Dream 287

I was sitting outside on a pleasant afternoon, when I noticed several flying forms moving through the air.  They were square, positioned on the corner as they floated, with several grills and other apparatus attached.  "How are those things aerodynamic?" I asked as they swooped gracefully through the air.  They continued to fly, their flight patterns ever more detailed.  Then I noticed something larger approaching.

As it neared, I could see it was an image, a giant rectangular image of a snowy hillside with scattered trees.  It came closer and closer, until it finally landed several yards down the hill from where I and several other observers were watching.  It was about 100 yards across and it perfectly mimicked the actual landscape behind it.  

Other image squares began floating toward us, mostly of the same wintry landscape, though some had movement incorporated into them--a person walking through the snow, for example.  They began to land all around, covering the actual landscape with their moving imitations.

Other forms began floating toward us.  One of them was a section of blue-and-white rotating tubes; it settled down next to a nearby house and gradually merged with it, transforming the orange, white and red decor into its own color scheme.

I was watching all this next to Ace, who was visiting.  He was quite handsome, looking like a young Kurt Russell and wearing aviator glasses.  "What do you think about this?" I asked, waving at the various transformations going on.

"I don't know," he said.  "And I don't think I care.  I spent all my money on some expert who was going to prove that jackals could piss up a rope.  And he disappeared with my money without telling me anything."

"I'm sorry about that," I said.  "I could do the research for you, and I would not charge you at all.  I mean, I'd have expenses, but they'd be reasonable and I'd show you the receipts."

He smiled.  "Yeah.  Kind of figured that about you."  He pointed at a nearby building being assimilated by the rotating tubes.  "I don't suppose the answer really matters now."

Most of the structures around us had been assimilated.  The situation was becoming more and more alarming.  We both opened another beer.

Dream 286

I needed to get the laundry done, and the local machines were out of order, so I put everything into my car and drove down a main road, thinking I would find a laundromat.  

I eventually found one and parked, loaded the machine with detergent and clothing and found...that I only had a dollar's worth of quarters.  I set the machine to start anyway, and it told me I had ten minutes of cleaning.

I went outside and saw that across the street there was a another laundromat with a convenience store attached.  I crossed the street (eventually, traffic was very heavy) and asked them if I could get some dollars converted into quarters.

"We can do that," said the young woman at the cashier, "but we're not allowed to unless you buy something.  Doesn't have to be much, just a candy bar or something."

I looked at the candy they had in the racks, and despite my need for quarters, I couldn't decide on any of them.

At this point, I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember is driving a school bus down the main road.  The bus drove badly because the front tires were misaligned, and eventually I had to pull into a parking lot.

The police arrived, and I became hysterical, yelling and crying about the various problems I was facing, and that a traffic ticket would kill me.  The lieutenant calmed me down and told me they'd try to avoid all charges if I just gave up the school bus.  

I happily agreed, and the bus was driven off to where it needed to be.  I asked about my own car, thinking that my laundry session must be about to end.  The police had no idea.

I walked back up the street, in what seemed to be a huge police complex, trying to see which lot had my car.  After speaking with several officers, I learned that my car had not been impounded and was probably still parked at the first laundromat.  I tried to walk faster up the slope, but the gradient was very steep.

Dream 285

 My niece asked me to drive some boxes to a place in Georgia.  She said I could use her car.  I agreed, and drove to North Carolina to visit and pick up her car.  Since I had some boxes I wanted delivered myself, I drove her car back to Tennessee and loaded them up, then headed south.

The car was quite crowded with boxes, but the trip went fine until around the Tennessee-Georgia border.  The car started misbehaving and I parked it at a small roadside restaurant.

My friend Tom came by and offered to help.  Since he knew cars, we soon had the car back up and running.  It turned out that he also had some boxes to deliver and he settled into the passenger's seat.  It was a bit crowded, as he brought several additional bags with him, but I was grateful for his help and his company.  We drove on and soon crossed the border.

We decided to stop for lunch at a cafeteria on a corner street in a small town.  I sat down next to an attractive older woman at the buffet line.  Tom put a paper bag next to me.  "Hey, I brought a special diabetic dish just for you!"  I opened the back, and it was a glass tray with what looked like sliced potatoes in a pale white sauce.  I said thanks, and smiled at the woman next to me.  And I started to eat Tom's dish.

It was cold and what little flavor it had was awful.  I ate what I could, what I thought would be polite, then suggested we should get back on the road.

We drove through the city streets, uncertain of direction.  At one point, we went onto a ramp for an exit we did not want.  We reversed back on the road.  People backed up to let us pass, and I made sure to thank them.

Eventually we found the exist we needed to get back on the highway.  We drove down, passing several abandoned buildings.  When we got to the actual exit, there was a man there who flagged us down.  "You can't go down there.  There's a building on fire."

"If we go left, here, onto this access road, " I asked, "could we eventually get back on the highway?"

The man laughed briefly.  "You can sure try, I guess.  That might work."

We drove down the access road.  As we could see the highway, it was clogged with emergency vehicles, and all cars seemed to be at a standstill.  We drove past the next exit, hoping we could find a way to continue onward.

Dream 284

I was picking up a PC from the mailroom to deliver to a user.  I brought it up the elevator to our work area until I realized it was brand new and hadn't been prepped, so I went back down and left it in the area to be properly prepared.  Later I went back to pick it up and saw that the cover had been pried loose; a needle nose pliers was still stuck in the grill.  

No one seemed to know who it was for or what office it was to go into.  I was getting increasingly frustrated, toting the thing everywhere, and occasionally forgetting where I had left it.

I met a middle aged woman I thought was the user, but turned out to be a friend who knew nothing.  I screamed that I was having a nervous breakdown.

In the office I wanted to buy a soda and kept putting coins in a slot, only to realize that it was a donation can and not a dispenser.  I looked in a number of fridges but could find nothing, so I went to the bottom floor of the building and got more change.

A woman behind me was trying to buy something from a machine, but she was 8 cents short.  As I couldn't seem to make any progress with what I wanted, I offered my change then dumped it in her purse.  She kissed my lip passionately with gratitude.

I was going to take the elevator back up to the office and then leave for the day.  I thought it was the 105th floor--one below the top--but someone pointed out that the 410th floor would be that level, so I reluctantly decided on that floor.  Maybe there things would become clear.

Dream 283

 I was visiting my brother in his neighborhood.  It was a mostly ramshackle place, with houses in ill-repair (though solid) and mostly mud-and-gravel streets.  I walked up to the top of the street where there was a small convenience store.  

Inside there were several people discussing some upcoming events, such as a fishing trip.  My brother was there, and he said he was going to see about getting his house ready for satellite TV.  He was worried about the expense and the power requirements.  I thought that an antenna wasn't that expensive, but I didn't know so I didn't say anything.

He said he needed to pick up some drawings and other documents that he'd left at the house.  Since he was meeting with other folks, I volunteered to go get them so I made sure I knew what papers he needed.

I went back through the store, rounded the corner to the street, and walked back down to his house.  I didn't have any shoes on, so the gravel made the going a bit rough, but I got there, found the documents and made my way back.

He was in one of the back rooms at the store, and when I went in I realized I was mistaken about what he'd meant by "satellite."  The entire walls were covered with broadcasting equipment and power supplies, and I guessed he meant he was going to launch his own satellite.  I noticed that the far wall of this room was a plastic sheet and beyond that was the entrance to his kitchen, so I had done all that walking for no reason.

I smiled.  Well, I thought, at least if I forgot anything there's an easier way back.

Dream 282

I was going to an early morning meeting at the boss's house.  I didn't bother to get dressed, since it was so early and I figured I'd go back home once it was over.  I didn't bother to wear shoes since I was pretty sure I had left a pair there some time ago.

The meeting was mostly routine, so I didn't pay close attention.  When it was over, everyone wanted to watch old VHS tapes on this strange, vertical television system.  I excused myself, put on the shoes and socks that I'd found (there was also a pair of sandals that I figured I could get later), and went out the door.  Because the weather was getting colder, my shoes and socks came off and got wet.  Fortunately I was able to wring my socks out to complete dryness, so I put everything back on and made sure the shoes were tied.  I met a nice lady who was walking her small dog.

I wasn't sure where I had left my car.  I didn't see it around in the immediate area so I walked over a few streets to where my wife's house was.  I walked around that area and couldn't find my car there either, but my son was there and he offered to help look.  

So we walked along parallel streets trying to find it.  We kept running into various religious parades and tried to make our way through without bothering them.  We rested in a concrete stage-like structure, until another religious service started assembling around us.  It turned out we were on the main alter.  People came by to arrange the participants, one director telling another "I know you like to arrange folks boy-girl, boy-girl, boy-girl...not the way spiders do it."  My son and I managed to slip away.

Eventually we started making our way back to my house and came to the river.

We were on top of a tall, snow-covered mountain ridge and I could see that the distance across the river was far too great to swim.  I knew that if I continued on, there was a bridge that went across and I could use that.  I leaned closer to see the distance across, and slipped slightly.  I fell on the snow and almost tumbled over the edge.  I grabbed frantically at the ground, which seemed to slip from under my fingers like a loose carpet.  It was then that I remembered I had walked to the meeting, and my car was parked back at my house.

Dream 281

There was a massive storm-warning and we were told to evacuate the area.

Because of some health condition I had (due to age) I had to use a wheeled platform to get around.  It wasn't uncomfortable but it did mean I needed more space to move around.

They were loading us on passenger trains to get us away from the storm centers.  There were rumors about zombies as well.  I'm not sure where those rumors were coming from but they were worrisome.

I checked with the family and they were doing well, they were safe.

As the train went from station to station, I chatted with folks and got to know some.  Most of them had an irritating speech pattern which I tried to ignore.  Nothing specific, and each unique to the person.

The skies kept getting darker and darker.

The stations we were arriving at had the gates locked for some reason, so we had some time to wander around town.  At the next station, it was next to a large shopping mall.  I rode a platform up to the entrance, and fell on my back.  A very kindly lady helped me up.  I was worried about my wheels, but she told me she had them and they were fine.  I thanked her, then looked for a bookstore.  There were lots of restaurants, very crowded, and I finally found a B Dalton.  It had very few books.  A lot of console games, but I couldn't find any books that interested me.

I walked through more of the mall.  People were becoming irritated with each other over their speech patterns, which sometimes became shouting matches.

It was time to go the the gates and I made my way to the ground floor.  I got on another platform which went into a maintenance garage.  One of the workers told me that I was one of the first five at the gate, and I could go on in now.  

I realized I had forgotten my wheels, and I went back up the elevator to retrace my steps.