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.

Stormy Moving Day

I dreamed I was moving into a new home on a low hillside overlooking the ocean. The unpacking was a little chaotic as J and her family were there helping, as well as L and a couple of other folks including my brother and his wife. We were unpacking one of my parent's dressers when we discovered that it didn't sit very even. I opened up the top and we discovered an entire sewing machine cabinet, disassembled, stored under the top shelf. It was something my brother had inherited, but we'd not found it at the time.

Of course we took a break to assemble it and my brother decided that he wanted it. We had to disassemble it so we could ship it to Virginia. J was in a little bit of a mood as the kids were wildly running around discovering all the neat features of the house. Her son, however, thought it was because this was our fourth anniversary. I tried to point out to him that we hadn't been dating in almost two years, so that seemed unlikely (and it was the Sunday, not Friday before Thanksgiving, so there were still a few days left even if that were the problem.) All the while we were working, the light kept growing dimmer until I looked out over the bay and saw huge cloud wall, churning gray and green and full of lightning. A waterspout headed right for our little beach. I yelled at the people outside to hurry and get into the house. When they asked why I pointed out to the waterspout, and that got them moving. Several strangers also ran towards the house, then looked confused about what to do then, as they were sort of trapped against our sea wall. My brother and I helped them up over the wall and shooed them into the house. I was being pelted with water and small fishes as I ran into the house and pulled the french doors shut behind me.

"There's a box of towels in the back bathroom, bring them all."

The group of people from the beach were all trying not to drip on the carpet, so were all huddled in the six by nine tile space right in front of the doors. This room had indoor/outdoor carpet, though, and was meant to be more of an enclosed patio than a regular room, so I told them to spread out, "the carpet washes out." I remembered that it had plenty of sand in it when I bought the place, so wasn't worried about it.

The water spout lifted and vanished as it made its way overhead. The house was well built (very dome like) and it didn't even shudder, though lightning was flashing and you could hear the thunder so loud some of the people were holding their hands over their ears. The kids were helping me pick up the little wriggling fish and put them in a small bucket. I opened the door and ran out to the edge of the sea wall, a wave reached up to just a few inches below the wall, so I was able to scoop up a half bucket, it would be enough to save at least some of the fish. At least there weren't any more falling from the sky, just normal rain at that point. J's grandkids joined the beach kids in catching the fish and putting them in the bucket.

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.)

Houseboat and Star Wars Sequel

"I'm too old to do this" I said as I walked the gunwale of the houseboat we'd rented. I was trying to keep us out of the floating logs on the riverbank. J was wearing one of her white cruise-ship robes and a white captain's hat. She was steering the houseboat from the top of the cabin. Her son and daughter-in-law were there as well as their four kids, only, they were all about ten years older than they are now, so the youngest was a teen. All of us but the youngest were manning poles, helping pole the houseboat up stream. We could have gotten a tow, but it would have cost us $800. We were making good time, but it was a lot of hard work.

Before that I had a Star Wars dream, something to do with rescuing Bothan spies, avoiding TIE fighters and slogging our way through giant creature infested sewers. It was all very light sabers and flashing blasters at some points, and dark sneaking through the muck at others.

Sent Out

The step grand daughter and I were sent out, instructed to not return for at least six hours. Dad was having a party and didn't want either of us hanging around the house underfoot.

So, the teen and myself headed out to the boardwalk to kill six hours. Fortunately there was a movie playing that we both wanted to see, and I had to promise, after getting our tickets, to let her go into the theater on her own, just in case her friends were there.

We ended up sitting together in the movie anyway, it did take a few minutes into the preview before she gave up on finding any of her friends and so sneaked in next to me. We reviewed the upcoming movies based on their trailers, making a list of the must see on the big screen, wait for it, and the "what were they thinking?" which we'd look at if we were bored, and finally the no and Hell no films. Oddly, we pretty much agreed on most of the films. Wish I could remember more about movie, as it was pretty funny. I thought that was probably too bad for her future dating self.

We then did some window shopping along the boardwalk. I pointed out that the theater was shaped like a ship, realizing as I did so that I'd probably told her that before, in fact, probably every time we'd come down to the boardwalk. To her credit she simply looked over at the theater, and agreed with me. I decided not to tell her that it sank once, as I'm pretty sure I'd told that tale before as well. "I'll save it for senility," I thought to myself.

"You do know why they sent us away, don't you?" She looked at me with a funny little smirk.

I nodded. I was pretty sure I did, the two of us had a way of taking over any conversation we were part of, not intentionally, but it was what it was. Frequently we'd be conversing and other people would drift into range. We'd open up the conversational circle, and then they would never leave.

"They're going to talk about sex."

I laughed, not exactly the reaction she was looking for. I searched for something truthful but generic to say, as I wasn't really ready to talk about parents talking about sex and flirting it up at their parties. Not really Grandpa material, I thought. "I'm pretty sure at their age the topic still has some interest."

"Ick."

I steered the conversation onto the topic of cute shoes and purses. Despite her rather tomboyish behavior, she was, at least in the clothing and accessories department, a girly girl.

The Girl from Yukishima

J and I were starring in a Jimmy Stuart style black and white romantic musical comedy, "The Girl from Yukishima." I don't remember much of the plot, but a good deal of it centered on the antics of J and J's (in the film) younger sister. In the film, J's sister was home during a break from her much beloved Yukishima Blue Monkey University, where she was attending their College of Western Studies -as in the American Wild West. Much of the file she flip-flopped between traditional Japanese and American (movie) Western outfits. J changed between a black evening gown and a Grey puffy sweater over skinny pants. I seemed to always be in a narrow-striped grey three piece suit with a black bow tie. If I was outside, I was wearing a matching pinch-front hat.

There was a particularly rousing pseudo western number (in Japanese and English both) at one point where everyone in a recreated "Rick's Cafe Americain" was joining in and singing along. J played quite the rabble-rouser in the film and when she and her little sister, who was actually taller than me in her heals, got going, all sorts of musical mayhem erupted. Like a Jimmy Stuart character, I kept finding myself in the eye of this blonde, musical, two-woman tornado. I was forced to run to keep up, lest I be engulfed by the surrounding storm. In the tradition of such films, I was working much harder than I would if I'd just let myself be swept up and carried away by the events around me, and that created the central engine for the comedy.

It's been a long time since I've had an all black and white dream, and even longer since I had one with an opening title and end credits. I wish I could remember more than the title. One of the neat things about this dream is that we were playing characters our own ages.

I would go see this film in the theater. *****

Mobile Home (Wet)

J and I couldn't decide where to live. So, we bought a boat.

At the end of a trip from Monterrey to San Diego we ended up docked outside a amphitheater like venue, where I was repairing the rails. A rock and roll concert started. It was a group of older rock-n-rollers, covering a lot of sixties and seventies songs we both liked. Grandkids N and M were visiting along with Dad, and had never been to a concert before, at least, not on a boat.  They were having a great time. Our boat rode pretty high out of the water, and the two electric masts were gleaming pink in the setting sun. The raked main mast had the booms tied in tight and we were anchored both fore and aft. (The boat was all electric and wind/solar powered. It had two re-conditioned torpedo motors in addition to the sails.) I loved the dark oak color of the decking and sides.)

The band invited us to come backstage during the break between sets.

All the while this was going on I was replacing the old thick wooden railing with lighter, stronger, and more weather resistant composite railings. I was almost finished by the time the concert was done. I was just finishing the composite so it was the same color as the electric masts.

J was concerned about N's first back stage experience, but I pointed out that he would be fine (he was an adult in the dream, with dark curly hair.) Besides, she'd be there. Her son tried to remind her that she was almost seventy and needed to behave like it. I just laughed, figuring that's not going to happen. I did clip  her into a safety line before she climbed down over the side of the boat, better safe than sorry, right?

House Tour

Last night's dream was a perfect combination of every conversation and movie J and I experienced.

Mom  and Dad, in their 90's now, came to tour my home and to help celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday, High School Graduation, College acceptance. They had never been up to "the complex" where J and I had moved over 16 years earlier. We started in the office, I showed them the main development center, and there were the over a thousand servers that ran both our games and development software. There were no blinking lights in the entire place, as I found them too distracting. Only a couple of the team were actually working when my parents arrived for the tour, as it was quite late local time. I had to explain that the majority of our employees worked from home, or from satellite computing centers if there'd been enough of them to build one. Only just over a dozen developers and robot maintenance workers worked at the main site. Many of them had homes in another part of our business park.

A pair of cybernetic enhanced golden retrievers joined us. Part family, part guardians, they conversed, after a fashion, greeting Mom and Dad warmly. We stopped in the cafe, open around the clock and around the calendar, they catered to all of the local businesses, many of which ran around the clock as well. I explained that the kitchen was rarely closed, so if they needed something in the night, they could call over and it would be delivered to their room. The retrievers wondered if there were treats for them. I told them treats were for later, and they fell in behind us, friendly but alert.

We went outside to a nearby intersection. I pointed out a building across the street with three domes on top. You'll be staying in the red domed room, the other is empty for now, and "your grand-daughter's rooms are under the green dome. Her dome was rotating slowly and the clear windowed opening was slowly rotating out of view. "She likes to watch the stars at night when it's clear enough."

My mom commented that was just like her grumpa, and her dad.

I pointed to the rest of the complex up the hill, all solar cells and wind turbines. I was proud of the fact that our operations ran on almost wholly renewable energy resources. I had an experimental tidal generator on the coast, but it wasn't online yet. When  it was, I would be able to provide power to some of the other homes in the area as well. I was not planning on expanding the business any further.

"Cross now," one of the retrievers barked and we stopped our conversation long enough to navigate the curbs and cross the street.

We entered our home. It was very open on the bottom floor, and there were places were balconies overlooked the main hall. There were a couple of folks meeting quietly in one corner, some others playing cards. They all looked up and greeted me, so I introduced my folks around. These were friends and co-workers (employees, technically) who were using the main hall as one of the few well lit meeting places in town, I even had a robot bartender rolling around somewhere. It was the closest thing the island had to a night club.

I took my folks back up into the more private part of the residence. The retrievers got their snacks, and then headed back out to the main hall.

There was a large alcove in the master bedroom with a life sized photo of J and her five grand children, N was a young man, his little sister, M was a teenager, as was their oldest cousin. There were two younger cousins, twins, were tweens in the photograph. All of them were grown now, and a couple had provided J with great grand children, or would have if she was still alive. The family was still close with myself and my daughter, and that was a sweet set of memories. They kept J alive for me. In the photograph J was quite clearly beaming, and very pregnant. There were dozens of smaller photos lining each side of the larger photo, and there was a single perpetual candle below the center of the display. The whole thing was on an antique oak dresser with J's jewelry and some other keepsakes displayed on the top. It was quite the shrine. The whole thing brought up many bittersweet memories.

Mom wondered what had prompted us to become parents in our sixties. I answered that we'd been fortunate enough to have both the time and the money, so we did. I showed them the master bedroom, the pedestal for the California King had been refinished and modified to move the drawers closer to the edge of the bed. The headboard still held several books, a couple of teddy bears, and the love dice game.  The mattress was a climate controlled sensor bed, and the central area was the storage for the robotic paramedic that served the family. The bed spread was an antique quilt, one of the ones J had loved. In the center of the bed was a large cat, marked like a clouded leopard. He regarded us, then loped over to rub against Mom and Dad's legs. It was as though he knew they were family. "He's recently sired some kittens if you think you'd like another cat."

I eased the doors closed and we headed up to the roof, passing under the awning that made wintering through  possible, and we stopped outside my daughter's room. I knocked on her door and it opened almost immediately. She'd probably been watching the tour's progress on her tablet. She bounced out into the hallway and hugged Mom and Dad, genuinely glad to see them. she was about the same height as mom, bright blue eyes and cheekbones like her mother, brown wavy hair like mine when I was young. She was slender, but curvy, a perfect blend of our two families. (Perhaps unfortunately for her nose, it got J's bump and our length, like most teens, she was oversensitive about it.)

Mom was stooped with arthritis that had progressed too far to be treated even with modern medicine, at least not without replacing her spine, something she absolutely refused to do "I never planned on living this long!" she kept saying. At least her condition had been brought to a standstill, so would get no worse. Dad's hearing had been replaced, however, with implants, it was the only gift he'd allowed me to give him, and even then, I had to convince him that I needed his help for the "trials" of the devices, as I wanted to invest in them. (In fact my company now owned the company that made the devices, and we subsidized their distribution, about 95% of the cost for those who could afford it, 100% for anyone who couldn't. I don't think my dad actually understood why we did that.)

My daughter dragged her grandparents into her room; showing off the view and some of the awards she'd collected. Like her mother, there were piles of clothing on the floor and the beds, as I think she tried everything on every morning before heading out. She'd done her best to move the piles out of the way, or cover them with bedding.  She was, very much her mother's daughter. I was quite proud of her, thinking the J and I had done okay, and that the business, when I handed it over in a dozen years or so, would be in good hands. I had every intention of retiring and becoming a face to face game master, and gaming away the last few decades of my life with friends both old and new. (Unless, of course, we discovered the secret of immortality. Human life spans were now in the low 120s regularly, and the record was being  broken continuously by a woman who was in fact one of my virtual employees at 127 years of age. I didn't know if I would make it to that age, but it seemed likely that I would at least see Halley's Comet a second time.)

Dreamlands Zigzag

Particularly convoluted would be two words to describe this morning's dream. Started in the Hill House, reconstruction appears, for now, to be finished. The house is much smaller than it was, though it is still three stories tall. It also appears to be far less haunted, and the carriage house is much more modern, with electric lights and charging stations for vehicles as well as a three hundred gallon gasoline tank. (Elevated and behind a bunker.) The various ghosts and other haunts seem of a much milder variety than in previous years.

I rolled out the electric car, pushing it out of the carriage house rather than driving it. The vehicle had very narrow tires, and a steering bar, or tiller, that thrust out from under the nose of the vehicle. I folded the tiller up and disengaged it before climbing up into the driver's seat, releasing the hand brake, and then rolling down the hill, topping off the high-speed capacitors all the way to the bottom of the hill. I could see the gauge that showed the capacitors charging and then discharging as I accelerated up the little ramp that took me onto the elevated "Overway" that crossed most of the valley before breaking into a series of little off ramps all over the Dream City. I took the off ramp to work.

There I found that my office had been moved back to the old District Offices. I had a box of my few personal possessions and arrived at my old desk. I opened the drawers and discovered that I had left some things behind eleven years ago when I moved to the new offices. We'd only been allowed to put up two personal items in the new offices, as any more would break the illusion of "efficient conformity" that was one of the goals of the new administration.

As I opened the various drawers I found several articles of clothing that I had long forgotten. One of the denim shirts and a pair of genes were turned inside out, and had alterations marked in chalk. The alterations would have turned the the items into something much smaller, and cut in such a way as to flatter a feminine form. I wondered if they would fit my new girlfriend, so folded them neatly on top of the desk to take home. I also found about a half dozen toys I'd somehow collected over the years and immediately set them out on the desk and nearby book case, as there would certainly be plenty of room for them now. I did unbox my inbox, and sorted through the mail. All advertisements, only a couple of which even pertained to my new job. I tossed them into the shredder, then bagged the shreddings to take home to the composter/pelletizer. I wondered how many more mailing lists I'd have to be on if I'd had the Hill House fully restored to its former size. (Apparently the house was powered by a combination of solar and a pellet burning furnace. There was a gasoline generator for emergencies, but it was only used once a month or so to power up party night, and to make sure it stayed in working condition.)

At the end of my re-decorating, I headed out of town and up the ramp out of the dreamlands.

I was then visiting my parent's house. Mom and Dad had been clearing out the garage and had come across a number of papers in some foreign language. I agreed to look them over, figuring that they were likely my sister's old homework, as she is the polylingual one of us. The pages, however were not homework. They looked like some sort of immigration forms, or applications and they seemed to be filled out in Latin rather than German.

The handwriting was unfamiliar, and wildly different. Some of the newer forms had even been typed onto directly, I could feel the texture of the letter strikes on the back of the form. I sat down on the end of the couch best lit by the light from the sliding glass window.I tried to make out the words, "Hodi Doxi" were the only things I could make out, as they were in a box much larger than the rest of the text, when the light failed, becoming almost pitch black. A large raven flew into the sliding glass door with a thump, Then cawed and came in through the cat door. That made me wonder why the door had been unsealed. Mom and Dad haven't had cats in several years now, and Mom is terrified of birds, so certainly wouldn't have opened up the door for the raven.

At that moment I realized there'd been a big black raven in last night's dream as well. That, of course tipped off that I was dreaming and I struggled awake.

The Latin looks like it could be today(currently) "hodi" is technically an adverb (just looked it up, it can also be an adjective) but I didn't see a verb. Doxi  is less certain as it is not a form I have ever seen. There is a "doxa/ae" so perhaps: Decoration (Adornment/Glory?) The root is also used for "doxologia" or a hymn. However, it is more likely just random words my brain tried to fit on the page. Glory Today, perhaps.

Yellow Chair, Not Buying, Red Chair

I dreamed I was moving out of my office, and decided to take the yellow task chair out as the last item. I sat in it and rolled it out of the building and down the sidewalk towards the back hill. For some reason I needed it to get all the way home, and I figured if I could coast down the hill I would get onto the freeway with enough speed to get over the hill and then be able to coast most of the way from Poway to Escondido. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it up the big hill, but was hoping to find a big truck to draft up the hill by the time I got there.

There was a tiny bit of my brain that wondered if the little furniture casters would be up to the fifteen mile trip. The rest of my brain was "Hooty hoo! I'm outta here, let's do this!" and so I rolled down off the sidewalk, lifting up on one side to clear some rocks, and then crashed down the hill through the acacia and eucalyptus debris to get to the freeway on ramp below. I wasn't going quite as fast as I had hoped, but I had an umbrella, so popped it open as I rolled up along side traffic and used it to catch a gust from a passing truck. That accelerated me up to almost freeway speed, and I rocketed up the hill catching draft after draft from passing vehicles. I easily made it to the top of the hill and started gaining speed on the way down the slope, easily keeping up with the car carrier in the slow lane for most of the trip. I shot across the bridge at speed, managing somehow to get across the mall exit without a collision and then started slowing as I rolled up the big hill.

It was about that time that I realized I was going to have to have someone pick me up and take me back to work to get my car, and I wondered if I should have tried harder to get the chair tied into the back of my car. "Doesn't matter," I said to myself, I was already more than a third of the way home. I leaned back to reduce my drag and steered my way off the freeway, it would be a fairly level trip through town, and I figured between the umbrella and the occasional big truck I could easily make it home.

---

In the next dream segment, I had people over to the house to re-upholster and re-caster my task chair and my rocking chair. I gave them a little tour of the house and they wanted to sell me a new hot tub, as they didn't think they could re-upholster the old one. I explained that I wanted it repaired, not re-upholstered, but the only one who seemed to get it was the executive assistant. I was still not clear as to why she had come along with the others, but wasn't complaining about it, as she was the most intelligent and best looking of the bunch. She did manage to convince her team to take care of the rocker, and I finally managed to convince them that I wouldn't be buying a hot tub from them. The EA convinced me that it would actually be cheaper to buy a new task chair (not from them) than to pay to have the one I have re-done.

I expressed what a shame that was, as I had coasted/pushed it all the way home from Poway. She didn't look like she believed me, until I tipped it up and showed her the pitted and worn casters.

They left, having been unsuccessful in selling me anything but the re-upholstering of one chair, which is what I'd contacted them for in the first place.  I settled into my new chair until the fresh glue/vinyl smell got to me. I opened up the window in the room and fired up the ionic filter. I decided to call it an evening and gathered up the cats to lock them out of the sitting room, figuring the smell wasn't doing them any good, either.

The cats and I went to bed, a few minutes later there was a gentle rapping at my bedroom door (the outside door) I hesitated before opening the curtains. It was the EA, she was still in the light blouse and short skirt she'd worn earlier, but now it was twenty degrees cooler and she looked a bit shivery. I wondered why she hadn't come to the front door. She said she'd forgotten to leave me her card. I opened the door and took the card, it had her home phone number written on the back. I asked her if she wanted to come in for a bit. She looked happy to get in out of the chilly night air.

I offered her a robe, but she asked if I had anything to drink. She didn't seem unhappy when I explained that there was only tequila. While I cleaned a couple of shot glasses (they'd been sitting so long they were dusty) she stood in the front room pouring over my library, making delighted comments about what she was finding. She was talking with the kitties, and I heard the telltale sounds of happy to be brushed cats coming from the room. I had made up a plate of cheese and toast (no crackers in the house) hoping it would go okay with the drinks. I really got the impression that she wasn't planning on leaving unless I threw her out. She really wanted to sell that hot tub, pointing out that we could have both been enjoying it if I'd agreed to purchase it. Somehow I doubted that, but it was fun to think about.

I almost hated to tell her "I'm still not buying it," figuring that would bring our evening to a halt.

Interestingly, it didn't bring the evening to a halt, if anything she seemed more interested in staying with me, and the cats, saying she was too drunk to go home, even though she hadn't had even a full shot yet. She started to disrobe, saying how fortunate she was that I only had the one bed, and how warm it must be with me and the cats, all of whom seemed to be attracted to her as much as I was. It was at that point that I realized she was infatuated with the house, the books and the cats as much or more than myself.

---

I was in a furniture store, sort of a mix of new and second hand, where ever I went there was a dark-haired woman with me, helping me try out the different chairs, asking how everything fit, and if I could sit and write for a few hours at a time comfortably in it. (Pretty sure this was the EA from the previous dream.) She was also helping out a single mom and her two children, also friends of hers, I think. The family were looking for something to make their small bedrooms feel larger. I suggested a Jefferson bed. None of them knew what that was, so I asked for a sheet of paper and something to draw with. I drew the arrangement, desk and shelves underneath, bunk bed above, allowing the two sets of furniture to take up one bed sized space in the room, leaving the rest open for shelves or even just a couple of chairs and a game table.

Mom looked skeptical, but both the boy and the girl thought it was a great idea. "We'd both get the top bunk all the time." Apparently they'd had to share a room when they'd first been divorced, and mom swore they would never share bunk beds again. I pointed out this really wasn't a bunk bed, as much as it just made the space beneath usable for more than storing winter clothing.

Meanwhile the woman I was with found a red and white leather barber style chair, complete with chrome arm supports and chrome hardware for the center post and footstool mechanism. There was a headrest that adjusted to fit me perfectly. I rode up and down and swiveled the chair around a full turn or two. The woman lifted an arm - even though larger the chair did work like a barber chair - and sat on my lap, leaning us both back so she was rather intimately stretched out on top of me. "Fits perfectly," was her comment.

"Yes, it does. Rather persuasive sales technique, too."

"I would be delighted to show you all of the features once we get it home."

Yep, pretty sure this was the same gal from the previous dream.

Starting to think I need to go check out some furniture re-finishing places.

Psychic Mom

I was walking along the beach when I came across a young man, obviously overheated because he was wearing a suit jacket in the broiling heat. I asked him why he didn't take of the jacket and go splash around in the ocean a bit. He explained that his mother made him wear the jacket and he was not to take it off until it was safe. I handed him the cup of ice that was left over from whatever sugary drink I'd recently purchased. "Go find some shade and cool off."

I wondered what it was supposed to be keeping him safe from.

"Starvation," was his answer, even though I hadn't asked the question aloud.

Okay, I thought. This is going to be one messed up kid. I looked up the beach to where he indicated when he referred to his mother and decided to visit the only house I saw in that direction. When I got there I found a little girl playing out front, also dressed oddly warm for the day in a cute but heavy polka dot jumper. She was in the shade, though, and didn't seem to be in trouble. She did come out to greet me, asked me a couple of odd questions, which, unfortunately I can't remember now. I do remember thinking how much alike she and her brother looked. Both had sun-bleached platinum hair and bright blue eyes.

I found myself hoping they looked like their mom, then caught myself. I was there to see what the doom was that mom was protecting her children from.

I asked the little girl if her parents were home, and she indicated that there was only mom, and she was expecting me. That sent a chill up my spine, but no more so than when the kid leaned over the railing and hugged me, asking "are you going to be my daddy?" Only, the question came out as "You are going to be my daddy?"

Mom was also blond haired, blue eyed and really quite attractive, even if she was quite obviously hyperactive, and hugely pregnant. I just came out and asked what was going on with her son being sent out in a jacket.

She said it was to protect the whole family, things were about to come unravelled in a truly spectacular fashion, she was going to lose her job and therefore her house. Sending him out to play in that jacket was the only way to save them all. To keep the house, to get food for their table. And the little girl was in her polka dot party dress, because I liked polka dots.

I was thinking that this was all sorts of crazy that I just didn't need to be involved with. Then I looked into her dark blue eyes and realized, she wasn't crazy, she had just seen the long lines of some  probabilities. Standing close to her I could feel the edges of the way she perceived the world. I felt the little girl had come inside and was watching us.

"Tell your brother to take off his jacket," Mom smiled past me at her little girl.

"Where's he at?" the child asked, as if mom would know.

"He's headed back on the wood path." And with that confirmation, I had the feeling that the little girl had actually "known" that, but wasn't sure of her "knowing."

Raising little witches had to be quite the challenge, I thought.

"You should try being married to one."

"I bet." There would be no keeping secrets in this family...

"No, seriously, you should try being married to one." The woman took my hand and placed it on her belly. I could see the baby inside move, it's little hand or foot pressing out to touch me, and I could feel her connect to me, so pure, so, hopeful, so strangely powerful.

I stuttered, the whole thing was so surreal, the woman standing on a blue plastic step stool in her pantry, trying to get down enough stuff to scrape dinner together. I immediately offered to take them all out to dinner, and realized that I would probably end up married to the woman, and adopting all three kids. I saw the woman's face brighten. "You belong with us, it's going to be fine, better than fine, you'll see."

"Wishful thinking, or prognostication?"

"No reason it can't be both. Now come upstairs with me, no ones touched me like this in years."

I realized my hand was still on her belly. She and the baby pressed against my hand, the very essence of soft, warm and affectionate. I was stunned, entranced (I wondered if that was literal.)

"Parthenogenesis. It's a long story. Only T has a father, really. We have to hurry, the kids will be back soon." I helped her down, discovering that she was bottomless under her beach cover-up in the process. I wondered how I'd missed that detail earlier.

"They'll wait for us." I had no real idea how I knew that, but I did.

"I know, but they haven't had lunch yet."

We made our way upstairs to her bedroom. And I knew this afternoon delight would just be the first of many.

On Fire

The mom from the apartment across the way jumped the balcony and attacked us. I don't know why. We fought her off and she collapsed on the bed. My guest ran away at that point.


I went out onto my balcony to find that the apartment across the way was being emptied by my in-laws. They were taking all the stuff out, but leaving the one year old ginger striped kitten behind. I asked what was going to happen to the poor frightened kitten, and in response my brother in-law’s wife picked up the cat and leaned him out over the balcony, where he jumped over to mine. 


When I turned to look at him, the bed in my apartment was swirling in a pillar of flame, with the woman who'd attacked us standing in the center. The cat cowered at the edge of the balcony. I went to pick him up and put him back on his home balcony, but that apartment was on fire, too. I picked him up and took a deep breath, planning to run past the pillar of fire and out my front door.


As I entered my bedroom, though, the mom-thing turned into a ghoul (like in WoW) and leaped down off the burning bed at us. I was glad the kitten was tucked into my shirt and didn't see it coming at us.

Glass Building and Crochet Critters

DROG 20111102

Glass Tower Escape

Yeah, um, not sure what this was now, vaguely remember that it was like my work building, only several stories taller. Everyone in IT was packing up their desks and getting out. We'd been outsourced..

Windup Crochet Critters

Now this was a very weird, but cool dream. I had crocheted a ten inch eyelash mite, and a much larger bedbug sort of thing. The eyelash mite was made out of some sort of yarn that wriggled when it's temperature changed. I warmed it up, then as it cooled it raced up my parents screen door. It was actually sort of amazing just how far it could go, about a dozen feet or so. The bedbug, which remembering it now was actually much flatter, wasn't made from the same yarn. To make it go I had to hook the mite up to its back. The mite wriggling pulled on the threads that controlled the bug's legs.

It crawled under my dad's touch and down into the neighbors yard, where I expected it to be torn to shreds by the dog. The dog seemed to be afraid of it and it curved back around and made it almost out to the street.

Holly.

I have absolutely no idea of why I wrote this. I can't even say if it is a woman's name or the plant.

Found DROG File

DROG20110914

My brother and I were traveling together in a pair of wildly mismatched vehicles. I was in Little Red and he was in a large blue and silver van. We entered a town that looked like someone had beat it about the head and shoulders with a tree trunk.

We stopped in a clear spot in the center of town near what looked like it had been a park. Every manufactured item in the park was broken, burned or bent into unrecognizability. 

As we made our way towards the center of the park I started to get nervous. Turned out there was ahold reason. Three balls of trash and debris began to roll after us, converging as they came.

It looked like we were able to out maneuver them, but each time we did they learned from it and didn't fall for our tricks. 

My brother thought we were close enough to the cars to outrun them, but I knew that while his van would likely drive away from one or two hits, Little Red was unlikely to. 

I did know that my car was going to just start up and go, as I had left the engine on. 

We needed to outsmart them just one more time, so this time we split up, but looped back around, then took off with the three of the now over ten foot high balls crashing into one another. That gave us enough time to get to our vehicles. 

I have no idea why I thought they would stop chasing us after we left the park.  Because if anything, they were faster on the road.

Swamp Train

Most of the family were trapped in irons, chained together working on digging up rocks and gravel and then carrying it through swampy waters to the site of a rail bed that was being repaired. It seemed like it was either perpetually night, but I knew it was mostly just a thick misty cloud layer.

One of the other workers found an old still with bottles of moonshine all around it. He smuggled them back, one at a time, in the bottom of his gravel bucket. The supervisors finally caught him, their suspicions aroused when he kept volunteering for gravel duty.

Gravel duty was the messiest job. One had to go and dig around the bottom of the few low swampy hills, then wash the black, sticky and stinking mud off of the handful of small stones it contained. After just a couple of buckets full you would smell like the swamp bottom, and look like it, too.

The overseers pierced his tongue for it, and threatened to kill the next person they caught with alcohol in their possession. I knew this was going to be a problem, as the man had stashed the bottles and bags everywhere around our camp.

Until the rail bed was repaired, we kept finding the hidden contraband and then were forced to move it out of the camp, but somewhere we could eventually lead the guards to find the whole cache at once...right before the train came through to take them away, preferably. I and a couple of the others were also pilfering pry bars and other tools, as we knew we were going to be chained up when the train arrived.

The train arrived, and the overseers loaded up the young women and chained the rest of us outside of our camp.

"You gonna leave us here to starve?"

"No. Won't take long for the 'gaters to figure out you ain't going anywhere."

The now drunk guards all piled aboard the train. I could hear E yelling at them that they were "disgusting drunks."

E's size and demeanor had kept her safe up till now, but some of the guards were really drunk and I was worried for her safety.

Fortunately we had been chained together outside of sight of the rail cars, but right on top of one of our caches of tools and makeshift weapons. As soon as the last guards were out of earshot we started digging. It was only a matter of minutes before we were able to break ourselves free.

It was our plan to send a small group ahead of the train with ropes and the like to set up a way to take the rescue team and our women off the slowly moving train.

There were only three of us who snuck on board, just as the train got under way. The women were mostly in the last coach, making it really easy to just decouple the car. There was a tussel with the guards, they rushed the two men at the back of the car, while the smallest and least drunk one raced to get to the barracks car two cars up. I was waiting just on the other side of the door, when he came out I pushed him across the gap, slamming his head against the deck of the other car. I disarmed him and, after prying apart the coupling, rolled him off the platform, where he helped sloe down the rescue car.

The next car was actually empty, and as we passed the first of the revue ropes, I reached out and hooked it agains the window frame. The train peeled the windows out, creating a huge racket. The rest of the guards came running to see what was the matter, and I was hidden behind their coach door as the crossed the gap into the car that was being demolished.

I locked the door behind me and raced ahead to the dining car. The train was still picking up speed when I finally spotted E and the foreman. The train wasn't going even as fast as a run, and I spotted one of our crew setting a rope with a hook in it onto the front of the dining car. This one was low into the mostly decorative panelling on the sides ot the car. The trim started to tear away. E laughed at the foreman, a bad choice, as he knocked her off the bench I shouted to get his attention. He turned and then kicked her through the torn gap in the side of the train before drawing out his whip.

Apparently, he'd only seen the big rust pry bar, completely missing the percussion cap revolver in the other hand.

I could hear E wailing over the rattle of the train, so I hoped she would be okay. I then shot the foreman in the upper thigh. He dropped his whip and crumpled into the walkway. I tapped him on the head with the pry bar as I passed. Fortunately the owners of this operation had their car, with it's fancy domed observation deck on the front of the train, and I made my way through the freight car, taking a moment to open the large doors and push some of the lighter crate out. We still hadn't passed the rescue ropes, and I was able to shout that the women were safe back down the line.

I made my way into the engine room and convinced e driver to abandon his post, after using the pry bar to break his chains. He jumped, not even using a rescue rope. I pushed the throttle to full, opened up the air intakes on the boiler, and then shoveled coal into the feed chute until it was full up. The other workers were shouting that there was only one more rope, but I wanted to make sure the door to the observation cars was impassable. At least long enough for the train to build up significant speed.

I waited until we were going over a flooded causeway to jump out, trusting that a water/muck landing might be a little bit softer than trees or rocks.

Even before I hit the water I was thinking that we should follow the rails out and rescue any others we came across.

Wife, Brother, Best Friends

DROG 20110720

I was in bed, asthma and foot and hand pain making it difficult to want to get up. N appeared at the foot of my bed. She was dressed in a creme dress with bright flowers all over it. (Like the T mobile girl would wear.) It was scoop necked and tight waisted with a flared skirt. She had obviously gotten over her fear of pink because her lipstick was bright fuchsia. N was there to gloat over the divorce being final and to show me "what I was missing out on." 

I knew I was dreaming by this time, so asked myself why was my brain doing  this? Instead of an answer the conversation just continued with N saying it went wrong four years ago when I refused to go along on some Victorian costume jaunt. 

So apparently it had nothing to do with my near constant complaints about my illness or my dislike of her self medication, or my being overweight. I realized there was no use arguing, as I would be arguing with myself.


Later I dreamed that my brother had come down to visit, a little escape time. We were walking along one of the many trails at the WAP. We talked a little about growing up, and a lot about how different it was for his kids. I didn't have much to offer, as I had only worked with hundreds of kids that were not my own, and with few exceptions we were involved in activities they desperately wanted to succeed at. Really a very different environment than a family.


This morning's offering was the trip to the San Diego ComicCon 2012, and because of the number of us we ended up having to take two cars. No one rode with me so I was on my own. 

I managed to snag a small parking space on the street, neatly tucked in between to red zones, but the curb was clearly not red, and there were white space indicator lines on either end of the spot. I walked back to the entrance and waited for the rest of them to show up.

It was so noisy that they didn't hear me calling to them as they walked by. I had left my cell phone at home, so had no way to call M and ask him to wait for me inside. By the time I got checked in, the floor had opened and my group was gone. I hoped they would remember to meet at six for dinner.

Nostalgia, Beach Encounter

              I dreamed that my brother and I were at Mom and Dad's sorting through stuff in our old room. There were two poly filled winter sleeping bags, one red and one blue. My memory is that we both had red bags, so in the dream I assumed that the blue bag was my brother's.
              We opened them up and the red bag was just a sleeping bag. The poly fill, from having been crushed all these years, had completely lost its "fluff." The blue bag was in similar shape, but inside the bag was a small collection of game cards and parts from a magnetic fox and hounds travel game. My brother didn't seem to recognize them, nor did I. I looked at the game cards, they were the sort of cards one would see in a trading card game from more modern times. Neither of us could come up with an explanation so gave the games to his kids.
             
              In a later dream I was walking with my brother and sister and their youngest kids on a beach. We passed under the pier so we could use the ramp rather than climb the stairs. As we stepped out into the sun my eyes locked with a dark-haired woman with deep brown eyes and pale skin. She was in a black bikini that showed off her pleasant curves. We both started, as though we knew one another. In the dream I had just turned 50 and she looked like she was in her early twenties, certainly under 30. I asked if she'd been one of my drama students, but the answer was no. We couldn't figure out how we knew one another.
              I followed my siblings up the ramp after a moment and heard the woman telling her friends that they had to have something to write with, she wasn't letting me get away this time. I stopped and leaned over the rail of the ramp. I had an old expired Zoological society card in my wallet. I dropped it to her, saying she could contact me through Facebook.
              Even as she was tucking it into her bathing suit top, I realized that probably wouldn't work, as people can rarely read properly in a dream.

Leaf Flotilla, Saving Goblins

              I dreamed I was sitting along the edge of a small pond accompanied by some of my nieces and nephews. In the dream, they were all Gnomes. I had found a green leaf that was perfectly shaped for a hull. With a little tearing and bending, I was able to mount a sail in the middle of it and set it down on the surface of the pond. A few moments later, a gentle puff of wind filled the little sail and the boat headed out on its adventure across the pond.
              One of my nephews reached up to pull off a fresh leaf from a nearby tree. I stopped him. "You can only use the leaves that have fallen. It was a long winter, the trees need every leaf they can hold on to."
              "Sometimes you sound more like a druid than a wizard." One of my nieces complained.
              Soon a small two masted schooner and a lateen rigged sloop joined our little flotilla. I began to wonder what the smallest nephew was doing that was taking so long. I turned to make sure he wasn't in any sort of trouble and spotted a four masted ketch with a spinnaker and spanker. Soon it had caught up with our little flotilla and barged through the midst of them and headed rapidly for the far shore of the pond.
              "Pretty amazing for a guy who hates to take time to prepare for anything."
              "This is shipbuilding, you can't just slap anything together..."
              "Like I did?"
              "Uh, oh...." At least my nephew had the courtesy to blush.
             
              I later dreamed that I was flying on the back of a dragon, swooping through the air, enjoying the thermals and the conversation with the dragon when we heard shouts for help.
              My dragon tucked his wings in tight and we rolled over into a dive. There were four goblins in a dirigible being harassed by black-clad raiders mounted on griffin back. The dirigible was flying neutral colors, and I couldn't tell who the raiders were.
              "Protect the goblins, She requests it." The dragon roared over the wind.
              I popped a spell that yanked me out of my seat, and as I drifted on an interception course with the dirigible, I righted myself, and began to cast "living bomb" on each of the raiders as they flew into range.
              I missed the dirigible, but it was soon falling with me. I managed to hit a couple of the goblins with slow fall, one jumped ship in rocket boots and I fell next to a couple of others. Cancelling my own spell to catch up to them so I could cast slow fall on each of them. Unfortunately, that put me perilously close to the ground. I didn't have time to slow myself again, so felt the frozen depths of the nether and encased myself in a block of nether ice. I felt nothing when I slammed into the ground. I tilted a bit where the ground gave way beneath me. I saw the goblins drifting in closer, and a couple of the raiders diving after them. I felt the Living Bombs go off and felt the echo of their heat. I released the nether ice and used the heat to send blast after blast after each of the remaining raiders. At this point I could feel myself hitting the keys to play the game (World of Warcraft) and soon I was watching the action on a computer screen rather than living it. Kind of a let down that pulled me out of the dream pretty quickly.

Family Time, Sexy Letter

              I dreamed that I was at my parent's house. We'd converted the dining room fan into a four seat bably merry go round, hooked up the little car seats in three of the places and E's seat in the fourth position. E's sister S was griping that she didn't get to ride.
              "You weigh more than all four of them combined, we're straining the motor as it is now." I explained.
              "I never get to go for a ride."
              "Oh, I'll send you for a ride," someone started to say. I think the speaker was one of my sister's in-laws, the comment had a sort of unattractive leering overtone.
              "You can come with us to Lego Land and ride with your uncle, L can't ride the rides and your Grandma and I won't. We have extra tickets," N offered.

              The dream then shifted to a completely different location and cast of people. A very sexy hourglass shaped petite woman with a pixie style haircut was reading from one of my dream blogs. An entry in which a elderly gentleman was sporting a rather large cartoon like erection and a short sexy hourglass woman with a bobbed hair cut offered to "take care of that for you, like this morning." While she read the entry I was able to visualize the dream exactly as I'd seen it. While the woman did look a lot like the dream woman in shape, the face and hair were not really the same. I remembered another little detail, the dream had taken place just before a dinner gathering and the old man had been led off out of site by the short-haired libido. The current woman hadn't bothered to read the whole entry either. I didn't recognize either woman, however, but decided that I'd better start describing the dream characters in a little more detail so that people wouldn't read themselves into them.
              She complained that everyone who read that was going to know it was her. She flipped what little bit of her hair was left out of her eyes and laid down on the kitchen table on her back with my book held up in front of her.
              "Would that be because you're the only hourglass shaped woman with short hair that I've ever known?" I asked, not really expecting an answer, because as far as I knew, I'd only recently met this woman.
              "Are there any more sexy dreams with me in them?" She began to flip through the pages of the book, using the motion of her arms to puff up her breasts and create a rather large amount of cleavage to look at. Especially when she arched her head back to look at me upside down.