more hostile one. AFW drew close and took my hand.
       "Do you have your ticket?"
       "Two of them, actually."
       His eyes widened. "You're not being invited as a student, you get to pick a student...you've been selected." He roared. "You know nothing! How could you be selected for the faculty!"
       While the Oranguman was tearing up a sofa cushion I rolled the scroll back up and headed for the exit. "Maybe they just need an IT person."
       "You have to get out of here first."
       We found ourselves on a small bridge leading to a room with a door marked exit. The door was barely visible, the wall decorations, animals of all sorts, blending from the wall across the door in a single mural. I heard a woman's voice in my ear, Sera, "In order to exit you have to kick the kids ass." At the same time I read the same words on an archway over the entrance to the bridge. Under the exit arch of the bridge stood a greasy haired teen.
       "Kick the kid's ass, fatso, or you'll never get out of here."
       "Let me." AFW almost flew across the bridge. The kid vanished and I felt him race by me. I pointed where he'd gone, AFW zoomed after him. I walked across the narrow bridge, thinking he'd try to stop me. At which point the two of us could trap him. I looked down. There was a slow black river rolling about twenty feet below us. It came from nowhere and lead to nowhere. Not reassuring. I made it to the other side of the bridge. I looked at the mural. Right at the height of a doorknob was the illustration of a young goat's tail. He was looking over his shoulder, winking.
       "Let's get out of here, come on!" I called back to AFW, not able to hide my laughter. I've got computers to fix and you've got classes to take.!"
       AFW raced across the bridge, the young wizard right behind her. I tapped the kid in the but with the toe of my shoe. There was a soft bleat and a click. "Sorry, hope that wasn't too hard."
       "Na-aa-aa."
       The door opened and the wizard let AFW go.
       "Damn, you figured it out faster than anyone has ever gotten it. I usually have to give several clues, after a couple of dunkings, of course."
       "You're really too old for this job, you're just not a kid any more."
       "Crap, you could see through the disguise the whole time?"
       "It's your truth spell, I just figured it would come in handy so I've stretched it along with me since I discovered it."
       "You're not going there as a computer tech, you're going to be a professor, would you let me be in your classes?"
       I could tell the teen wizard was sincere, I could also tell he was going to be an excellent AV/Computer nerd, because I suddenly knew that is exactly what I was going there to do, computers and technology, for wizards, mages and assorted dreamwalkers, by invitation only. I smiled at him. "Sure, you seem like a good kid."
       He laughed.
       AFW jumped down the stairs two at a time, her hair turning from ginger to black as she left the range of the truth spell. I though about breaking it off and taking it with me, but realized the people at this guild hall needed it more than I did, so let it snap back, filling the whole place rather than limiting it to just the front rooms. I heard screams from the rooms above.
       The young wizard looked up in the direction of the screams, then at me. He smiled. "That was great! Oh! Man! I gotta go see what's going on. See you later, Professor!" He ran over the bridge with a whoop.
       "Hey, Dad! I have some questions for you." I heard him yell as the door closed off the rest of conversation and sound from the building. I stepped off the stairs to turn and see a blank wall. A couple of passers by looked at me, then at the wall, shook their heads and continued on their way.
       AFW was waiting. "Can we go now!"
       "I have a four day pass to the convention, and I bought a hotel room this year, pre-paid. I'm not ready to leave yet."
       "Oh, OK. Can I stay with you, then?" She wrapped her arms around me.
       "We'll see."

N Naked, Random Images, Pestering Niece

       In the first dream of the weekend, N was standing in the kitchen sink.
       The water was running and she was completely naked. When I woke up I asked her what she thought she was doing. She just looked at me and said "It was your dream."

       Most of the weekend sleep has been filled with apparently random images, some from work, some from the wild animal park, some from a house I never lived in but felt like I'd lived in for years. Nothing has really had a plot to hang any memory on when I awake. Been waken up by the cats frequently during this, I don't know if that's why the dreams are so disjointed, or if the restless sleep is what's causing the cats to wake me.

       I did remember one little plotted dream. N and I and my parents and sister's families met at the Zoo. I had driven myself rather than carpooling in case I had to go (I was on call.) Soon I was having some difficulty moving around, asthma was slowing me down. Myniece wanted to go with me, not because she wanted to do anything with me, or out of any sense that someone should go with me to the doctor, but because she knew it would discomfit the largest number of people. I managed to write "Don't make a fuss about it, it's what she wants!" on a page of my journal and held it up behind her head when she went to tell her mom and step dad what she was doing. My sister got it immediately and managed to signal Grandma so she wouldn't gripe at her.
       Everyone smiled and told her "good idea."
       This was so much not the reaction she wanted that she pouted all the way back out to the car with me.

Flood, Board Game

        I dreamed I was living on a house on a hill. We woke up and while out in front to pick up the paper; I noticed that I could see the hilltops across the way. This was odd, because there should have been three houses and their landscaping blocking the view. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked more closely. The houses were gone. And there were broken pipes pulled up through the ground. I waked carefully over.

        What I had thought was distant thunder was, in fact, water rushing through the valley between our hill and the neighboring one. My first thought, my bladder must really be full. I didn't wake up, so decided that couldn't really have been the issue. I walked back around the sidewalk to my house. I noticed the earth was undercut and my back fence was missing. The side fences were leaning over where the back fence had fallen away. I ran inside to warn my housemates that we needed to pull our stuff out of the back rooms and move most of the weight to the front. Even though my house wasn't on a curve of the hill that had been severely undercut, the slope of the  ground under the back yard was very steep and I didn't want our stuff sliding into the flood.

        The flood didn't smell like fresh water, it smelled like the ocean. There must have been a tidal wave. I got as near the edge as I dared. The water was flowing back towards the ocean. The hillside below my house was scoured clean and I could see that our part of the development had been built on granite rock. The houses that had slid into the flood had been built on rubble fill, most of which had washed away.

        This explained why I couldn't grow anything but the shallowest rooted plants in my yard.

        In the dream the process of moving furniture and items out of the house turned into a board game. Since our neighborhood wasn't trendy we'd called it "Malibu Teeter-Totter" a game where you have to save your possessions before the house slides into the sea. Players  started outside the house and pulled a random card, they then rolled dice to move their tokens to the item. The idea was to get everything of value out of the house before the house toppled into the sea. The winner was the one who saved most of their stuff. If you were in the house when it slides into the ocean, you lose, even if you had the most stuff out of the house. Every player gets one last roll when the house starts to slide, just to see if they can jump clear.

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Viral Stamp

        I dreamed N and I were at a clothing optional resort. It was dark and raining. No one was out in the pool but myself.

        We decided to retire to the hot tub farm, a 3 by 6 array of 8 person hot tubs. There was a small stamp sized object I’d found when I was diving in the pool. I asked what it was of the life guard, but she didn't know. It seemed to have one corner on the upper left, about half a millimeter by seven millimeters long, two rows of black and white squares. The pixels kept changing in a not-quite random pattern. I thought it looked a lot like streaming computer data. N and I climbed into an empty hot tub. I noticed that it also had a similar stamp in it. I checked it. It didn't have the animated pixels on it, at first. I noticed there were two stamps after N and I had cuddled for a bit. Then there were four stamps. I checked one, it had the pixel strip running on the top. I pulled up the others, there were six now. I took them all out of the water, all of them had the pixel strip. As they dried out, the pixels stopped being animated. I looked around. Most of the hot tubs were covered and not in use. I made my way over to a tub with half a dozen people in it.

        The bathers asked if I was going to be able to get a movie going on the big screen. I agreed to give it a try, and then they apologized, they had thought I worked here. I showed them one of the dried stamps. They got very quiet. Then they all started looking around. They spotted some in the bottom of their tub and were all jumping out. They didn't want to come in contact with them. They were amazed that I was not being absorbed by them.

        I got a bad feeling about the stamps, and the club. Naked bathers ran to the other tubs to warn the other bathers, some of whom were in very intimate activities. Everyone abandoned the tubs. I went back to warn N, but she was gone. Our tub was filled with stamps, a sheet of them about ten centimeters below the surface. All of them bearing the likeness of N in her bathing suit bottoms only. (Very cute but no substitute for the real thing.)

        I raced over to the other tubs and pulled the covers off. Many of them had a sheet of empty stamps, all with the pixel bar animating itself furiously. Some of the tubs, that didn't have covers, had images of couples or groups of people on them. I realized the stamp virus had captured them all. I tried to find out from the others if there was a way to get everyone out of the stamps, I was worried about N. However, none of the others were around.

        Lightning lit the sky, it, too, seemed to be a little pixilated. Thunder rolled across the resort and the sky grew even darker.

        Somehow I ended up setting up the DVD player and VCR combo to pass the cable TV signal through to the large projector. I didn't know if it would help, but I wanted to do what I'd said I would do, even though I knew it wouldn't make any difference.

        I went back to N's stamps. I didn't want to pull them all out and risk injuring or killing her. I waited, the stamps seemed to double every 15 seconds or so. Soon the tub was full of N stamps. I was starting to get really worried.

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Invention, Running for Office

        I dreamed I was making a sleeper cover support. It was a wire that was sewn into a sheet so that you could put the covers up over your head, but still have them off of your face. You get the advantage of re-breathing your moist air, filtering out the cat fur, and not having the covers on top of your face. No smothering to get the benefits of trapping your body heat. As I was sewing the pocket for the wire into the material, I realized I might need to put in sturdier wire, the cats would be able to collapse the structure too easily if they decided to walk on it. Of course, that would be self limiting behavior, as the collapse would convince most of our cats not to do it again.

        I also dreamed I was running for some sort of office, assembly or some such. I was the "nut" candidate, with all appropriate props to Penn Jillette for coining the proper label for my positions.  The news reporters who were covering the race actually stopped outside a debate, to which I wasn't invited, and asked me some questions, I answered them, and suggested some questions they might want to ask once they were inside. I had tickets to get into the event, but the people at the door didn't want to let me in. I asked them, "are you binging me a refund, then?"

        "No." was the answer.

        "Then, I am going to take my seat in the theater and watch the debate."

        "You can't go in."

        "He has a ticket," said the sheriff’s deputy who was acting as security.

        "I'm not allowed to let him in." The ticket taker was obviously feeling overwhelmed.

        "Have you over-sold the theater?" I asked in a pleasant but louder than normal voice.

        People behind me became very quiet and then started to ask the same question.

        "Uh, uh...no, there are plenty of seats."

        "What's the hold up then?" asked a person twenty or so feet back.

        "They're just having trouble finding my seat. I'm sure it will just be a moment."

        "Typical." came another comment.

        "Yes, isn't it?" I asked. It was a perfect moment that I was sure would be on the Television several times over the next couple of hours.

        The cameras for the news had forced their way to the front of the line. At that point the manager of the event showed up and decided to allow me in after all.

        The manager was not very happy when I thanked her for providing more publicity for me than actually being in the debate would have.

        "If you make the slightest disturbance, I will have you thrown out."

        "I'll just be taking notes for my next newsletter."

       

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Freezing Dive, Diablo III Again

       I was on a ship in the arctic. The seas were washing up over the aft of the ship as it was extremely over loaded. I had some sort of thermal dive suit, but the water was still extremely cold. I dove down about 30 feet, the pressure was terrible in my ears, but the earplugs were working to keep the water out. I turned on the lamp over the facemask and went to work, picking up a combination of Canadian and US coins from the bottom of the bay. The coins were mostly pennies, but every so often I came across a nickel, or a dime, and even a couple of quarters before I had to kick my way back to the surface.
       No mystery now as to why the boat was riding so low in the water. I suggested that we put some of the coins in the air boat and tow them behind, just to make things a little bit safer. The captain decided to put all of us divers in the boat instead. I didn't like the sound of that. So on my next trip down I rigged a couple of spare tow ropes to the bottom of the main boat. Then on the next dive I connected them to our new boat. It got foggy and dark. The captain, at least, allowed us to change into dry warm clothing before putting all of us divers off in the boat. He started the motors and pulled away from us. He towed us for about 15 minutes, further out to sea rather than closer to shore. Then he cut the main tow line. Some of the divers tried to start the outboard engine, but it was dry.
       I'd already had the spare towline up in the boat, so we payed it out, only slowly putting pressure on it so we'd be far behind, and hopefully out of site. There was no sudden pull on his engines to give away that we were still there. He headed even further north, then opened up the throttles and turned inland again. Where ever we were going, I don't imagine that anyone was going to be happy to see us. There was one thermal dive suit in the boat, I changed into it (brrr) and when I could hear surf I pulled my way along the tow line and cut us loose. I pulled the boat through the surf and use a tree to tie off the tow rope. The rest of the divers pulled the boat ashore. Fortunately the inlet we found had little tiny waves only, I was the only one wet. We found a couple of empty shacks, they had firewood and some canned goods. One had a radio. I was more worried about freezing to death, personally, as I was still wet, than I was about not being rescued. I know we would be able to call for rescue. The Coast Guard emergency frequency was labled on the radio. I just wanted to survive long enough for our murderous former employer to get away from us.

       The next dream found me playing Diablo III, and the characters jumped off the screen and extended the map onto the living room floor, and then into the kitchen. There was a blue demon of The Smith's stature that I couldn't seem to run down. No matter what the attacks were, he jumped and regenerated his entire health bar.
       "We need magical attacks that he can't regenerate," said one of my networked players.
       "But all of our attacks are magical!" piped in another. "We just need to hit him all at the same time so he can't regenerate it all."
       "I don't think we can do enough damage, even if we each could hit him with our maximum attacks all at once," I added.
       "Well, we could all switch to poisen, at least that attack would keep knocking him down some."
       "How about if we just lure him away and take what we need from his room?" I asked.
       "No, we need to kill him, he's carrying the item we need."
       "Can he regenerate if he injures himself?" someone asked.
       "I don't know." I said. I summoned up several bone golems and moved in close to him to put a curse on him. He smashed the golems with a single blow each. He teleported, right next to me. I noticed that his bar didn't fill up all the way.He struck me, almost completely emptying my life orb, then he teleported away. I drank a full rejuvenation potion. Sweating from the near death experience. I summoned up another golem, this time one that naturally returned damage. "It's too bad you can't repair these without going back to town." I said out loud.
       Five town portals popped into existence around me.
       "OK, I'm going to make an army now, back in a bit, keep him hopping." I jumped out and ran out to make some more bone golems. They weren't as tough as the first set, but they would be a distraction, I hoped. I jumped back and we began the process of hitting the baddie all at once, and allowing him to smack my summoned critters. I would then jump back for repairs while the group kept hitting the bad guy, when I returned I found a couple of magic items on the round, both of them had stats that prevented monster heal. I used them to make a couple of more golems.
       I thought to myself how nice it was to not be limited to one golem. Apparently the new limit was 5 summoned critters, of any sort. So I couldn't really have an army of undead like in the previous version, but the five were pretty powerful, so it more or less balanced out.
       "That was tough. Next time, can't you go into GM mode and make it more reasonable?"
       "Hey, we survived, didn't we? No one killed, I was the only one who even came close." I was a little upset that the smith had targeted me and my summoned critters almost exclusively. I'd run through over a dozen full rejuvenation potions. The rest of the team each tossed out two potions, as though reading my thoughts.
       "Thanks, folks. I needed that."
       "You owe me 200 Gold pieces," M said.
       "Sheesh!" I picked up the gadget the smith had dropped. Apparently only the player who'd killed the smith could use it. It was huge, three by three. I had to go to town and drop off some charms to make room for it. I was glad I still had most of my powers from my skills rather than the charms (mostly extra speed.)
       Our group made its way through the living room back up onto the computer screen and into the final chamber. The final chamber was guarded by 5 tendril sprouting angels. We couldn't hit them at all until I held them in the beam of the artifact. The team offered to carry some of my stuff so I could go get my speed charms. The angels seemed to focus on the player with the artifact. I did a lot of summoning on the run. My weakness curse seemed to work on the angels that weren't in the beam, at least reducing the damage they could do, even though we couldn't damage them in return. Like the Smith earlier, they could damage themselves, so the Palidin and anyone with a damage returned shield was at least hurting them when the angels attacked. As I ran from the angels, I dropped potions for my companions to pick up. The dream ended after we killed the second angel. I was thinking this was really tough, and we'd be in a world of hurt if I got killed, I wasn't sure anyone else would be able to use the artifact.

Zombie, Zombie, Heart Attack Night Terror

        I had two chasing and fighting Zombie dreams last night. The first one took place on the hill outside my parent's house. N wanted to go hide in the house. I felt we had a better chance of avoiding the zombified neighbors outside. T-Rex and Ginger were helping us find an escape route. Dad had a pistol he wanted me to take, reminding me that I had to shoot them in the head or they wouldn't stop. I didn't bother to take the pistol as I knew that it wouldn't fire for me. Or if it did fire, I would somehow miss. N took the pistol, though. She was able to make it work.

        We managed to make our way down the street to our car and Nan only had to shoot two Zombies, we were able to avoid the other ones, thanks to the cats being able to tell where the zombies were lurking.

        In the second dream I was just with T-Rex and Ginger. We were hiding out in a light industrial area. There was no gun in this one and I seemed to be the only non-zombie other than the two cats. Ginger made a mad dash for a small opening in the wall of one of the buildings climbing up about 15 feet to a partially open window. T-Rex climbed up to my shoulder instead of making a break for it. I was worried about Ginger, as I didn't know if there were zombies in the building or not. I managed to get behind a large dumpster and started it rolling towards the building that Ginger entered. I knocked a couple of zombies out of the way with the dumpster, and trapped a couple of more against the building. I jumped up to the top of the dumpster and it was just tall enough to allow me to send T-Rex into the window.

        I had to jump down and get a regular garbage can to set on the back of the dumpster. The trip was about a two building run, most of the alley way. I used the can to knock back a couple of Zombies. I jumped back on top of the dumpster, balancing the trash can on the 4 inch wide flat lip. A zombie climbed up behind me, and I had to use the trash can to knock it into the dumpster. I closed the lid on it as it tried to climb out. The zombie was thick enough to almost make the lid level. I quickly put the trash can upside down on the lid and climbed up to the window. I kicked the can into the dumpster so the zombies wouldn't be able to easily follow me up.

        The building was very dark. Ginger and T-Rex were sitting hunched under a guard rail, tucked together in a ball Backs together against a beam. I looked over the railing. There were Zombies shuffling on the shop floor. It looked like a plastics place; there were several large vacuum-forming machines and a couple of milling and cutting stations. There was a wall full of injection molding machines, but none of them looked like they had power. There was a single ladder leading up to the narrow catwalk I was on. The lower part of the ladder was still closed in its solid locked case. The catwalk ran the length of the windows, but didn't seem to connect to the observation booth and offices on the other side of the building. I would have to somehow make my way across the window ledge on the end of the building. I know the cats could easily walk across. I didn't think it would be so easy for me. I couldn't quite make up my mind if I wanted to try for the observation room or not. I would have to break a window, it looked like, to get into the office. I also didn't know if there were zombies in the offices or not.

        I thought about waiting for daylight, hoping that the zombies would become dormant in daylight, more or less like in the movies. Somehow I doubted that would happen, though. I looked back out the window. The Zombies I'd crushed were being consumed by some of their companions. The one trapped in the dumpster had managed to get out from under the lid, but seemed unable to climb out of the dumpster. The zombie kept slipping and falling, tripping over the garbage in the dumpster. It didn't seem smart enough to right the trash can and use it to climb out of the dumpster. I wasn't too worried about them following me up into the building from outside.

        The third dream was a full on night terror, waking up unable to move, etc. It started out with my boss having a heart attack. I tried to get him to sit down and stay still. After about 5 minutes of coaxing I got him to sit in my rocking chair. I called the paramedics, and he decided to recline himself back.

        My boss was sitting too high in the chair, so it toppled backwards when he leaned back. Fortunately it is heavily padded. I struggled to right the chair, but left it reclined. Something pulled in my chest, and I fell next to the chair, unable to move, with the feeling of great weight on my chest. I struggled to wake up. There was a huge furry mass on my chest, I was unable to move. I could feel the adrenaline begin to pour into my blood. Still, nothing but heavy fur and no movement.

        I did wake up; Ginger was sleeping peacefully on my chest, not nearly as heavy as in the dream, but certainly a contributing factor. T-Rex was draped across both legs, also contributing to the held down feeling.

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Road Trip, Threesome? Shopping with T-Rex, Photographing Soccer Playing Moms

       A and I were trying to convince our wives to join us on a road trip. The reason it took some convincing was that we were going in a large hovercraft of our own design and construction. It looked like a steam turbine powered convertable. The skirt was about 3 feet high and the thing was larger than Cecil (my former beige plymouth satellite). The skirt was black, but the body panels were bright red. There was no chrome on the thing, the jet engines were the natural color of the metal parts that made them up, black and grey and copper colored. The whole thing ran on a combination of bio-fuel and the heater element was some sort of pre-fusion reaction, the heat of which was controlled by a rod that moved the reaction masses together or apart.
       I think I can see why they may have been reluctant to go along.

       I then dreamed that N and I were intimately involved. A tall blonde woman, who I don't recognize, entered our room and asked if she could join us. I was certainly up for that, this being my dream and all, but I did point her to N to ask her.
       "But she's asleep!"
       I looked and N wasn't asleep at all, she was quite actively involved in what we were doing. I pointed this out. The blonde just started taking her clothing off.
       Sadly that dream ended.

       I fell asleep again, this time I found myself in the luggage section of a department store, right next to the sports section. The sports bags were filling the aisle just between the two sections. "Nice segue," I thought to myself. T-Rex started meowing for attention.
       "What do you want, Kitten Boo?"
       He stretched up to his full height, front paws raised over his head. He sometimes does this when he wants to get picked up. This time he danced away and kept focused on something over my head at the same time. I looked up. There was a red and black sports bag with open mesh sides and ends.
       I stood up and touched it. "You want this?"
       T-Rex meowed and let me pick him up. He climbed up to my shoulder and with one paw on my head, used the other to try to pull the bag off the shelf.
       "OK, I got it." I pulled a box down. T-Rex looked disappointed and started going into his long cat mode again. I opened the box and pulled out a copy of the bag. T sniffed it. I pulled out the paper padding and he hopped right in. I guess he was tired of walking. I couldn't remember what I'd really come in for, so headed for the checkout counter.

       I then dreamed that I was at a party. There were many very sexy women at this party. I asked where they were from. Although they looked at me as though I should have knows, they answered that they an adult women's soccer team, and they were celebrating their mostly winning season. I had my camera, and a nice external flash mount with connections to a battery pack. Small groups of the women would ask me over to take their photos. So I figured that was what I was doing at the party.
       As the party progressed the wine flowed and the women got more provocative in their posing. It seemed to get warmer in the place, and soon I began to see piles of clothing here and there. It didn't take long for the women to start posing for even racier pictures. I'd already filled a couple of half Gig memory sticks when someone asked me join in. I found myself wishing I'd had a timed delay on the camera, though I knew I could put it in movie mode, for a half hour or so, that was really low resolution compared to what I'd been shooting.
       So I resisted them, causing them to become even more exhibitionist in the process. I got some great shots, and then, when the last memory stick was full, allowed myself to be sucked into the swirling mass of femininity.

Rapter Run, Theater at the Mount

       The first dream was something convoluted with a large hungry raptor involved in the plot. I think it was chasing us through the halls of an ancient underground ruin in the someplace very cold. Tierra Del Fuego, or Argentina, or even Antarctica perhaps.

       This was followed by the dream of going to work at the last minute on a show at the new MCHS theater. There was one of the AP's making a presentation to a group of four classes, all the while our tech crew were trying to assemble and paint sets behind him. The AP kept leaping about the stage, then over the orchestra pit then again back onto the stage with a drop and roll thrown in. The kids were hooting and hollering. Then one of our large set pieces got wheeled across the stage in front of him.
       Lots of booing and hissing from the crowd. I decided to head back and ask the crew to avoid moving things across the apron while there was a show going on, even if it wasn't ours.
       The Stage Manager was a "tough" who didn't want to listen to me, because I wasn't there every day. I explained that I'd paid my dues and understood his feelings, but that we should be supportive of anything that makes our venue look good, and especially if it involves people who have the power to make improvements in our situation, or to make things difficult for us. I suggested we just move upstage for the rest of the performance, not a big issue for us, we would have to do so during our own show.
       For some reason this triggered a completely unexpected and violent reaction. The Stage Manager grabbed my arms behind my back and started pushing me toward the wall. Obviously meaning to ram me into it. I started running towards the wall, we flashed by a couple of crew. I jumped up just as I reached the wall and ran up it enough to flip myself over the top of him, his speed carried him into the wall face first, and since he still had my arms in his hands he had no protection. I managed to land behind him without stumbling too much. I helped him up. "I think we'd better get you to the nurses office for some ice." I was pretty sure the tough's nose was broken. I was also sure I'd pulled both shoulders out of the sockets, but refused to show any of the pain I felt until this particular lesson was over.
       The director asked "What happened?" and she acted like she knew it was something she didn't want to have to deal with.
       I decided to help her out, "Just a little horseplay upstage. Your stage manager ran into the wall. We're just going to get some ice while the crew puts the base coat on the rest of the set pieces."
       "I ding I boke my node..."
       "Yeah, we may have to call the paramedics just to be on the safe side. I'll take care of the accident report, since I was right there when it happened."
       I figured I'd go right to the doctor myself after I got him shipped off.

Alley Production Dream, After Party

I dreamed I was directing a show that was taking place in a long
alleyway, the audience would move from one scene to the next on a large
wheeled platform and the scenery would be pulled away as the scene ended
and the platform would move on to the next scene. I was distracted by
the fluffy white and red cat; she kept stealing the scene by racing
through the alley ahead of the platform.
I managed to coax her up onto the platform and she stretched out
next to me, purring and turning her head upside down (Flirting, N and I
call it) at me. The dream shifted and I was lying on a cot, the cat was
still with me, but much more cramped now.
I had to get up and dress for a party. There were several
celebrities at our reception; most were focused on the actors in our
little show. After a long while, a person who I didn't recognize came up
and asked what I'd had to do with the show, after introducing himself. I
recognized him as an art designer, I told him I designed and directed
the show. He told me he really loved the prison scene. It figures, that
was the only set I'd had help on the design, I just couldn't get it
scary enough. "S put in the fright, I put in the light."
"The lighting made it work."
I waved S over to introduce him, but he was surrounded by
celebrities.
Guillermo Del Toro was making his way into the crown and spotted
his designer talking to me. He was talking about 60 miles an hour,
excited, wanting to talk to the writer, the producers, wanting to buy
the film rights, wanting to use the cast currently in the movie. He had
a crumple copy of the program with S and my names circled.
After introducing myself, I took Sr. Del Toro over to introduce
him to S. S wasn't interested at first (the celebrities were prettier
than us) but pretty soon the celebrities had all become quite so they
could make out what Del Toro was saying.
The dream shifted again and I was back in my cot backstage with
the fluffy cat curled up on my shins. I couldn't pull the blanket up
over my shoulders without disturbing the cat, so just rested, trying to
keep a pillow over as much of my shoulders as I could and still breathe.

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