Black and White Birthday, with Zombie

I was out looking at critters in a pet store, and there were several of my friends with me. We left without me buying anything, as I was concerned about the pool in the back yard (the fish were taking over) and the zombie in the basement. I really didn't have room for pets, and hoped against hope that they weren't thinking of getting me a new pet, as I was having trouble keeping up with the koi in the garden pool. The house wasn't ready for a party either, every horizontal surface was filled up with Lego based game prototypes that needed to be broken down and stored away. After photographing them, I figured, I checked my phone, over 8Gb of memory left, so no problem there. I slipped out of the store and headed home ahead of the crowd, they said they were going to stop somewhere for lunch. I cleared out all the Lego constructs surrounding the pool so that my birthday friends could use the pool area if they wanted. I kept dropping pieces off of the contructs into the pool. I tried fishing out the Lego pieces I'd dropped - a bunch of 1x1 round and cone-shaped bricks in long antennae-like chains, mostly yellow and light blue. (Everything else in the dream seemed to be black and white, mostly.) The fish (Beautiful black spots on white koi) in the pool kept hitting the chains of bricks, knocking them even further apart. After dropping an entire space shuttle model and watching it carreen down the stairs into the basement, bouncing and knocking bits off as it tumbled from step to step. I decided to head down there and deal with the basement zombie so that my guests would have some place to gather. The zombie, wearing a black and white checked clown outfit, would stop attacking if someone agreed to play a card game with him. It was a collectable cardgame sort of thing, and he had the two decks already made up. As long as thew game was in progress, the zombie wouldn't bother anyone. If you lost your game against the zombie, he would eat you, of course. I started the game, then left to finish cleaning up the dropped Legos. As I was taking the Legos back upstairs to my room, I was a little worried about leaving the game table after my turn, but figured the zombie would just have to wait. I heard the house manager saying my guests were arriving and they offered to usher them into my room - which I knew was way to small for everyone. I explained the issue, and as I came back from dumping a few pounds of Legos in various states of contruction, or destruction, into my room, I realized I wasn't even going to have room for me in there. I could only barely make out the fact that I had a black an white checked bedspread and pillow shams. The zebra patterned rug on the floor was barely visible between the desk, printer stand, office chair, file cabinets, book cases, piles of Lego and paper models and my bed. I sighed, wondering how it had gotten all so crowded. I shouted down to the house manager to ask my guests to wait in the frontroom until I could get the fish out of the pond and the Zombie settled. I was a bit worried about the zombie, as I was pretty sure he cheated. I found a couple of decks I'd made up myself many years ago and decided to bring them down. Maybe we could get him to play a four-hand game and that way he couldn't cheat by rearranging my deck. A part of my brain realized that the Zombie had picked the cards for the second player'd deck, so probably didn't even need to rearrange the draw pile. Heading back down the stairs, I discovered that my friends had brought me two black and white kittens from the pet store, they were adorable, and friendly. Also, a black and white puppy (looked like an English Bulldog, too cute) two guinea pigs (also black and white in their little white cage with a black exercise wheel) and a small very musical voiced black and white bird. I protested that I not only didn't have enough room for all of them, but I had no kitty litter, training pads, cat, dog, rodent or bird food for them either. They didn't seem to care about that, and started taking the cages downstairs into the basement. I hoped the zombie was fully engrossed in our game and wouldn't be a problem. The uncaged critters stayed in the front room, playing on the black futon. The little black and white bird fluttered up to my shoulder and sang a cute little song in my ear as I went down to face the zombie, and all of my guests, not sure which I was more frightened of at that point.

House Creature, Home Wrecker, New Cats

Rough Night last night, but I woke up enough to remember bits of three different dream experiences.

In the first dream, I had a small flying house. I was able to float between my three or four "landings" depending on which weather I preferred. On one of my Landings there was a knock at the door. Some local "Inspectors" were at the door wanting to check the premises for mice. I looked around the three rooms, and the little grey mouse got a worried look on his face, and dashed into the closet. The Inspectors spotted the motion, so I had to let them in and then had to admit that I had a small grey pet...The closet curtain fluffed out and a moose stepped out...moose. The inspectors were taken aback, and frantically started looking at their field book and ticket books. Apparently there was no infraction for having a grey house moose. Or a grey and silver cat, or a silver and black coatimundi, or a flying monkey, though the last one was more than a little bit scary when it jumped out and landed on my chest, asking, "how are we doing, boss." The Inspectors fled.

In the second dream, I was sleeping, when the whole house shook with a bang and then rattled to the sound of a heavy engine for a few seconds afterword. I just figured the neighbor was getting ready for work and had closed his gate, which is part of the fence running between our houses. Just as I was falling back to sleep, it happened again, only I could tell the sound was coming from my back yard. I struggled up out of my sound sleep and into some clothes and shoes. I looked out the window and saw that the back hill was covered in sandy dirt. A little darker and redder than street sand, and more powdery. It had over flowed the retaining wall, and only the top of the trees showed at the top of the hill. I could hear the sounds of engines and cracking wood from behind the slope. I noticed a pair of treaded tracks down the sandy embankment and then turning just at my now dirt covered patio, then up the hill over the space where the ivy used to be thickest. I didn't like this at all, I certainly hadn't given any permission for any work to be done. I followed the tracks up the hill, slipping occasionally in the soft dirt. I crested the hill and was looking over the back neighbor's yard. Bulldozers and backhoes were at work tearing down the house. There was a gap under the house where the granite had been dug up and pushed out the back yard and down the hill. Fairly shortly I saw a spinning cylinder covered in two foot steel spikes tearing up the granite as it drove out from under the house. The spikes were mostly bare metal, but the cylinder still retained some of its construction vehicle yellow. The fellow driving the vehicle looked very wide eyed and happy under his orange destruction cap. the tractor rolled back under the hill, then came out again, pushing the dirt in front of the now stopped cylinder, up the slope, across the back yard, and then toppled the heap over the hill into my yard. The tractor teetered on the crest of the artificial dune a moment before sliding down towards my house. He didn't make the turn this time, slamming into the fireplace, and shattering the glass doors on either side of it. (Apparently I'd added french doors to the dining room side of the fireplace.) The whole house buckled in slightly and was pushed about six inches off the foundation towards the front of the house. I shouted a loud "What the hell are you doing!" as the tractor climbed back up the hill towards me. The driver then spotted me, and with a maniacal gleam in his overly large, not very human eyes, lifted the cylinder and started it running, steering directly at me. The tractor was surprisingly fast and it was on me before I could dodge to the side, and though I might have been able to jump over the spikes onto the cab of the thing, he'd thought of that, and lifted the spinning cylinder of death just after I launched myself into the air. I knew I was dead. I wondered who would save the cats. I woke in a sweat.

The dream I was having this morning before the Chimester chimed in started out disturbing, the neighbors had dug a pit and were fighting insects and small animals in it. They had amassed a collection of scorpions, spiders, frogs and lizards and a struggling cat. I had to intervene for the sake of the vertebrates in the group, pointing out how sweet they were and how cute. It would be wrong to make them fight one another. Real animals feel pain and there is no Poke Hospital for them. The creatures all escaped, except one little dragon like thing that puffed out it's black and yellow scales, then eyed me sideways, then ran up my arm and dove into my shirt pocket. It cheeped at me and I rubbed the center of its head between its eye bumps, making it cheep some more. I wondered if it would eat cat kibble, or if I needed to make a trip to the store for crickets or mealworms. I needn't have worried, when I opened up my garage door it jumped out and raced over to the litter pan area, like it knew what it was doing, and began digging out the earwigs and snacking on them loudly. I crouched down to get a better look at what it was doing, then felt a cat rubbing on my elbow. It was the little white and black kitten. Marked much like Giles, only with more black than white on her. She ran off under a vehicle parked partly across my driveway. I went out and stretched out on the curb to see what she was up to. She came out with two more cats, a nearly all black cat with a just a white chin and toes, and an all white short haired cat, with beautiful golden brown eyes. The two adult cats had letters wrapped around their collars. The letters had obviously been written by a child. It stated that they had to move, and mommy and daddy said the cats would be okay on their own, but she knew better (I knew it was a she because there was a drawing of a little girl with her three cats, each with a name below them.) "Please take care of them and keep them together, they're family." There was a phone number. "text me."

My little dragon like friend cheeped at the cats, and they all got head bonks and shoulder rubs as they walked over me and then screwing up their courage, dashed across the open driveway and followed it into the house through the cat door. The white cat stayed with me the longest, unsure about the whole thing. I scruffed her up across the shoulders and ears, trying to let her know she would be safe in the house and wouldn't have to come out into the big blue room again. That seemed to satisfy her and she raced across the driveway, pausing only a second to two to figure out the cat door. I was glad I had just stocked up on cat food, and that I hadn't gotten rid of the extra litter pans yet. Giles and Ember would certainly be entertained with four new housemates. I texted the number that the cats were living with me, and they would be kept together. It was only a few seconds before I got an emoji filled text with hearts and kitty faces. I resolved to text pictures of the cats when they settled in.

Reset

I dreamed that whenever I reset my game, Giles went from the cat bucket on the foot of the bed, to standing next to the trash can in the garage. The only way I knew that is that he would give out the same little "Where'd everybody go?" meow each time. I was going to write the game publisher about the glitch, but then wondered if that sort of thing was actually covered. It seems that whenever I restarted this particular game, no matter when I restarted it, I went back in time to the last time I started playing. I realized that I had quite the thing here, if only I could remember anything that had happened outside of the game session.

Plague

This dream was more than two weeks ago, but I dreamed last night that I wouldn't remember any other dreams until I wrote it down, so, here is what I remember (Without super graphic smell-o-vision, thankfully.)

Plague.

We had it, worse, in sheer numbers, than anything the human race had faced before. In pure percentages, we were only headed for sixty percent fatalities, or perhaps a little more. Some people had suffered a mild case early on, and that made us less likely to die. No less likely to get sick, it seemed, but less likely to die. Cities were the worst, of course, and places so isolated there was no food and water delivery system to keep everyone hydrated.

We thought the whole west coast would fail, but when the fatalities started racking up, the resources were suddenly sufficient to keep water flowing and heat and food delivered. Who knew we'd be so resilient in the suburbs.

Still. Things were bad. The death rate had gotten so high that there were two collections a week. One for normal refuse, and one to pick up the dead. Every week on Sunday night, the trash cans would roll out, and the bodies of the dead, marked with their names and birth dates, and the date they passed on, if there was someone to write it. Sometimes the people left inside could not take a person out, so they called on their healthier neighbors to help. So much sadness. So much despair.

I was headed home from one such outing when I noticed two little ones on the lawn bags next door. They were laying arms at their sides like little soldiers at attention, their names and vital dates written on their naked chests. Six and four, so little. I stopped, my breath catching. And they sobbed. I started.

What are you doing out here?

"Won't last the night."

"Don't want to stink up the house." the little one sniffled and coughed weakly.

Such brave little souls, I couldn't stand it and had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from sobbing myself. I looked at their almost skeletal frames, though the younger one still showed some signs of baby fat, someone had made the attempt to comb their curly mops of shoulder length black hair, but hadn't succeeded in reigning in the wildness. Can only guess that they'd been asleep or unconscious when they'd been set out. They were both awake, and just, well, being brave about the whole thing.

I didn't think they would last the night...but I wasn't about to let them lay out in the chill night air.
I covered my mouth and nose, then put on fresh gloves, scooped them up and took them inside.

They were a mess, dried vomit, diarrhea, snot and mucus everywhere. I took them straight to the bathroom where I had the de-humidifier running full tilt to heat the room. (I found that helped keep me comfortable, so thought it might help them.) I filled my bath with water as hot as I could stand it, then took the little pair to the guest shower and washed them gently. They fussed a bit about their names and dates, but I promised I would be careful not to wash them off completely. On the other hand, they couldn't wait to be out of their soiled panties. Oh, they stank. I didn't even try to rinse them out but put the right in the trash and tied the bag shut.

I cleaned them as gently as I could, and they didn't fuss about it, falling asleep or passing out from time to time, so they were just limp on the pile of wet towels. However, soon color was coming back to their faces and limbs. I wrapped them in a big towel and carried them in one big pile to the hot bath, where I set them in to soak and warm up. Despite the warm shower water, they were still shivering. They agreed that they were much more comfortable than out on the garbage pile. I had to arrange towels in the tub to keep them from slipping under they were so weak. I didn't think they would make it through the night, but I was determined to make it as comfortable as I could. I arranged them so they could see each other and hold one another's hands, that seemed to help a lot. I closed the door and left them to warm up and let the warm moist air do its thing, I hoped.

I had fish stew, well it was more soup at this point, frozen fish heated up and cut into a batch of rice, kumquat peels, dandelion greens, grape leaves, peppermint and a dose of salt and brown sugar. It was still a little bit bitter, but it made me cough less and my throat was starting to heal, so I kept eating it. I brought some to the girls, hoping they hadn't drowned or died while I was fussing with the food. One of the side effects of the plague was that everything seemed to take twice or three times as long as you thought it would.

They didn't want to eat, because "you won't have enough, and we're going to die anyway." Without thinking I told them that if I ran out I would just have to eat them.

Wrong move.

They started crying.

I quickly pointed out that they wouldn't mind because they were going to be dead anyway.

That didn't help. It spent a few minutes to convince them that I was only joking around with them, and that I had plenty to eat. It wasn't working, they were just sort of whining weakly. That's when Giles walked in and climbed up on the bathtub. "See, I've even managed to keep my little kitties alive." Giles at this point was probably bigger than the little one.

Gile's happy chirping meow changed everything. I offered them food again, after giving a piece of fish to Giles. They sniffed it, then the little one took tentative tastes, the older one waiting to see what happened. I didn't expect them to have more than a tablespoon or so, as it was obvious that they were nearly dehydrated to death to start with. But the soupy stew seemed to agree with them, so I brought more of the broth for them to drink.

I got them dried off and put each of them in one of my t-shirts. The little one had to hike it up and I made a little belt to tie it up. They really couldn't stand up on their own very well, but insisted on looking at themselves in the mirror, so I lifted each of them up so they could see themselves. (I'd put them in my two cat shirts.) They were very sleepy, but breathing better than earlier. I propped them up on some pillows and made a little tent over them to help keep the air moist around them. I got out a book from my kids book collection and read to them until the fell asleep hand in hand. I went outside and sat in the hot tub, I honestly believe that was what was keeping me alive.

When I came back in I laid down gently so as not to disturb them, hoping that they would have a peaceful night.

They didn't. We made several trips to the bathroom. Several more hot showers, after the first accidents I diapered them with my small white shop towels. They complained but were too weak to fight it, really. The two of them drank the rest of the broth from the stew and so I started another batch. I discovered that combing their hair seemed to calm them down. By morning, they had actually eaten a bit of the rice and fish, picked out the green bits, and, though I was exhausted. They seemed stronger, and in better spirits. I actually felt hopeful we wouldn't need this morning's pickup for them. "Are we in heaven?'

"No, Sweety, if this were heaven you wouldn't need diapers."

I told them that I thought they were going to live. They both smiled, and asked for another story. (I read them "Anne Can Fly.")

At this point the dream turned into me trying to read from the pages, and having that very dream feeling that the words just weren't actually there, or weren't correct, or...well it was so off it pulled me out of the dream. I woke exhausted and drained, throat scratchy, coughing. At least I could tell where that part of dream came from. Miranda and Ember were tucked up on the pillows next to me, like the little girls in the dream. I had pulled the covers up over my head. I uncovered myself and was slipping back into the dream when the alarm light came on, right in my face. (Which is why I remember so much detail.)

I didn't manage to convey how weirdly depressing life had become under the plague. Sure we were pulling together to help where we could, but everyone retreated to their little quarantine zones as soon as a task was done. There were whole households that were empty now, and many places where there was only a couple of survivors. Children and older people were the most hard hit, myself and my neighbor kids being an exception, and even though I'd survived, everyone just expected me to relapse and die so the only thing I could do was help with the removal of bodies, sort of a "let the dead bury the dead" kind of thing. No one wanted me to help with any deliveries and I only drove myself to the store for cat food and essentials. Food wasn't exactly rationed, but people were trying very hard not to allow hoarding fever to kick in, that had destroyed several communities around the world. Social Media had become the news thing, and radio had become the community communication medium, all government meetings were broadcast live, and people could call in, it was oddly effective, and calming, but still somehow desperate seeming. We had plenty of everything, except mortuaries. The rest of the world was faring similarly, but some had used the plague as an excuse to raise up the specter of old wars and hostilities. Large military groupings without good medical support, however, were short lived in the field. Most of those campaigns fizzled and casualty rates were actually higher from disease than from combat. It seems that eventually, everyone's losses were too great to continue, trucks needed to be driven, trains and ships needed engineers, pilots were needed to ferry medicine and supplies, there just wasn't enough manpower to run around shooting at one another. Perhaps that was why things were working so well, we could all follow the news, hear the decisions being made, participate. The whole thing was an oddly utopian dystopia.

Missing Little John

I dreamed I was cuddling with Little John on the counter next to the toaster, he asked to be picked up and held. All the while I was carrying him around, putting down fresh water, offering him snacks, and finally watching him curl up on the pillow to go to sleep he kept getting smaller and lighter.

Throughout the entire dream I knew he was dead and this was just a dream, but I couldn't wake myself until he was asleep. (Weirdly, I didn't want him to be left in the dream alone, I know that doesn't make any sense.)

Little John, Lionized. Alien Hunting,

The most memorable part of the night found me walking next to a green hillside with J and Teddy. On the hill was a lovely red fluffy tabby. He meowed an invitation to come and pay attention to him, and he reminded me so much of Little John, that I just had to climb up the hill to greet him. Up close it was obvious that he wasn't Little John, and I was a tad disappointed at that. I sat with him for a while, and we were joined by Teddy and J. We decided the day was so pleasant that we would just lay down and take a short nap in the sun.

I woke to a giant paw on my face, I opened one eye. It was a young male lion. My heart started to race, but as I looked into the lion's eyes, I realized that this was Little John. He chuffed at me, and I could hear Little John in his admittedly much louder and deeper voice. He rolled next to me, and Teddy climbed over me to lick his large face while I rubbed his belly. I grabbed his mane and scruffed him up, hugging him. I sobbed into his mane and he pulled back and licked my face with his huge raspy tongue. I always knew he was a lion at heart. I was sad that we had to leave. We bonked foreheads before he loped up the hill and then over the top out of sight. Teddy wound around my legs, and I picked him up, hugging him close as we half slid, half walked down the grassy hillside.


Later, J and I were walking in a neighborhood with lots of brick and white picket fences at the edges of perfectly manicured lawns. One side of the street was much higher than the other, and the sidewalk had a four to six foot or so retaining wall next to it. J couldn't see over the wall into the yards, and even I had to go on tiptoe to see into some of them. They had very steep driveways and we had stop and look carefully at each one. Suddenly, the sky was full of flying wings, and little aliens in jet backs fell from them, landing all around us across the lawns and on the roofs of the houses. Oddly, they didn't seem to have any interest in us, nor any people who abandoned their houses. J started calling our neighbors and telling them to run outside. Soon most of the neighborhood were outside, being ignored just like us. We could hear shooting and screams from inside some of the houses, though, so we worried that the aliens were just waiting to take us out.

Just as suddenly as the aliens had arrived, they were racing out into the streets and running away. Curious, I followed them, sending pictures back to J on the phone. The aliens gathered together in a cul-de-sac at the end of the street, then one of the flying wings flew over, and blasted them! The aliens were almost instantly charred, I could feel the heat wash across me (Good thing I'd stayed pretty far back. I could see the same thing happening across the valley, alien ship after alien ship firing on their own. I noticed that there were a couple of aliens who were delayed getting to the charred area, they looked just as shocked as I was. They dropped their weapons and jet packs, and took off, hopping over fences and running down the street. I sent video and suggested that we should try to catch them alive, or we would never know what just happened. So the great alien hunt began.

There was a third dream between these two, but I can't even recall the one word title I'd given it to try to prompt my memory. I really should do this first thing in the morning rather than waiting for my breaks.

Abandoned Pets

Dreamed I was visiting a friend, who mentioned that she had a neighbor who hadn't been seen around in a while. She was concerned about the abandoned pets. She mentioned that one was a bison and the other two were cats. I said I could probably adopt another couple of cats, but the bison might have to become burgers if we couldn't find a home. She said we couldn't do that, as the bison was a pet not a food animal.

We went to the friend's apartment and her two kitties came right to the door. They looked amazingly like Teddy and Ember. I wondered if there were a lot of brother,-sister, tabby-calico pairs out there. The bison, white, and tiny, for a bison. His horns and nose leather were black and there was a black cape of wiry fur down his back. I fell in love with the scruffy little guy, he was just so cute. I agreed to take care of all three of them on the spot.

When I woke up I realized that I was dreaming about Teddy, Ember and Giles (who I often jokingly refer to as my buffalo, both because of his size and the full coat of matted buffalo-like fur on his back end.)

I suspect I'm feeling a little guilt about not spending as much time with them as usual; a combination of dating, and the older kitties all have health issues and seem to be taking up more and more of my time.

Dropping in on a Class

I dreamed I was working at a college and dropped in on a Drama course. While this was obviously influenced by the movie we'd seen last night, "Middleton," it felt a lot like my other theater dreams where I am out of my element and not prepared for the class/performance. This one had the additional feature of my being shirtless. (The covers had been pulled off and I was getting cold, I think.) There was a prop piano that I was setting up with a microphone, not for the instrument, but for the folks who would be sitting around the prop. The piano was going to be staged so that the audience couldn't see the actor's hands who was supposed to be playing the piano. This was because there wasn't actually any keys on the piano, it really was just and empty shell.

I was very self conscious of my flabby old self, but the students didn't seem to even notice. They even climbed up around me to help move the piano into position and then we all sat together while the audio engineer adjusted the microphone settings.

There were other dreams as well, small snippets that vanished between the bed and the water closet, I do know that one of them was full of warm, fluffy, cuddly kittens. I was so happy to be the center of their little world that I didn't want to wake up.

Bossa Nova, Traveling Cat

The text alert on my phone woke me up at about 4:15 this morning, and so I struggled awake out of a musical dream. Dancing to a Bossa Nova beat version of the song "I Just Want to Celebrate" (another day of living.) I don't really think the Rare Earth's version was Bossa Nova.

Don't know why the phone went off, I suspect I may have dreamed that. I did notice a text had come in while I was out last night, but that was more than six hours earlier. Going to be annoying if the text alert sound has joined the repertoire of my hypnopompic hallucinations.

After I went back to sleep I almost immediately slipped into a dream where I was at a cosplay convention for animals. I had a little black Moggie with a white muzzle and boots with a thin white stripe on his belly. He was a lot like my old T-Rex, but better at traveling. He was sitting with a bunch of us at lunch when he decided to dive headfirst into the swag bag of the woman sitting next to me. We dug down past the fliers and buttons to find him on his back, piddy-pawing the air and purring up a storm. "Okay," she smiled at me, "I don't even really like cats, but I so much want to take him home."

"We're a set." I said without missing a beat. (Ha, I'm never that smooth in real life.)

"I'm okay with that."

I blushed. (So it's probably a good thing I'm not that smooth in real life.)

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."

Moon Two of the Tetrad Disco Party.

Getting up for the second moon of the Tetrad allowed me to wake mid dream, something loud and raucous with lots of dancing folks and disco lights.

Unfortunately there wasn't any sort of plot, just the sweaty teen dance floor smell, that funky combo of sweat, deodorant, wood floor wax and rubber dance mats. Flailing arms and legs, slinky dresses and shiny jewelry, bell-bottom polyester pants. One cool thing, was when the alarm sounded, I stayed in the dream for a bit, and the conversations in the dream turned to the "Blood Moon" and why it was the cause for this celebration. I don't, of course, remember any of the specific details of the reasons for celebrating other than "reasons."

I did snooze a bit before getting up for work, but the dream was just one of those frustrating ones where I was reading something printed and was awake enough to realize that it didn't actually make any sense. That and the singing cat (which may well have been real, Ms Ember sings the "I'm a mighty hunter" song while she's putting all the cat toys away.)

New House, New Furniture, New Books, New Cat

I dreamed I packed up the cats and moved to a new house. Not smaller, but larger, two stories and a large front yard with a steep slope down to the sidewalk. The movers couldn't figure out how to get the bed into the house so they left it assembled outside under the bedroom window. I tried to explain that they needed to take the parts of the bed inside before assembling it. This seemed to confound them even further. The best I could do was get them to put the bed in the garage, but since I had a ton of unpacked books in the garage I didn't have room for the bed there, either. They weren't willing to move the books into the house to make room for the bed, either. I realized I was going to have to hire someone other than the moving company to finish moving me in, and it ticked me off.

I finally gave up and sent them away, frustrated that they had crushed half the tulip bed in front of the house. I sat on the bed and sent a complaint to the corporate headquarters, then watched, getting more depressed, as the sprinklers came on and the one under the bed gushed (the head was probably broken off, of course) a torrent of water that washed out a gully in the front yard before I could find the sprinkler shutoff. I managed to get the window to the bedroom open and it was tall enough for me to put every part of the bed through it except the mattress. One of my new neighbors stopped by and helped me pick it up and slide it in through the front door on it's side. Somehow we managed to do it without getting it muddy, or even wet. (Unlike the base of the bed, which was soaked.) Fortunately the master bedroom had a stone floor, and so I set up the dehumidifier to help dry everything out. I thanked my neighbor with the last of the grapes from the vine at the old house.

I went to see what had happened to the rest of the house, and was pleased to see that my library/study had been set up (on the second floor) and there were a dozen book cases around the walls, the room was large, built as a billiards room originally, big enough for two tables and no elbow bumping. My new desk and computer took up a small corner near the door, and there was room for my old dining table (now relegated to gaming) and all of its rather large chairs. There was an elevator on one end of the room and a large bathroom opposite. I had originally thought of using this room as my master bedroom, but in looking around felt I had made the correct decision. I decided to hire a couple of college students to sort and shelve my books, as I had come into a large collection of reference books by winning a contest from a publisher of engineering and other reference works. (The sorts of things that a writer might find very useful.)

I went downstairs (well, used the elevator just to make sure it was working properly) and opened up the kitty room to check on the fur children. Their room opened up onto an enclosed patio, and the older cats were sitting out in the sun, looking over the back yard from vantage points that would allow them to keep tabs on the kitten. The kitten, a little Chloe like calico, was bounding around the room, chasing butterflies. As soon as she leaped at one it would pop up out of the way, and then land between her ears, teasing the tufts of fur in her ears with its wings. There were at least four of them playing with her. I cold tell that Teddy wanted to play along, but was busy being the dignified elder of the group. (Apparently Little John, Miranda and Fawn were gone and he was the new alpha cat - and taking the job very seriously.) Giles was actually slimmer than his current meatloaf like self and was entertaining himself by licking a window screen. Ember was eagerly watching the butterflies, but backed up any time the kitten rolled close to her.

I was pleased that they had settled in so well after the move. They were doing much better than I was. Just watching my cats made me feel calmer and mostly happy. A tiny part of me wished I had someone special to share it with.

Alien Wristwatch, for Cats

This morning I was fitting my six feline companions with wristwatches, or more accurately wrist computers. The devices allowed me to translate their mews and marrrows and meers and meows into (human) intelligible speech.

Oddly, much of their conversation seemed to involve how wonderful our new alien allies from space were, and what a wonderful peaceful world it would be if we just adopted their culture.

They were oddly silent when I asked them if that included getting along with the grasshoppers and other critters they liked to munch on. I found myself wondering what the worlds' spy networks thought of these devices, as they were everywhere, essentially allowing all the worlds higher life forms to communicate. It was pretty much devastating the meat production market in the US and several other countries, though.

Many countries around the world had tried to make it a death sentence to use the devices, interestingly, those leaders had awakened the next day with the devices strapped firmly around their foreheads for everyone to see.

No one had yet actually seen one of the aliens (or at least they weren't publicly admitting to it.) So the world was busy blaming the US or whatever super power they feared most for the devices being just about everywhere.

I personally was of the opinion that the devices were the aliens, or at least a part of them.

Bring Your Cats to Work Day

I dreamed I was returning to work (which I am) and it was "Bring Your Cat to Work" day. Fawn Lynn was the only one who wanted to go in with me. She sat quietly on the passenger seat and let me carry her into the building. She found a nice comfortable spot on my lumbar pillow and settled in on my desk.

I met my new boss, who seemed like a nice fellow. I then discovered that N had started to work for the District as well. She had brought Ginger Muffin in. Ginger and Fawn seemed to recognize one another and were exchanging head-bonks and face washings. N walked away without speaking to me at all.

Un-Handy-Wipe, Broken Stat Display

In the first dream offering of the evening, I was trying to clean up after my slightly incontinent cat, who I still don't have the identity of, so there are still six suspects. To aid my "quest" I had purchased a new type of Handi-Wipe. I took the first one out of the bag, and it was about six feet tall by four feet wide. Everything was good until I bunched it up in the sink full of hot soapy water. I sucked up the whole two gallons or so of the solution, and then, of course, it was too heavy to try to hold it by any edge without it tearing. I finally figured out I could wring out most of the solution, and was smart enough to know not to throw it on the floor flat, as I would never be able to slide it around without tearing it apart (and for some reason tearing it apart didn't seem like a viable solution at the time.) What a wrestling match, it was like hand mopping the floor with a small blanket.

In the second dream I found myself on an island with a number of other players/crash survivors. It didn't take long to get the hang of the controls, as they were the same as real life: walk or run to walk or run, pick things up to look at them or use them.   Everything was the same as real life except for a stat display floating just above eye level, I could concentrate on it to bring it into focus, only there was no actually readable information there. We all were commenting on how real everything felt in this "game" and a couple of us wondered if this was really a game. We got moving and discovered a sealed door of the submarine hatch variety. There were some numbers etched around the rim of the hatch. Someone pointed out that this was just like the TV show "Lost." Those who knew the program found themselves suddenly in high regard.  I instantly regretted not watching the show.

Otherwise I might have known about the large alligator.

I had slipped on a log as we crossed a shallow stream, and a large alligator roared up out of the water. I slammed my hands against the creature's bottom jaw, forcing its mouth closed before it could do so with some of me inside. It then pinned me against the rotting wood. He'd apparently not eaten in some time as he was surprisingly weak, I was able to hold his lower jaw up against his upper and therefore was able to keep my head atop the log where I could breath. "Little help, here?"

"We're trying to figure out how to access our spells and abilities."

"How about hitting it with some big sticks?" I was holding my own, but just barely. The thing might have been a little weaker than me, but it was at least twice my size and with far more pointy bits. I did a quick glance at my head's up display, but it still had nothing useful, other than to turn an amber color when I looked directly at the alligator. I was focusing on staying alive, because I was pretty sure this game was in "hardcore" mode, I heard some of the people complaining about how wet the water felt, or how slimy the mud was. I didn't have a good feeling about my chances with this group.

I hope when I vanished under the water and floated out of the game with my arms wrapped around the alligator's head, the rest of them figured out how to play. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to hold my breath longer than the critter.

Train-ing Day

Super secret agent training, on a train. Lots of dodging bullets and racing through crowded dining cars, climbing outside and across the top of the moving train. Unfortunately I climbed up to the top of the train to evade a couple of pursuers, or I should say, "tried" to climb atop the train. The tunnel the train entered had about eight inches of clearance, not enough to survive, even if I hadn't pulled myself head and shoulders above the roof of the car.

No matter how I rewound the dream the same thing kept happening, or I would get shot, or knocked off the side of the train, or captured in the dining car. I finally decided not to go back after I was dead, so the dream faded away to me sitting in a strange room. Lots of boxes and toys, all of them with strange two inch holes drilled through them. Little John came up to me and got a quick head bonk and a little pet, but was soon distracted by a cardboard box. It was too small for him, really, but somehow he got his paws into the two holes in the lid and pried it off. When he stepped into the box he changed from a big red tabby to a little grey and black tabby. I realized he'd somehow been transformed into Princess Tiger Lily. I did not like this one bit and my anxiety levels were through the roof. She stepped out for a Little John style head bonk and then right back in the box, I was hoping she would turn back into Little John, but no, she just curled up and died.

No, no, no, no, no! I took her/his body out and cradled it.

The dream wouldn't rewind. In fact it kept going. Miranda entered the room and stepped into the box, she turned into the emaciated shadow of her cousin T-Rex, who didn't even step out of the box before he withered and died in front of me. The room began to narrow and I forced myself to get up and find a door, it was at the narrow end of the room and it opened up to a ladder. The ground was rumbling and blurred below me, so I began to climb. Just as I cleared the top of what I realized was a rail car, the tunnel keystone took off my head again.

I woke drenched and shaking, heart racing, no kitties on the bed with me at all.

New Cats, Survivor's Meetup

In the first dream of the evening, I was heading to the front room when I heard a tiny forlorn little meow. Following the noise led me to the dining room, and there in the far corner of the bottom shelf of the far book case was a fluffy white kitten with bright blue eyes. She saw me, and immediately switched from meow to purr. Teddy head-bumped my leg from behind as if to ask "can we keep her?" I put down a bowl of food for her, and another white cat arrived, this one was older, quite possibly the kitten's mom. She brushed past Teddy and myself as if she'd always been here. Somehow, that made me smile.

The bowl of food was next to the water dish, and Teddy laid between them and the rest of the house, guarding them while I went and got my camera. I was pretty sure from the ratty collar on the older cat that they were abandoned, but figured I'd print out some pictures and walk the neighborhood to see if anyone claimed them. I told Teddy we didn't want to be kit-nappers. He didn't seem to appreciate the pun.

I was thinking they would bring me back up to five cats, and that made me sad, because there were no more sprocket kitties.


Right before the water sprinklers went off out front, I was dreaming of another post-apocalyptic, digging out from the rubble to re-establish some sort of order, scenario. I have no idea what the actual apocalypse was for this one, only that there were very few of us left, and none of us were much younger than forty or so.

Whether the younger folks had all traveled away from the ruins to start new, or were taken in the apocalypse, I can't say. However, it was nearly the full moon, so those of us who'd stayed, or were left, gathered in the ballroom of the only hotel to have one in the area.

We'd thought about meeting at one of the college gymnasiums, but the hotel was more elegant, so it won out in the voting. Personally, I thought it was a little bit on the musty side, even though a few of us had raided the Home Depot to repair the roof and windows, it still seemed to get enough water to encourage mold to grow. I always waited until the last second to make my way through the musty hallways to the ballroom, which, at least, had hard floors and paneled walls, so didn't have as much mildew smell. We managed to get the generators started up and the room's chandeliers glowed unsteadily from the fluctuating power.

There was some trading, and some reporting of events of the past month, some fresh vegetables and fruit, some furs, some clothing and finally, some music and dancing. We welcomed new members to the community, and said goodbye to those who were leaving for what they hoped were greener pastures. For a change there'd been no deaths to report, and the people who were missing were accounted for by their friends or kin.

Folks returned from San Diego brought the news from the survivors there, apparently there was some sort of turf war going on, that made us all shake our heads. There really weren't enough of us left to imagine that there wasn't room enough for everyone who wanted to stay in the area, but the city was apparently being flooded by the high tides and that had forced some of the coastal sorts to abandon the convention center and Harbor Island, the other coastal communities hadn't been willing to absorb them.

There was lots of drinking with the dancing and soon folks were slipping off into the various halls and rooms for some private time. I was too drunk to make my way home in the dark so found a spot on a couch near the front desk, where, when I rolled over later I found N sleeping there next to me. "Don't get any ideas, I was just cold."

If it's Six AM, then I'm Already Late!

This time change always takes me quite a bit to get used to. It throws the cats off, too.

In my dream I woke to the pawing of hungry cats. It was pitch black save for the glow of the alarm clock.(Which I found odd, since I knew, even in the dream, that I'd removed the lamp from the clock years ago.) I fumbled around and picked up the clock in one hand and found my glasses with the other. The time was just a moment before six AM. Panic coursed through me, apparently the light on the timer was still off (I shut it off so I can sleep in on the weekends. I know I'm not supposed to, but I think the cats have come to look forward to sleeping in as much as I do.) My heart started racing and I tried to roll out of bed, but found that I couldn't move.

I realized this was a false wakening, and woke myself up, only to discover that I couldn't move my arms and legs at all, the timed light was on, the cats were in the other room singing "The Breakfast Song" and generally knocking things about. I heard a helicopter overhead, the beat of the blades rattling the windows so that it was impossible, from inside the house, to hear anything but the vaguest "wanh, wanh wanh..." of the P.A. system. I hoped it wasn't something serious - like an evacuation notice.

Then everything was blue and yellow swirls around a translucent silvery egg about the size of an armchair, but narrower. I couldn't tell if I was the silvery egg or the swirling tendrils of color. I seemed to be outside of the whole scene but somehow fully contained as well. I was thinking that I didn't have time to figure this out, because, it's... if it's six AM, then I'm already late for work!

I struggled out of the paralysis, checked the headboard clock, and it was indeed a few minutes after six, so I tossed off the covers, scattering the cats, and raced out into the kitchen to feed them. I couldn't find their bowls, however, and there were two new tables each with a set of four matching chairs in the front room that I'd never seen before. That explained all the weird knocking around sounds from earlier.

"Who would break in and leave furniture" I fumed aloud to no one.

It dawned on me that it was Sunday, and somehow that made it all okay, especially since I wouldn't have to drive to work naked.

Reunion, Flying Romance, Returning the Cat

In my first dream of the night, I was reunited with the Nerd Girl (Star Wars) who was my first flame. We are both chubby old fans now, and the fire of passion that burned through us as young adults has long passed, however, we did have a good time at one of our smaller local science fiction conventions.

I knew the reunion wouldn't be long lasting, however, as she reeked of camels. When I mentioned this, our long time friend got insulted and smacked me. I had to explain that I smelled not the spitting one humped kind, but the cigarette kind.

"Oh, sorry." 

"I asked for it, I suppose."

"She only smokes those to cover up the other smell."

"I smelled that, too, and even though I'm not opposed, the last person I was with chose that over me, so - not an inducement to explore a long term romance either."

"It would of been so romantic if you'd gotten back together."

"I suppose, but we didn't grow into somebodies we could love."


And with that I was off into the next dream. It was Almost a Super Power Tuesday! The woman I was dating had the almost a super power of flight (which I would argue is legitimately a super power) however, she could only fly if she was bottomless. (Which did limit the appeal of flying, at least for her. Not so much for the rest of us.) If she knew she was going to want to fly somewhere she would wear either stretchy shorts that were easy to pull down, or short, really short skirts and just pull down her panties.

My almost a super power was to become small, about 8 inches tall. The power, at least allowed everything I was wearing or carrying to shrink with me.

We seceded that it was dark enough to fly home after a long walk, so my GF pulled down her panties and indicated that I should sit on her backside.

"I think I'll use your panties as a hammock, you smell yummie." She sighed and lifted me into her underwear and we took off into the sky. I was quite enjoying the view as she had to fly with her legs slightly apart to avoid losing her panties, and me.

"You are so going to owe me when we get home."

"I'll be happy to warm you right up." The dream ended before we got to that part.


I love flying dreams and the flying theme carried over into the following dream. I had managed to locate my girlfriend's favorite cat, played by Teddy Bearheart, my orange tabby. He'd gotten out and had somehow managed to avoid the zombies by climbing as high up as he could, and then leaping from roof top to rooftop when the crowd below got too large and noisy. I managed to hear him mewling above the noise, and climbed up a nearby empty house, then leapt over to the one he had gotten himself to. We jumped to the next house in the row, I was deliberately making noise to draw them with us. We finally came to a house where the zombies couldn't break down the fence to get into the next yard. (It had been raised and reinforced at some point in time.)

There were several hang gliders roped down to this roof. and the entire south end was covered with solar panels. I tried calling down to the people who had to be holed up down below, but there was no answer, though I thought I could hear them moving around. It was getting dark, and the wind was coming up. I made a rope ladder from some of the extra rope and dropped down into the back yard.

Like my house there was a large sliding glass door. The living room held four people aimlessly wandering in the dim LED light. There were no curtains on the windows, they were trampled and bloody under the shuffling feet. I realized that I was essentially only armed with a short sharp stick, and there were four of them, but they didn't seem to notice me. I realized that the light from the LEDs must have made the coated window like a mirror, and they could only see themselves. I, however, could see that they had several book cases in the room full of MREs and dried goods. Enough to keep a couple of people in kibble for at least a year. I knew I was going to have to come back here to clear the place out.

I found myself sneaking around the back of the herd in the dark, then closing the gate of that house's fence behind them. At least the neighborhood herd was mostly contained now.

I climbed back up, and borrowed a second sling from one of the hang gliders. It took a bit of doing to coax Teddy into the sling, but I got him tied in and hung under myself. "Sorry about the bumps, guy, it's going to be okay."

I launched myself into the air on one of the hang gliders. The nylon rope paid out on a heavy spool that I could barely control. I took a few moments to get the glider under control and slowly climbed out to the maximum height the rope would allow. I hoped it would be enough to glide back to my own house. I let go of the rope and the glider immediately went into a nose dive, causing Teddy to shriek.

The herd looked up and I was headed directly for them. I managed to pull out of the dive a hundred feet or so above them and started to climb out, circling wide until I was lined up with the road that led back home. Fortunately I have a wide front yard. Only, I really needed to get into the back yard, as that had the only entrance into the house that wasn't completely boarded up . I angled over, judging my glide, and guessing that I was going to have trouble getting by the two story house next to mine. Or I was going to land in that back yard and have to jump the reinforced fence.

Unfortunately it became obvious that neither plan was going to work, the wind was behind me, and I was barely above the roofs of the houses on the mesa above us, the wind was getting turbulent and I couldn't control the hang glider. I managed to get us onto the roof of the house two doors down. We slide to the edge of the roof and I managed to get out of the sling. Teddy was howling and I could hear zombies out on the street moving towards us. I managed, somehow at the last second to grab a tree branch and used it to swing us out over the lawn and then back to the covered balcony of the house. This house had been locked up tight and we hadn't even tried to break in, as the lower story was completely boarded up. I let Teddy out of his bag, he immediately quieted and cowered at my feet.

I stood a long while, stick in hand, listening. The creatures outside made it difficult to hear if there was anything or anyone inside. The moon was up outside, on the other side of the room from the windows we'd come through, of course. I backed up to the wall and slid along it, Teddy slinking about five feet behind me. I made my way to the back windows and pulled open the curtains. Moonlight filled the main room. It had been set up as a TV room at one time, a big screen dominated one wall, and the bathroom and master bedroom were behind me. There was a small bar to one side of the TV, and stairs to the other. There was no furniture in the room. I stepped out into the room and could see dust float up into the beams of moonlight. I made my way over to the stairwell, it was full of furniture. I turned back to the master bedroom. The door was locked. I tapped gently. No answer, no shuffling, either. The bathroom door was locked as well. Teddy was chasing rodents in the moonlight. At least he would eat well tonight. I stepped out of the musty air into the night on the balcony. The zombies had shuffled up the street to investigate the noise of the now trapped herd.

Finally, a break. I called to Teddy, who picked up his unfinished meal and trotted out to me. We climbed down the tree next to the balcony and I picked Teddy up and ran for our house.

I stopped. There in the middle of the street was my GF from the Almost Super Power Tuesday dream. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Rescuing my girl friend's favorite cat." I just sort of stood there, confused.

She pulled down her panties and turned around, pointing to the cleft in her now bare and amazingly cute bottom. "Mount up!"

I shrunk down, with Teddy, and she lifted us up to her backside, then thought better of it and put us in her panties. She jumped into the air and flew up and around circling the house looking for a place to land. "Don't worry, we'll get the handsome kitty back to his owner. And then you're going to owe me."

You won't see that on the Walking Dead.

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.)