Road Tripping in the New Car

I dreamed that I traded in my Insight for an all electric vehicle, a sleek, four seat, deep cargo well all wheel drive vehicle. It was a dark metallic maroon color. Since I wasn't going to always be on the grid when I stopped, and I was planning on travelling all the way to Colorado to meet someone, I packed not only everything I would need to wear for the trip, but an extra battery pack and solar cell banks, and an air bed. I had a little Honda generator so I could recharge overnight if there were no charging stations or hotels. My plan was to only drive each day until the batteries were half depleted each. The generator was mounted in a little exterior alcove so I could run the thing and charge either battery as I was driving. The solar panels on the roof didn't really power anything more than the phone and radio. There was a little five gallon tank that would run the generator for a little over nine hours. I carried a spare gas tank just in case. It was a pretty cute little set up. I stopped to visit a couple of my former student/gamer friends and their new baby. (Wasn't really a baby any more in the dream.) D and R both looked like they were healthy and happy. The baby was zooming around crashing into things. I was glad they hadn't come to my very un-childproofed house. We played a couple of hands of Scarabs and Side Scroller, just so I could get their feedback. I left them a prototype deck of scarabs, because the baby seemed to like the illustrations, and giggled lots while sorting them out by color or shape. Before I left, we drank a toast to our fallen gamer friend. I then went on my way, headed to Colorado, but I don't remember any more of that trip.

Later on I drove up to my sister's. It had been raining a lot, so the batteries of the rover were both pretty much depleted and I'd only made it because I'd been running the generator the last several hours taking turns topping off whatever battery I'd just used to climb the latest grade, the batteries weren't really designed to be deep discharged multiple times per day, so this trip was an experiment to see if I could make an eleven hour drive in less than two days. By the time I got to the base of her hill. She was there waiting for me anyway. She showed me where to park (next to her little purple car on a little raised gravel bed) and said the road was washed out so we'd have to hike the half mile up the hill. I topped off my little generator and started it up, locking the access door. I hadn't really planned for this trip very well, so I only had a small bag of stuff, not even a full change of clothing, as I'd only intended to stay a day or so. We hiked up the gravel road and came to the place where the road was washed out. There were a couple of shallow stands of stone, only a few inches below the surface of the water that was now part of a lake rather than their lower pasture. My sister was barefoot, and she hiked up her skirt and waded in. The water was only a few inches deep. I only had the one pair of shoes (my blue Nike runners, and I didn't want to get them wet, so I took off my shoes and socks and followed her across. While I was in the middle of the crossing it started to rain. So much for keeping my shoes dry. One of the stoned rocked down a few inches as I reached the edge and I ended up soaking the bottom of my pants, even though I'd rolled them up. I managed to keep my balance and jumped across to another stone slab, it also shifted precariously under my weight. then to an asphalt slab, which started to crumble when I landed on it. I scrambled a bit and then was up on the gravel road bed, what was left of it. I used my socks to dry off my feet as best I could and then stepped into my shoes. I couldn't walk on the gravel road like my sister, my feet just aren't that tough any more. I greeted J when we got to the house. He had pulled out some clothes for me, as I was soaked by the time we got there.

Jim insisted that I stay a couple more days than I'd planned, because he wanted me to witness my sister and him renewing their vows. I pointed out that the clothes we just put in the dryer were the only ones I had, as my visit had been sort of a whim. He said he would loan me a suit, as he thought he had one that might fit. "Besides, if the rain keeps up, you might not be able to get out for a couple of days." We geeked out a bit over my new electric vehicle. Which I had essentially turned back into a hybrid. (Calculating it now, I see I was getting just shy of eighty miles per gallon, not counting that both batteries were fully charged on house current, of course, so way less than that.)

Driving

Two dreams about driving. In the first, I was driving Little Red, up the hill and down the hills, monitoring the battery charge, when the rain came. Lights and wipers always make the battery deplete faster than normal, so I started looking for someplace to stop for the duration of the storm. I was headed home from a convention and had a trunk full of dirty clothes and one small box of unsold games, plus the stand-up displays in the back. I hadn't packed any blankets so only had a light jacket, and no rain gear. I came to a flooded part of the road and had to pull off. The road was divided so there was no way to go back. Cars were behind me, with higher clearances, and they forged on ahead through the flood. I am glad I stopped. The water would have been half way up my doors. I backed up the little hill when it was clear to do so, as the water across the hollow was getting higher. I wanted to turn around, but the road was divided, and I couldn't see a way to get over to the other side. Eventually other cars stopped and the shoulder also filled up so I couldn't back up any further.

In the second dream, I was driving a convertible, top down, wind whipping across the car as I barreled down the I-15 outside of Rainbow, right past a CHP officer with a radar gun on the side of the road. As he mounted up, I swooshed off the next off ramp and pulled into a parking lot. The officer sailed right past and down the road. That's when I noticed the little white convertible half way up the hill. I pulled out of the parking lot and headed after him. I didn't want someone else to be stuck with my ticket. The officer wouldn't believe me, so I left the poor woman my phone number with a note to call me when it was her court date.

Night Watch, Locked Out

Lots of dreams lately, but too much going on to have taken the time to write them down. Last night was a doozy, though, three thrilling episodes (of which I remember the first and last.)

In the first dream of the trio, I was having trouble sleeping, so got up and was wandering the space station's shopping mall. The mall was a giant eight story collection of shops and services (mostly the latter.) The mall was crowded, despite the hour, as many visitors to the space station kept their own local time. The sunlit forest and farm areas were exposed to daylight 24/7, and the mall and research labs, where I worked, were on the "night" side of the station. The police force of the daylight side were called the "Frangers" (short for "forest rangers") and the night side station security were the "Night Watch." Both security forces were headed up by the station security office, but all of the members but the Chief and his two deputies were volunteers. There was an application for the Frangers, but there were never any positions listed for the Night Watch, even though there seemed to be plenty of them.

I was strolling from the lighter "gravity" area down to the heavier rings of the mall to do the 12 staircase circuit when I heard the Night Watch announce the time, one fifteen am, and "all's well, lots of walkers out this morning." followed by a smile, more felt than heard. I had never experienced that before. I stopped in my tracks and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, then realized it had been in my head. Odd, that. I relaxed and closed my eyes, I could hear a half dozen people checking in with the same "All clear here" and the like. I'd never noticed that before on any of my walks. I decide to try something.

"Good morning, can anyone hear me?" I thought with the intent of someone hearing it.

The chatter stopped for a second, and then there were a chorus of "yes's" and genuine well wishes with only one sort of worried greeting. I wondered if I'd make a mistake. I noticed one of the Night Watch looking around, checking out the crowd, a confused look crossed her face. "I wonder if he's still out there, I can't feel anybody but us. Hello?"

I waved at the Night Watch officer, a strawberry blond in her fifties, slightly plump in a way her smartly cut uniform couldn't quite disguise. "Was it you?" I heard her think to me. Clearly as if she'd spoken. I found it more than a little odd, as I didn't believe in psychic powers, but then realized it must be a side effect of my Hall implant.

"I think so," I thought directly for her. She smiled and approached. I could hear her checking to see if anyone else had heard me, they hadn't. That didn't surprise me, as the message had been for her alone.

"Welcome to the Night Watch."

"Don't I have a choice in that?"

"Sort of, join us, or have the implant removed and be sent dirt side."

I realized that the implant wasn't removable, as I'd purchased it myself while living on earth. She didn't know that, as most station employees had theirs "on loan" from the station owners' association. Being sent dirt side would put a kink in my research plans, not to mention aggravate my allergies and arthritis.

We talked for a bit, long enough for the "all's well" to be sent out again, along with lots of questions about me.

"Yeah, you can't hear him unless he's talking directly to you, or broadcasting, pretty amazing control for a breakthrough."

"Oh, finally a new dispatcher!" I heard a very excitable sounding girl's voice ring in my head.

"Let's not get ahead of our selves here. He's a TopSec Research, Custom, Private already working three fifths. I doubt they'll let him go a full shift with us.

"Awww," the little red-haired girl sounded disappointed.

It sounded like I was just going to be a civilian volunteer, plains-clothed, and only when the insomnia kicked in and I was going for my walks. But it was kind of nice to feel like a part of something larger.

-----

The second dream had something to do with a solar powered aircraft, but I don't remember more than that, and a very crowded feeling cockpit. And the color orange.

-----

The third dream was this morning. I was staying in the convention hotel, but wasn't attending the convention. I was there to make contact with a couple from China, and to give them the papers and instructions to make their way to a safe house so that they could defect. I was staying with a partner, we were registered as a husband and wife. We had an adjoining balcony with the Chinese couple. I was napping outside in my robe after the exchange had been made, and was trying to see if I could get a ticket to the last day of the convention. My partner wasn't interested. When she retired to our room, I took a long drink of water, then fell asleep. When I woke up, I couldn't get back into my room, the sliding door was locked.

I checked the other room, the Chinese couple had left during the night. Their door was open but I didn't have my room key, so I didn't want to go out into the hall since I was just wearing my robe and flip flops. I scooted back across the balcony and knocked on the slider. There was a woman in her underwear sprawled out on the bed. Nicely shaped, too bad we hadn't had time to be more married like. I could see luggage, but it wasn't mine or the other agents. I began to wonder just how long I'd been asleep. The woman woke with a start and rolled over. It wasn't the other agent, she quickly covered up.

She picked up the phone, so I shouted "thank you." and turned away, looking out over the city.

A few minutes later a hotel manager sort appeared. I explained that I had fallen asleep on the balcony (it had been a warm pleasant night with a gentle cool breeze) and meanwhile, it appears that my "wife" had checked us out. I didn't have my luggage, clothes or even a room key. I told him the Chinese couple next door had been pleasant but very quiet. He actually remembered them. After a few minutes of trying to figure out how I'd gotten on the wrong balcony, he discovered that my car was still in the Valet parking. I suggested that we move out of my former room, as we were making the current occupant uncomfortable, she was covered in a thin sheet, not having dressed.

We moved over the the adjoining now empty room. The Hotel computer had somehow "lost" my hotel reservation records, as well as the room next door. I considered myself fortunate that the assistant manager had remembered the Chinese couple, so knew my story wasn't a complete fabrication. I would need to stop and fuel the car once before making it home, so asked if I could borrow a shirt and shorts from the gift shop, he had my vehicle information and home address.

Not without a credit card or cash, they said. They would let me keep the robe, though. The assistant manager thought a moment and then said he had some lost and found items I could probably use. When the car was brought around, my bags were in it! (But not my "wife's.") I was able to retrieve my wallet, and tipped him forty dollars for not making a big scene about it. The hotel management was very polite about it.

Lost at Sea

I was driving through the desert with J, re-living our recent vacation, when the news came on the radio that we were lost at sea.

Odd, that. We were quite plainly driving across the desert, and I had more than half a tank of gas left. At least until the life preservers popped open.

Then there was suddenly no gas gauge, and Little Red was a life raft with a half shelter on it. We were still in the desert.

J was worried that they would never find us, but I was pretty sure we'd be okay, as we were stopped in the middle of the road.

Evacuation

The city I work in was being evacuated. I headed over to my parent's house, where I found a note saying they'd already left for Whyoming. As I drove down the street, I came across some fools who'd broken down along the road. I had rented a large Humvee sort of thing, so invited them aboard.

A couple of miles later, we came across a couple truck loads of soldiers, they too had broken down. I offered to take them to their evacuation point, so they climbed on the outside of the vehicle. For some reason the mom of the group thought that was too dangerous, as the zombies might get the. I pointed out that zombies weren't part of the problem, poisoned water supplies and radiation cloud was. The sargent of the squad riding on my bright red Humvee asked me to drive across country to get to the bridge evacuation point faster. I had to slow down enough to keep the soldiers from bouncing off, but we still made goo time, and managed to avoid the rockets that screamed overhead, pockmark in the roadway. we appeared to be the last group out, so the road being blown up was without casualties. Though the Sargent didn't say so, I got the impression that we were the ones blowing up he road, not the terrorists who'd put plutonium dust in the water supply.

------

This afternoon was a mostly calmer dream until it wasn't... I was starting a new job subbing in a school in the swampy part of the country. I was walking through the halls when I noticed that all the women teachers were les than five foot tall, and all the men but myself were over six foot tall. Every junction in the halls had double doors, a natural choke point we manned to keep an eye on the kids as they travelled between classes. N was going to school there and wasn't happy about it. He took my keys and keyed J's car. I called him a couple of rude names, immediately felt that was bad decision, as he then tossed the keys into the stream along side the road. I had just picked him up to toss him in after them when I spotted the alligator and snatched him back to the bank, pulling him up seconds before the critter's jaws snapped shut.

Elementary Independence Day Pageant

I had loaded six POE switches onto the back deck of my Little Red car and headed out to an elementary school to replace some of the older switches. (Putting in some new wireless and expanding the phone system as well.) When I got to the school, there was traffic control. I was directed away from the back parking lot, then told I had to wait until they had a white car and a blue car to go with me. They were having their Independence Day pageant, and wanted me to drive in their parade, because there was a shortage of red cars. I asked where the non red white and blue cars were parking, and the person indicated they were using the lot across the street. I didn't really want to lug six switches all the way across the street so decided to play along.

As I was waiting, two lines of moms went by, each in white with red stars halter tops,  blue and white striped shorts, and cork-bottomed platform clogs like the '70s. There were close to 150 of them, all with slender, nicely curved figures. Waiting suddenly did't seem like that bad of an idea. I wondered how they'd found so many good looking moms, but then remembered there were over 600 families at the school, so there were lots to pick from. There were a half dozen dads thrown in, they were in white shirts, red and blue suspenders and similar blue and white striped shorts. The dads weren't in platforms, but red and white boating shoes with one red sock and one blue sock. The men weren't uniformly attractive like the women.

We followed the parade into the main parking lot and were directed to park in our red, white, and blue order. I got out and opened up the hatch so I could carry in my switches. When I turned to head into the school, I noticed the people in costume were walking along a makeshift runway, constructed of boards and chairs, people had to step from chair to chair to make their way to the stage. I felt sorry for the women in their platform clogs, but it was quite the bouncy and shimmying spectacle. I waited for the procession to go into the school quad and then followed on with half my load of switches.

As I passed by the quad I noticed the principal trying to convince an older woman in a bright green and pink sari to move out of the front row - so that she could have people dressed in red white and blue sit there. I just shook my head, knowing that might not end well.

I swapped out the switches and decided to pop into the quad to see more of the patriotic display, the moms were waiving sparklers or pom-poms, dancing four to five on raised platforms around the quad. The principal was speaking on the center stage, and then a Sousa March started playing and the principal was marching through a number that culminated with her being lifted up by the six dads while simultaneously changing into a liberty hat and sparkling torch.

When I got back to the office I was telling J about the display with the older women and she mentioned that the principal and performers there were way out of our class, so likely wouldn't even have a second thought about asking grandma to move.

Over the Edge

Driving down a steep mountain road. I was in the passenger seat, enjoying the view. It was sunny and clear, amazing views and the AC was working well so the inside of the car was comfortable despite the noonday sun. We started to pick up speed, not wanting to lose the two cars ahead of us. (Even though we weren't actually travelling together.)

I wanted to say something along the lines of "no need to rush," when the two cars ahead of us didn't manage to navigate the switchback and the second car broke through the guard rail. The first car managed to spark and scrape along, but then flipped over the damaged railing just as I thought it was going to stop, toppling into a drainage culvert and vanished out of site over the edge. We were also going too fast, but now there wasn't a guard rail to keep us from sailing right out there as well. The second car had taken the already damaged rail out. The tires and brakes both screeched in protest. I tightened my belt and tilted the seat down just as we slid sideways over the edge of the road (me first.)

I sort of was hoping we'd go over front first so we might get a little steering action, and the front facing airbags might be useful, but we went sideways over the edge, and immediately lost all contact with the ground. I ducked even deeper into the seat as the car began to roll over in the air.  I could tell it would be thirty or forty feet before we were back in touch with the ground, and that ground was steep enough to still call a cliff face for another hundred feet or more. I was pretty sure there was no way we could survive this one.

Strangled, Reclaimed House

Had a dream that started off serene enough. I was parked in a parking structure downtown, just checking my phone for the e-ticket to whatever event I was about to attend. And moving the porta-potty to the back seat. I heard a noise outside the car and turned just as someone reached into the car and wrapped a belt around my neck. I managed to get a couple of fingers under it before they pulled it tight, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough if I didn't act fast. I turned so the main pressure wasn't on my esophagus and kicked away from the door - it tightened the belt, but also forced the person into the side of the car. The dream ended before I could tell if that helped or not.

This morning's dream was muck nicer. I was in a hilly area outside of the Dream City, just down the hill from Cemetary House, where there were several old abandoned buildings. I had purchased them and was in the process of renovating them. I'd finished the master bedroom and a ball room and the kitchen. In the process I'd hired the displaced people to do the work, and they had renovated small homes for themselves. There was a child who no one claimed, however, so I made sure that there were a couple of rooms that could be used as bedrooms and let the child have first pick.

-----

Later in the night I was inspecting the roof and retaining wall behind the master bedroom, it was built into a hillside with a small private patio on the roof and to each side. It was starting to rain so I had gone up to the top patio to close the umbrella and take it in. I found another child sleeping in a damp pile of bedding stuffed under the picnic table. I convinced the child to come inside, and introduced him to my new staff.

No one knew who his or her parents were, either. I took the child to the front of the house where the guest rooms were. There were two sparten but clean rooms with a common bathroom between them. I told him he could stay in the room the other child hadn't chosen. I went to introduce them, hoping they knew one another, but she wasn't in her room. One of my new employees said the child became frightened of the storm and went to the master bedroom to sleep by the fireplace. She wasn't sure she liked that. I told her the children were allowed to go wherever they felt safe, it would be okay. She was welcome to come up and check on her to make sure she was all right. The new child asked to sleep by the fire, too. The house itself was cold, as I only had heat from one fireplace and the other furnaces weren't working yet. We hadn't even cleared the rubble out of the stairs down into the basement.

I took the pillows and blanket off the guests (or childrens') beds, taking a moment to show the child how the hammock linen storage worked. (A bright blue hammock above the bed with extra blankets and pillows in it. The child asked if he could sleep in it.

"Sure."

The child brought the hammock down and then took the pillows I'd taken off the mattress below and tossed them into the hammock. The little dark haired child's face poked out of a pile of linens and pillows, smiling for the first time of the evening. "I can really stay here?"

"Yes."

The child grabbed the rope and pulled the hammock up above the bed, looking down at us contentedly.

I asked the tall blonde women to bring some snacks for the kids. "I guess we'll be camping by the fire tonight." We went back through the large dining hall, I explained that I was going to recondition all the rooms so they looked like this.

"Empty, you mean" I looked around, there was a single round card sized table with a jade top and a small lamp, at the table was a single embroidered cushioned chair.

I laughed, "no, clean, with nice walls and floors, there'll be plenty of furniture in time. We haven't even decided what to do with all of this space yet."

Road Trip

I dreamed that I was on a road trip with three cars, and only two drivers. So we would drive half a day, then go back to get the other car. Little Red was making the trip with both J and myself, so I was essentially driving three times the actual distance. We were shuttling other folks in the two bigger cars, and I don't know why none of our other friends could drive, just that they absolutely were not allowed to take the wheel. The groups of friends who were taking each leg of the trip also changed at every other stop it seemed.

At one of our stops we were staying in a living room. However, our hosts had not mentioned that they were going to have a huge party the next day. We awoke when the first group of about a dozen women arrived. We were sleeping on the couch, J in her jammies and me, in not so much. The room with our clothes was being used by women who were preparing themselves to perform for the rest of the party. It was pretty tricky trying to move around in just a thin blanket until we could get into the room to get my clothing, all while more and more guests were arriving.

Celebrity Time Tour, UFOs, and Random Voice

In the first dream of the evening, I was invited on a Celebrity Time Tour. Something, however, went horribly awry and we were separated from our guide. I spotted a young Mark Hamill along a boardwalk, so pointed him out to the other tourists who were starting to panic. Sadly, the younger ones of the group had no idea who that was. Sigh. I remembered that we were supposed to just hang out and watch, not interact with the future celebrities, or that could alter history. (The guide did tell us that history was pretty resilient, but we'd better behave just in case.) The trip planning had involved a lot of questions about who we might be related to, as that seemed to be the one thing that screwed up history fairly easily.

We went across the boardwalk and started discussing the wooden jacuzzi tubs that were set into the bathing pools. Some folks wondered why they'd been removed. I pointed out that even with careful cleaning, wood tubs could harbor fungus and bacteria better than other materials. I pointed out that it was still a neat style, and that we could easily replicate it with sanitary substitutes given a little investment push. As the discussion progressed, I realized that the young Mark Hamill had joined in the discussion. He seemed to think it was a pretty good idea, actually.

We tried to withdraw from the conversation gracefully, and finally the tour guide had to come up and take me away, "Grandpa, you need to get your meds now, sorry young man."

"That's okay, it was cool to meet you."

We got back to our time tour HQ without further issues, and there was Mark Hamill, "Hey, I remember you!"

"Please tell my you agreed to make a movie called 'Star Wars'?" I asked.

"Star What?" then he broke out into a huge laugh. "I did want to show you this, though."

He had an investment promo for faux-wood pool accessories. "I started this company. Sales are great. Thanks for the idea. I was trying to get a time tour to go back and find your family so I could pass some of the success along... well, we see how that turned out."

It was now my turn to laugh.

-----

In the next dream I was having trouble with my asthma and so we were packing up Little Red so I could get home and get medicated. (The car med-kit was apparently dry.) As we sat in the car a line of UFO's crossed the beach about a hundred yards off shore. I quickly got out the cell phone and started shooting HD video. My passenger complained "why do they always look like god-damned Tupperware?"

Three of the four UFO's turned edge on to the ocean and dove out of sight. The fourth one, which looked more like one of those round hot tubs, bounced down into the waves, where it was obvious that it was, in fact, one of those round vinyl covered hot tubs. There were four very frightened people in the tub. We got out of the car and raced down the beach to help pull them in to shore. I was still having trouble breathing, but didn't want to miss their story because of a little thing like that.

-----

As I lay in bed, trying to ignore the alarm light, I heard a voice (concerned, male, deeper than my own) say "He died this morning, shortly after two a.m." It made me sad.

Driving in My Car

I turned up the radio, to drown out the sound of the grumbly engine and tires. The clutch felt like it had gravel in it and the accelerator kept sticking in spots or making an arcing and sizzling noise. I remember thinking I shouldn't have driven it across the stream a few miles back. Finally I just got fed up with it and got out. The day from the view in the car was windy and wet, outside the car, sunny with a pleasant cool breeze.

I shouldered my computer bag, grabbed a bottle of water, and set out for home. I cut out across a meadow at one point, and surprised a pair of cheetah cubs. They started following me, so I doubled back to the meadow, hoping their mom would summon them away from me. When that didn't happen I left them a cat food tin and headed home while they were distracted.

They caught up with me just as I was raising my garage door. They raced past me and into the house, where, by the time I got there, Teddy and Giles had cornered them and were cleaning their ears. I figured they'd work it all out and put everything down so I could head out and bring the car home, since the empty garage made me feel guilty for abandoning the car.

When I got back to the car it was upside down, so I found a couple of plastic shopping bags and wrapped it up to keep the bugs out. I really wished I had the cell phone so I could call for a tow truck, but it was in the computer bag at home. Then I realized the car fit in a pair of shopping bags, so scooped it up with both arms and carried it home.

R asked me why I wasn't driving it today. I replied that it was "being bad."

Tubers to Hell and Back

The dream started with myself and the brown haired female companion making our way over a fence into a backyard that was completely overgrown with different berry bushes and a plant that had large manioc like tubers. We had a long discussion about how to identify if these were the edible sort, or the poison variety that needed special processing to be edible. Neither of us seemed to know what that migh be, however. We harvested some of the tubers, being careful to not damage the host plant in the process. We took a lot of the ripe berries as well.

Once the back of Little Red was full we headed out on the freeway into the island valley, as we both felt the coast would be too crowded, and there might not be enough water over the long term.

As we were headed across the valley we were forced off the road by a large line of wrecked traffic, we bounced across the flat valley floor, and came to a ridge line that overlooked a wide valley with three symbols on the floor of the even deeper valley below us. We chose to head to the one on our right, as it looked the most like it might be an airfield. I turned Little Red down the hill and we bounced and bobbled over the rough ground, finally coming to an access road of little better smoothness than the plains I'd been driving on. We parked and decide to hike into the central area where there were some lights.

The center of the area was filled with planes. We didn't find any of the pilots, however, we did find a portal of some sort, and it looked like a passageway directly to hell. Just as we decided that retreat would be a better option, we were confronted by a large demonic lamia. Without any hesitation we bundled her up and dragged her back to the portal. When we tossed her through it, the portal closed.

I drove Little Red down into the center of the airfield, but  it was pretty obvious that the off reading had taken its toll on my little car. We searched around for a suitable plane and settled on a single engine plane that still had full tanks. We found some solar panels and set them up to recharge my car, and decided to fly the plane out to look for a tire shop that we could land near. I wasn't to sure about the last bit, but my companion seemed confident that she could land the plane and take off again as long as the roadway was clear. That, of course, was my exact concern, that we wouldn't find a suitable runway.

Being airborn was a liberating feeling, and we both remarked that it was a shame that we couldn't just stay in the air all the time. I suggested that we should see if there was a blimp available. She headed the plane towards the coast, as she knew where the Goodyear blimp hangers were located.

Dream Lands Elevator

In the first dream I remembered (at least part of) my sister and I had been visiting the Dream City together (a first as far as I can remember.) We had a short companion, at first I thought my niece, who recently passed, but no, it was someone else. Nonetheless, I was feeling pretty melancholy about the resemblance. The three of us were at the base of the exit to reality, when I happened to notice that there was an elevator, a little bent but still sturdy looking. I looked up the seven hundred plus stairs, and then at the elevator and shrugged. Why not?

So we took the elevator up to the nearby ridge that separates the Dream Lands from Reality. We spoke for a bit and the short woman promised she'd be back later. We stepped out at the top of the ridge, after a long rickety ride that had me wondering if this had really been a good idea after all. When I crossed the threshold of the elevator I woke up.

[I re-arranged the cats. They had positioned themselves such that I was getting no benefit from the AC unit I'd moved from my office to the bedroom. It was blowing cold air on them, though, so they wanted to cuddle. ]


After I fell back to sleep I had a travelling dream. Little Red loaded to the gills with supplies like clothing, bedding, dry foods, water, RPG tools, etc. The short ash blonde woman was with me. "Told you I'd be back!" she bubbled at me. She was still very short, easily under four feet, slender but with curvy hips and calves, her hair was short, but feminine and her lips full. I couldn't really tell if her eyes were blue, green or hazel, they seemed to shift with the light. She had a pleasant voice, not as highly pitched as you might expect for her small size. It was a delightful trip, we ended up in Boulder Colorado for an Anime Convention, where we'd been invited to run an RPG (my gig) and talk on a couple of design panels (her gig.) We ended up at a pretty wild party, where there was an ever full fountain of soft drink punch - highly spiked.

My companion got a lot frisky and started up an "Anime Pose Recreation Game" where things started out innocently enough but the posses slowly got more and more provocative, and the clothing started to come off. Viewers voted on the points per pose on a completely made up scale ranging from one half for folks who chickened out up to a million when my companion stripped down to her boy shorts and sports bra. The last challenge that came our way was a pose from an "accidentally compromising" moment in an Anime that I can't now recall, it basically had us splayed out arms and legs akimbo with our crotches together. Another cool bazillion points from the onlookers, after I warned them this would be our last one, because if we did this I would "need to take her away now."

My companion's answer was, "woo hoo! See you all later!" I noticed that her nipples had become all sorts of perky under her grey and blue bra.

I knew I was deeply in love, or some four letter word starting with "l."

We probably would have gotten more points but we decided that it might not be a good idea to take my pants off, as my under shorts didn't look at all like gym shorts, which hers could sort of pass for. I don't even know what sort of prize we won from the party hosts, but I liked my personal prize for 'playing along' a lot better, I'm sure. (The dream, sadly, didn't go into that. The End: we were untangling ourselves and she was trying to cover my excitement, only making it worse, of course.)

Haunted Car

I dreamed that I was called in to work on a car that had been possessed by a Hostile Alien Life Form With Intent to Terminate. (Thank you brain, this is funny now, but I didn't "get it" during the rather terrifying dream.) It was like "Christine" but without the ghosts or any subtlety. The vehicle quite clearly intended to do away with anyone who came within doors' reach, unless they had the keys and were likely to start the vehicle up so it could take its rampage on the road.

I managed to call the entity down, and then, for some dumb reason, insulted the entity while I was actually inside the vehicle. My watching self was screaming at my dream self for being an idiot. I was able to cut the seatbelt that was strangling me, but had to break a window when the car rolled it up on my neck. It kept opening and closing the door, trying to catch bits of me in the doorframe or the broken glass. It would pretend to be gone but I knew that if I tried to exit the vehicle it would catch me. Despite the terrifying nature of the dream, it was just a fairly regular nightmare rather than a night terror.

The really scary part was how quickly everyone in the garage vanished when it was trying to slam the doors on me. I thought they were going for the jaws of life or something, but they vanished and didn't come back to help at all.

Driving in My Car

I turned up the radio. N had called needing a ride from the border crossing. Not sure why she called me, other than knowing that I wouldn't say no. The crossing was oddly empty of cars on the US side of things. I pulled into the loading zone and N got in the car. Heading home, the border plaza was more crowded. This was one of those dreams where the signs and arrows on the road didn't seem to mean anything but to me. Cars wandered across the concrete expanse in buffalo like herds, with about as much organization. I found myself headed up the wrong way into oncoming traffic at one point and barely managed to get over and turned around without an accident. After much pursed lip complaint from my unhappy passenger, I finally got the routes sorted out and drove N home.

Her new home was quite the luxury affair, multiple large TV's, comfy couches, rich thick carpets, heavy elegant drapes. I was surprised she didn't just call a cab, but looking around couldn't see anything that really looked like N in the rooms. We sat on the couch for a bit, chit chatting. eventually she leaned into me and we cuddled. I was pleased that she no longer stank of weed ash, I was thinking perhaps she'd completely re-invented herself this time. We sat enjoying one another's warmth until the large screen TV popped to life, showing a bunch of squealing bikini clad volleyball players romping around in slow motion. From the cinematography and hair styles (and high legged bikini bottoms) I could tell the film was shot in the late seventies. I was able to ignore the TV after the initial onslaught (a 'bird in the hand' and all of that.) N, however, was disturbed by it, though strangely hesitant about doing anything about it. That is, until the bikini tops started flying off. She got up and headed deeper into the house with a purpose. I hesitated a split second before I followed her, enjoying the fact that the producers hadn't hired a bunch of silicone injected models for their shoot, and realized that was a later development. I hurried after N, expecting her to be looking for a remote, I wanted to ask "why not just power it down manually" without worrying about...

We entered a small den, where there was a young man playing on a computer. N asked, politely, if he could turn off the TV in the front room. His answer was simply "no" and a sarcastic smile. N was surprisingly meek about that answer.

N led me outside the house, confessing that she had not exactly been truthful with me about where she lived.

I made the mistake of saying "that's not really a surprise."

She said "you don't have to be an asshole about it."

I realized that was exactly what my comment was, and she was right; I didn't have to be a jerk. At the same time, she had been lying to me, and I really hadn't been surprised.

I walked her around the side of the big house to a much smaller glass-fronted building. She made me stop at the door so I said good night. I walked around to the floor to ceiling windows and looked in at her apartment, pretty much a single room with a bathroom next to the kitchen and a set of screens blocking the area of the walk-in closet. Brightly colored covers hid several pieces of very blocky furniture. I didn't see any sign of cats, and that was sad to me. "Nice fishbowl," I mouthed.

N laughed, but then stepped to her coffee table and picked up a remote, pressed a button; window shades rolled down. She waved goodbye, her lips pressed together in a wrinkled thin line of disapproval.

I really need to work on the sarcasm filter.

Wind

The air was getting dryer, and the wind wilder. The sail on the wind car began to vibrate and shudder, a sudden direction shift caused the whole car to tip wildly up onto two of it's three wheels and I nearly lost control as the boom smacked the ground and caused the whole car to lurch to the right, I managed to grab the sheet and shifted the counterweight just in time to keep from tipping over.

The wind shifted again and the whole car lifted off the ground, the boom swung over and smashed the side of my helmet, waking me up.

The crashing noise continued as I woke, the wind outside had brought down one of the dead limbs of the mulberry tree. It was still in the process of falling off the patio cover and smacking the ground on the other side of the hot tub. I opened the curtains in time to watch it collapse into the back yard, taking part of the orange tree with it. The only living section, of course.

Then I woke up. The wind was indeed blowing and the trees outside creaked with the wind load, but there was no fallen branch, and the little living section of the orange tree was whipping about in the wind quite cheerily. Princess Tiger Lily was perched on my head, afraid of the wind. I then realized that Tiger Lily has been dead a significant number of years now.

And I woke up. This time I didn't bother to get out of bed, shifting around so I could make some room between all of the cats. I pulled my hands out from under the covers, and realized I was STILL sleeping.

---

I gave up trying to wake up, and then, yes, I woke with a terrible need to sneeze. After that, everyone was awake. I could see the wind puffing the curtains in and out as the house was breathing, I realized that the house was actually a little bit warmer than it was when I went to bed, even though it was still dark outside. I got up to shut all the windows and didn't even look outside to see the condition of the trees. I'll check that when I get home from work today. I don't know if it was the wind, or my sneeze, but the cats are all out of sorts this morning.

Benadryl Dreams

Got myself bit by a spider and had the largest allergic reaction yet, so lots of anti-histamines. Lots of very intense and completely random dreams.

Little Red and I went flying off a six foot drop at the end of a roadway, right into a parking lot that was rapidly filling up. I had to move all my stuff out of the back over to the passenger side, as the driver's side rear wheel had fallen off. I limped the car around the lot looking for a place to park that would be large enough for me to get a tow truck behind the car. I couldn't find one, but did come across an empty shed that belonged to a Mystic Memories store. I pulled the car in and took a look underneath. It looked like it would be easy to put the wheel back on, if I weren't missing a couple of nylon gears. I figured I could get them from the dealership, which was less than a mile away.

I went into the Mystic Memories store and proceeded to tell them how fortunate I had been to find their storage unit open. I asked if it could have been any more pre-ordained. That immediately had the effect of shutting down their opposition. I told them I would be back with parts as quickly as I could, and would be willing to help move their inventory they had been packing for storage when I got back.

I had a long pleasant walk to the dealership, and the parts were only a few tens of dollars, and they promised to deliver.

The walk back didn't take as long as I got a ride from a tow truck driver who was headed in that direction. She and I got to chatting, and she gave me her card in case I needed a lift to fix the car.

She dropped me off at the shop just as the parts were being delivered, so the three women from the Mystic Memories, the tow truck driver and the parts driver all crowded into the little storage room. I assembled my wheel and the five of them lifted up the car so I could reattach the wheel. It went right into place without a glitch.

I moved the car out into an open spot, and the six of us moved the boxes into the storage unit in just two trips. The store owners asked me to dinner. I remember realizing that this was a dream several times, but it was never enough to kick me out.

This morning I was out in the back yard, picking up fallen branches. The sky was a wavy blue and green, like an inverted ocean surface. Not cloudy, though, the sun was plainly visible in the sky, and it was bright. I wondered what the heck was wrong with my eyes.

I sat down to ponder the whole thing when it dawned on me that there were more spirits of cats than cats around the yard: Tiny, Penelope,  Calrissian, Lucy, Rocky, Annie, Junior, Dolly, Jennifer, Princess Tiger Lily, Chloe, Domino, T-Rex, Purina, Ralston. While I sat there remembering them, I was sad that I couldn't actually sit with them. I also realized that with Ralston gone, I really don't have anyone to come and sit with me in the back yard. (Fawn would probably skitter off, though I am sure I could catch her easily these days, I just don't want to risk it.)

Mount Hope and Dryad Bookworm

Had a pair of delightful dreams this morning. In the first dream I was driving, just travelling to see new places, not worried about a time committment, and unconcerned about the critters, as they were well taken care of. (Apparently I had a house sitter.) I had managed to pick up a travelling companion, a little younger than myself, hair still brownish red with only a few silver threads, the wrinkles around her eyes were in smile lines, and it seemed that her irises were not perfectly circular, so I found that intriguing. We rode up into the mountains one rainy afternoon, and decided to stop in a place called Mount Hope.

There were small cabins dotted all over the little hidden valley just near the top of the pass, and many of them seemed to be for sale or rent. We stopped and asked if there was a place we could stay for the night, and someone immediately offered us a cabin for no charge, as it wasn't ski season yet. We had a wonderful meal, and I noticed that my companion had only eaten the meat and green veggies again, leaving everything else behind. We walked around town, talking to nearly everyone we met, they were charming and friendly, and on more than one occasion I got the impression that they recognized my companion.

It began to rain harder during the evening. There was lightning, fairly close, and loud thunder that rattled the four small windows as well as the doors of the cabinets. We ended up together in the small bed in the loft of the cabin, she was very warm and snuggly, but insisted on there being no hijinks until we had a serious talk about that, first. She firmly moved my hand up to her ribs from her hip. I was too tired, so we agreed to have that conversation on the road in the morning.

At one point I woke, a loud very realistic purr in my ear. My hand was cupped around one of my companion's breasts. I gently removed it lest there be a relationship ending misinterpretation. The purring stopped shortly after.

In the morning, we made our way down the slippery rain and mud slicked roads in time to still have breakfast. We sat at a large table with about eight or nine others. I was sure that some of them had animal ears instead of human ears, and it made me suddenly curious about my travelling companion. She was never without her thick headband, even when we'd been snuggled up together in the bed she had been wearing it. As we paid our bill and left, I swore the lady behind the counter had an alligator head in the reflection.

A passerby smiled at us in the rain, "The Veil of Ignorance has been pierced; you're welcome back if you find the road is impassible." 

I thanked him then watched him head into the breakfast cafe, barely pulling his tail through the door before it automatically closed. I started to say something, but held the thought for now.
The trip down the mountain was even more dangerous than I'd thought. We'd slipped and fishtailed, even at the extremely low speed I was driving at. There was no attention for the rather promising conversation I had been promised.

We came to the bridge across a large gorge, and could see the torrents of water below had knocked the bridge's trestles askew. I could see cracks in the road. A dragon dove down and lifted a Mini Cooper off the bridge just before the trestles gave way with a groaning crack that rivaled the thunder. The Mini Cooper was placed on the road next to us and I could see the relieved faces of the occupants, furry faces, pointy ears, wet muzzles. We waved to them as they drove off, shouting their thanks up to the dragon who was now winging his way over to the other side of the gorge with armloads of warning barricades and "Bridge Out" signs.

"What did you just see?" My companion asked.

"I was supposed to see a car just making it across the bridge before it collapsed and a rescue helicopter delivering warning barricades."

"But, really, what did you see?"

"Same thing you did, I suspect."" I looked at my companion more closely, she had cat eyes, and cat whiskers, I was amazed I had not seen them before. She removed her headband. She had no ears where they should be, but a pair of tiger like ears further up her head, they flicked to and fro, free of her headband.

"It's not too late. We can probably find someone who can fix the Veil."

I decided I didn't mind seeing her as she actually was, and the fact that she had a tail explained, partly, her unwillingness the previous night to let my hand off her waist.

"Let's go see if we can find a place to stay until the bridge is repaired."

"Just until then?"

"We'll see, I think I could grow to like this valley, but there's lots other places to see." I managed to turn the car around and head back up the mountain.


In my second dream, after getting up to feed the cats. I was swimming across a fairly wide shallow stream with a surprisingly strong current. I was swept a hundred yards or so downstream from where I had intended to cross, but wasn't worried. There looked like there was a path or a very large game trail just at the top of the bank. It would have been an easy walk back.

When I climbed out of the water, however, I decided that I didn't want to walk back. There was a scantily clad Dryad sitting at the base of her oak, reading.

She was rather startled when I greeted her. I could see that her book was well worn, and quite old. I opened my pack. I had a couple of books with me, not as well made as the old book she had. They were in a waterproof bag that would certainly be large enough to also house her book. I had finished the books some time earlier in my wanderings, and so thought this would be a great opportunity to lighten my load a little bit. The Dryad was surprised, but delighted at the gift, protesting that she had nothing for me. I explained that they wouldn't be a gift if she had, that would be a trade, instead.
I agreed to camp under her tree until we could each read one of the other's books, and then discuss them. I wasn't sure that was a good idea, but it seemed only polite to agree. Apparently she had seen no one in many years, and even then, she hadn't revealed herself as she didn't think she could trust them.

I found the bones of the original owner of the book. She had tried to save him, but he'd nearly drowned, and then suddenly collapsed a few days later. She didn't know why. Her book had been new, then, and I looked at the date, March 1849. It was a book on Geology. Much of the information in it was now outdated, and more was known about the subject now. When that became known to her, she decided she would come with me.

I didn't think she could leave her tree. But she indicated that any healthy oak would do to keep her ageless, as long as it was not someone else's home. That was unlikely, she sighed. Most of the other Dryads had gone off to become mortal and live out their lives. She thought that might not be a bad idea, especially if she could become a Geologist, as that sounded pretty exciting. I found myself wondering how to enroll her in a college. While it would be easy to pass myself off as her dad, she didn't exactly come with a school record, SSN or any other way to identify herself to modern society.

Cecil and the Alien Apocolypse

In this dream, I found myself behind the wheel of Cecil, my old '69 Plymouth Satellite. I'd found it parked on the top of an abandoned parking garage, and had, for some reason, taken the old keys as a sort of good luck charm when the aliens attacked.

The aliens were long gone, having either been defeated, or having found what they were looking for, gone on their way. The human world had been pretty much left in a complete shambles, however. Oddly, a rather largish group of aliens had also been left behind, but not voluntarily, it would seem. One of them was now traveling with me. It climbed into the passenger seat after tossing it's collection of bags into the back seat next to my rollie and backpack. After I put the pair of 5 gallon cans in the trunk, I climbed into the driver's seat. I turned the engine over, only slightly amazed that it started on the first try. The V-8 rumbled in the enclosed space, setting off car alarms several rows in all directions.

"That's my baby, I missed you." I patted the dashboard, it had been restored, as had the seats, and was now a plush dark brown pile. The beige vinyl seats had been redone in dark brown and grey herringbone, very attractive. The steering wheel had also been replaced, a bentwood wheel polished to a high gloss. I carefully backed the car out and started down the ramp to exit the parking garage. I had it in mind to head back towards home, to check on family and friends, and to switch over to Little Red, who would be quite a bit more quiet, not to mention getting fifty MPG versus fifteen.

I tried to explain how the seat belt worked. To a creature with no true permanent form, I suppose it seemed an odd thing. Their own craft "seats" were essentially buckets with padded holes around the top rim. After a bit I gave up and just told it to "hold on a best you can." It oozed down into the floor area.

We drove past the other empty cars, only occasionally setting off a car alarm as we drove by. My companion slouched down further in the passenger seat floor, apparently frightened of the noise. I suppose I should have been a little more worried about the noise as well, just as we exited the parking structure to head down the four story exterior spiral, there was a loud explosion on the exposed part of the exit ramp. The structure rocked and I managed to get us to a stop before plunging into the wrecked and still smoking hole in the exit ramp spiral. Still, one of the front tires dipped onto the abyss. I was glad the Plymouth was rear wheel drive and was able to pull us back up to safety.

"What the hell? It's not like we're a threat to anyone!"

We got out and picked our gear up, back on foot, I lowered our bags by rope down to the bottom of the spiral, then, trying to stay on the sturdiest parts of the rubble we scampered down as best we could. I'd left Cecil parked with the keys in him. Thinking I would go back up and try pushing him over to the entry ramp, and this time just letting him coast down silently.

Desert Crossing

This mornings mental offering was a dream of outstanding complexity. It started out with my meeting with a couple whose car had broken down on the long lonely stretch of freeway outside of the Grand Canyon. I suspected I was in the Dreamlands, as this stretch of road was more dirt and gravel than asphalt. the couple were fairly young, in their late 20s or early 30s at the most, but they looked beat up from living outdoors, not the weekend camper sort of beat up, but the out of work for a couple of years beat up.

I looked at their pickup truck, and it was rusted out. It reminded me of the total failure of a steel bucket I had owned. 

The bucket had just been used for hot water and baking soda, I had washed down the garage floor, getting rid of the final layer of cat urine, preparing the garage for use. When I was done, the bucket gave a metallic groan, and the rim cracked like someone had attempted to fold it. The rolled edges of the bucket cracked off and fell around the base of the bucket. I called N out to show her the odd behavior, and demonstrated by pressing lightly against the bottom, which promptly separated from the sidewalls, which then folded up like cardboard. pretty soon I had the whole bucket sitting in four inch pieces in my hands. N yelled at me for destroying the bucket, failing to see anything interesting or enlightening in what had happened, and unwilling to ponder what might have caused galvanized steel to fold like wet cardboard.

I shook off the (false) memory, and brought my attention to the present. We needed to get moving, as there were critters migrating across the desert that would strip us to bone and call it a snack. While the family might have been able to hole up in the now deserted gas station, it certainly wouldn't have been very pleasant. Even then, their truck was collapsing into fist sized chunks right in front of us. 

As if to underscore the urgency of the matter, I heard a rustling across the road from the gas station. A beast, with skin like a pineapple and long horns burst out onto the broken asphalt road.  "Be still."  The beast nosed the air, then came running for us as the couple's children came bursting out of the two bathrooms. "Get in my car!" I shouted and the family grabbed a few handfuls of their stuff and piled into my car. 

The car was a slightly modified version of my old beige Plymouth Satellite. The modification appeared to be that I could start it up and open the doors with voice commands. Somehow I ended up in the back seat, and the couple's twelve year old was behind the wheel. The beast launched a salvo of stinging quills at the car, but they bounced off the windows and doors as I pulled the last one shut.

"Make it go!" the daughter shouted.

"It isn't that sort of car," I explained, "you have to manually drive the vehicle, and you're in the driver's seat."

"No time to swap, take the lever behind the steering wheel and put it in 'D' for drive, then press the pedal on the right when I tell you."

"She can't do that!" one of her parents shouted.

"She's big enough to reach the pedals, she can do it. It'll be just like a video game."


"What's that?" the Dad asked. 

I was flummoxed for a moment, but then gave the command for the engine to start up. "I know a place near the edge of the canyon that should have some parts I need. We'll go there and then escape by air."

"How?"

"Don't worry about that, just keep us on the road until we're far enough away for us to switch drivers." 

The twelve year old stepped all the way down on the gas pedal, and the throaty V-8 shuddered to life, rumbled and coughed a bit, then caught, launching us out onto the freeway. The car swerved and fishtailed as the girl over corrected her steering. I leaned over from the back seat and took the steering wheel. "Ease off on the pedal, about a quarter of the way down will be enough."

We settled into a fairly even ride after only a few frightening moments. When we'd left the beastly scout far enough behind I explained the brake pedal and we came to a stop. I fired up the GPS system, which had somewhat spotty reception out this far from civilization. (I thought that was a little bit odd, as this was where there should have been no interference at all.)

By using the GPS, I was able to navigate us overland to the rim of the canyon, and to a dirigible hanger that I knew about. I had the envelope for the car and the cable in the back seat to connect us to the large bag, what I didn't have was a way to quickly inflate the thing with Helium. I hoped the Catalysis system in the hanger was still working. 

It was a bit like driving on the map in a game, searching the topographic overlay for passable routes to get us up to the rim of the canyon. Apparently one of the other upgrades to the Plymouth was an adjustable suspension and four-wheel drive. After watching our little white rectangle positioned against the map for several minutes, all while listening to the family inventory what they were able to grab from their truck, we arrived at the hanger. 

The hanger was collapsed and the caretaker's house was in only a little better condition. I told the family to go and get blankets and towels from the house while I rigged our escape. The two little boys raced for the house, all ready having to go again.

The trunk appeared empty, but I spoke a short phrase, and another dimensional space was revealed. I'd waited for the family to go into the house because I didn't really want them to know about the secret spaces in my car. I could easily ride out the swarming horde's advance inside my car, but it would have been more than a little crowded with six of us. 

I removed six stacks of cables and glassware, then a huge red velvet feeling hide. It was a demon hide, very rare, and very stretchable. There were six inlets set with a pair of poison spines on either side of the connection. The connections had been set into the bag by powerful magics, and were the only way to get gas into the bag. I could rig the bag to fill itself, but that would take several days. (This had been my original plan.) I rigged the first cable and connection, carefully bending the two poisen spikes down and through the tops of the tubes. Poison began to flow into the contraption, being caught by the glass bowls and altered by their magic. The bag immediately began to fill, the small stack of glass bowls working magically to filter hydrogen and helium from the air. 

My car clamped itself to the ground, living steel spines shooting into the ground from behind each wheel. The Dad was out of the house, watching by now. I could tell he didn't believe the bag would be large enough to lift the car. I told him to check in the hanger for anything that looked like a bunch of long hoses, or we were going to have to fortify the house until the bag could finish filling. 

I quickly connected the other five cables and the magic glass filter pumps. It was then that I noted that my first pump was actually broken, and wasn't properly filling. I removed it and went into the kitchen of the house. I needed some small glass bowls to replace the ones that had their bottoms rotted out. Like the galvanized bucket from my memory, the bottoms had just separated from the sides of the bowls. It was not the sort of behavior one normally sees in glass, so I found myself wishing that I'd made a better analysis of the bucket all those years ago. 

I noticed that I'd attracted a shadow. The Twelve Year Old had attached herself about two feet from my left elbow, and wherever I moved, she was right there with me. I could tell she was scared, eyes darting around, always looking outside the window. The dad had found some hoses. We watched him drag them over to my car, where the large bag had all ready doubled in size, and the cables were charged and holding it just a few feet above the roof of the car. "He doesn't know where we are." The Daughter stated. 

I found some glassware that might suffice, but I would have to reveal a lot of my abilities to the family in order to make them work. I wasn't really looking forward to that. So far they had managed to retain a feeling of urgency that exposure to pure magic might trip them over into panic. The demon bag was probably all ready perilously close to the line as it was. I took some small pleasure in the musical tinkling as the small bowls nested together, and the last of the original glassware fell to ruin. 

"Interesting, are you mine or his?" I asked.

"Neither," the Daughter pointed out to her Mother, "We're all hers, except you. You're not, but she doesn't know that, yet."

As we headed out to fix the first connection, I felt the hydrogen pouring out of the end of the hose the Dad had delivered. I disconnected the cable, put my bowls inside the tube and then performed the rituals to enchant them just before slipping the output hose over them. The Demon hide bag began to fill and stretch.

Apparently the woman and her family had figured out what was going on, and they all vanished quietly. I picked up the ruined glass shards and began to investigate why they had failed. I began to worry about demonic corruption from the bag. I would have to fully inspect it and make repairs if needed. I had time to do that, now. 


One of the things I loved about this dream was the textures and color details. The desert reds and browns, the brown-red rich color of the bag, the blue and red bottoms of the glass elements in the filter pumps. The textures of the etched glass bowls, the velour of the bag, and the dusty crumbling bucket and bowls. 

There was another dream, equally as detailed, but much shorter. All I can remember now is waking up and thinking "Oh, another one of those dreams." Hardly useful for remembering any details, sorry about that.