Dream CXXXVII

I bought a couple of floor lamps, and thought it would be easier to assemble them outside.  I carried the various parts out to the sidewalk, but noticed I was missing a couple of parts.

Mark Levin was working on my car, so I wandered over and asked him if he had any spare parts I could use.  He didn't seem to think so, but as I handed him a couple of filters he noticed some parts on the floor near the gasp pedal that he thought would fit.  I thanked him and went over to assemble the lamps.

Before I started work, it occurred to me that my neighbor's wooden deck would be an even better place to assemble them.  I couldn't tell if the family was in, and when I knocked on the door no one answered.

I tried the door and found that it was unlocked, and I figured that the neighbors wouldn't care if I used their deck.  The only way to get there was to go through the house, so I opened the door and walked in.

Much to my surprise, I saw that the family were all gathered around the dinner table.  They were having a somewhat intense (though cheerful) conversation, so I didn't say anything but tried to make my way around the table as unobtrusively as I could.  The father asked a question, "What can you tell me about cheese?"

There was a long pause, and finally the little girl answered "Stinks!" and I laughed out loud.

I spoke to the mother about assembling my lamps on the deck, and she was fine with that.  She took me through the house toward the deck, and we had to cross a wooden bridge over a finger of the lake.  My cat raced around my ankles and finally jumped up on my shoulder.

Right when we were at the midpoint of the bridge, the mother pointed out that a group of people were releasing a manta ray into the lake.  It swam under the bridge and settled on the lake bed.  It seemed a lot larger now, and I wondered if it could turn around in the small area it had chosen, and be able to swim out and have the run of the lake.