Batch

07-01-2014 -- Working a shift at HOI, relieving Jim for the weekend shift on Friday night, and arrive when it is already late, perhaps 9 or 10, but there are still a lot of people running around, going in and out of the building. I stay there for quite a while, just poking around, at first, then hooking up my computer and working on it for a bit, back in the receptionist/security monitor area, but the customers and sales people keep wandering around. Eventually I find lots of people entering the place and heading back to the parts department for some sort of meeting, I decide to check the time, and it is already something like 6 AM, and I've completely lost track of the time.

People have been working and in and out of the showroom all night long, and as it is now morning and the day shift is starting to come in, I realize I had better get the security keys, which Jim had left hanging in the door lock. Actually should have gotten them many hours ago. It's still pitch black outside, and I can't decide if it is because it really is that dark, or if it is the new, super dark tinting on the showroom windows. Turns out it is a case of both. Though it is now getting on to 7 or 8 in the morning, it is that rare day when the sun just doesn't manage to get up until even later. (Once in a great while really did see days like this.)

I decide to start getting my stuff together, including packing the computer up and wrapping the power cord around the flat screen monitor (wish I had had a flat screen back then, would have been so much easier than hauling around a CRT.) The day time security guard arrives and tells me I can go, but I realize I never clocked in on a time card. I figure I will have to hand-write the clock in, and just clock out. The clock and the cards and rack are all here at the reception counter, but as I start trying to find a card, all I can find are other people's cards, which they are already using. After a lot of searching, I finally find a stack of blank time cards buried under some other stuff, and grab one. I try to fill it out, but I am writing my name wrong and messing up the letters and just can't do it. I finally give up on that card, fold it up and stick it in my pocket. Want to get another card and try again, but again I can't find the cards.

By this time the other security guard is really pushing for me to go, and he goes as far as to call his company and complain about another guard being here and not letting himself be relieved. But first off, he is relieving me early, and second off (as I take great enjoyment in telling him) I don't work for his security company, I work directly for the House of Imports ... even if only for a couple of holidays a year. I'm trying to look through the stuff where I found the last card, but the tiny ledge by the window that they were on is getting larger and larger, and soon I can't reach the stuff without climbing onto the ledge, itself. The receptionist has arrived, and wants me out of there, but is at least trying to be helpful about it, and joins the search. But it seems they are just about to switch to new cards that were just printed, and which they were going to start using on the next pay period, in a few days. But these cards are jet black, and nothing is going to show on them from the old time clock, which is the one that is still in use. So I finally give up on managing a time card at all.

I start looking for my stuff, and just can't manage to find it anywhere, so I start to wonder if, even if I can't remember it, I might have already taken it out to the car. I head outside, and start to look for the car (the old two-tone Oldsmobile I had when I was really working at HOI), but it's not there. I am starting to get aggravated, wondering if my car has been stolen AGAIN (happens all the time in my dreams, never in real life) but then I notice the sign by the road, and remember they do street cleaning on Manchester Sunday morning, and either ticket or tow cars left on the road at their discretion. Blast it! They also have heavy construction going on on the street, with only barely enough space at the driveway open to get a car in.

I head back up to the showroom, one assumes to pass on word of what happened, though it is not like the dealership can actually do anything if the police towed the car, but as I approach the showroom stairs, there are several people there screaming at Francisco and the other morning help, yelling about the construction along the road. They are a weird cross between customers, the next dealership down the road, and a news crew, and are screaming about the mess and the difficulty of getting around the construction, and demanding information about how long things are going to be like this. Francisco and the like are just the guys who drive the cars in and out and get them washed and things, so he isn't likely to have detailed information on any construction, and certainly isn't the one who should be asked. So I am apologizing to them for the idiots screaming, not that it has anything to do with me.

I end up walking down the sidewalk, heading toward Orangethorpe and eventually the 7-11, and I end up walking with the folks from the other dealership/news crew. We're dodging around construction, half climbing over small pipes and things, and the entire time the pipes are gurgling, and every few seconds, this thick, slimy, red sludge comes spitting out of the pipes. Some is all over one of the news lady's stockings, some more splashes all over my clothes, though I try to avoid it, and I have to admit it is annoying and disgusting. I keep walking, until I am on my own, and get further and further down the street.

Soon I am passing several short sky scrapers (five or six stories tall, not that great for sky scrapers, but much taller than anything actually on Manchester) and come up with the idea of calling the police. If I stress my security work enough, and sound pathetic enough, maybe I can get my car released for only $20 or $30, so I pull out my cell phone to call them, only to discover that some of the red slime got on the phone and melted the screen, and I kind of collapse to the ground by the fence separating the road from the freeway, and start to cry, as it has all gotten to be too much.

But then I start to realize it is too much. My luck is being so bad, it is absurd and highly unlikely. I glance at the sky scrapers, and realize they are out of place. I look at a sign on the freeway, glance away, and then look back, and the numbers are changing and shifting around. I hold out my hand, concentrate on my fingers, and they start stretching and distorting! I thought so ... I'm dreaming! I concentrate on my finger, and it stretches out five or six feet, and pokes a sleeping feline by the fence, an odd cross between lion, tiger, and perhaps bobcat. The thing jumps up and starts to snarl and stalk me, and I whisper soothingly to it and gesture at it with power, and it starts to calm down. I slowly start to pet it, and every time it starts to get upset again, I mentally calm it.

By this time, the scene around me has changed, and instead of being outside by the freeway fence, I am inside a building. I can remember walking in a back door that was unlocked [though I never did so, things just shifted around me] and I am still trying to soothe the bobcat. Then I hear somebody unlocking the front door and opening the office, and I realize even if they left the back door unlocked, they aren't going to like me being in here. So I bolt for the back door I entered by, and the guy coming in the front hears me and chases after me. I draw his attention by running, and he demands to know who I am. I give the false name of Fred Flores [sorry Fred], but am kind of stuttering, and he starts claiming that I said the name wrong, which indicates I am this or that, and it just doesn't make sense. I run out the building, and into the next building (heading back toward HOI) and it is a cross between the other dealership and a parts store.

I run through the place, duck under a counter, and out a back door, and I find myself on a very strange loading dock where a large crane is picking up box trucks and hoisting them into position at the dock, in the air. I am trying to get out of the way, but I just can't move quickly enough. I manage to avoid the first truck easily, and the second truck with more difficulty, but only barely make it out of the way of the third one. So I am standing there, breathing heavy and trying to catch my breath when the lighting fixtures right above me start to lower, turn into some sort of equipment, and start dripping boiling hot oil on me. It's turning into those nightmare sort of dreams where everything mechanical is coming to life and pursuing me, and I have to kind of flex my mental muscles and sort of scream "Enough! This is still a dream, but it is MY dream!" and things start to settle down ... which is when I wake up.

02-07-2013 -- [Three dreams tonight, don't know if they would be long enough to have their own posts, but am putting them all in one post anyway. Going in last to first order, just because.] Am out driving somewhere, when the Jimmy starts acting up. It is close to stalling at stops, and the check engine light is coming on, and I am really worried the thing is going to die on me, and wipe me out again, as far as something to drive goes.

Soon I find myself at Hosanna Printing, and it must be around five or six, because Marli takes a few moments to talk to me, but not much because she is in the middle of locking up. This means she is pushing me out the side door so she can exit via the back door while activating the alarm, then walk around the building locking the side and front doors after the fact. Strange.

Next thing I know, I am just arriving home at the Hickory house, or some slightly distorted semblance of it, collecting the mail as I enter the house. There are lots of letters, packages and the like (as usual in my dreams) including CDs from record clubs, past due bill notices and all kinds of other stuff. A lot of the stuff is for mom, so I pass it on to her, except she seems to be a bit of a composite of four people, mom, Barbara (Jeff's mother from next door), BM, and even a little bit of Marli.

We're talking about bills and things, and a little bit about the print shop, and all kinds of random stuff, but then 'mom' opens one of the envelopes, and finds it is a check, payment for her first ever mystery shop, and she is halfway freaked out by the fact that the company is owned by Jeff, and that she is now getting paid from a company that is owned by somebody so young. I don't bother pointing out he is almost as old as I am, which in this dream is over 40.

I start to head outside and find myself in a kind of a large parking lot, though I have no idea where it is at. I am pulling a somewhat small suitcase, and am heading to the 'new' (new to me, but fairly old, overall) car that I have been given. It is a white Continental, probably from the 60s or 70s. Part of the time it seems to be a convertible, and it has one of those trunks with a really small opening, so I am having slight difficulties getting my suitcase in it, and as I am trying to close it, the handle causes the back window of the car to fall out. Thankfully I am easily able to get it back in fairly easily.

As I am getting ready to leave, I find I am parked right next to the GMC Jimmy that this car is replacing, though somebody else has parked so close to it that nobody could get to the door. A lady who seems to have been the one giving me the Continental is asking me about the Jimmy, because she is considering buying it from me. I am explaining about the check engine light that might require some work, and the oil leak which means it frequently needs a quart added, and the low MPGs, but she is still interested, so I may get not only a new car to drive for free, but also get paid a little for the old one. Cool beans!

---

I find myself working another security shift at House of Imports, though it has probably been at least a couple of years since the last time I worked a shift here. I am in the showroom, which seems much like it used to, except that where the receptionists used to be during the day, and security at night, the receptionist area has been elevated a little bit more, and security now has a slightly lower counter right in front of the receptionist desk, and we're not supposed to ever get in their space. (Of course, our desk being in front of them means nobody can ever approach them, because our desk is in the way, but the dream never covers that.)

It is past closing time, but as usual the sales staff is still staying late trying to sell cars, and the place is still very busy. At one point, one of the sales people drives a large van full of people into the showroom, itself, which means he must have driven in the east doors, because that is where the ramp is. I wander out those doors, and in the east lot area, I find an almost carnival-type atmosphere, and a clown who looks a lot like Trixie Chick (but isn't) is doing balloons or face painting.

I end up picking up a balloon animal (perhaps a bear) to look at it, and as I glance at it, it changes into more of a beanie baby-sized stuffed animal, before I set it down in the planter, and head on to the front door. So I am back in the showroom, and find I am working with another security officer, and I try to ask him about the scheduling. I ask if they always have two guards working at the same time, now, and what the shifts are going to be.

He kind of indicates that there is just one shift a week with two guards, and the rest of the time it is only one, and I am trying to explain about the 28 hour weeks I used to work here in two days (a 16 hour shift, then a 12 hour shift), but as I am trying to talk to him, he just kind of fades away and disappears. Soon I am walking down the four or five stairs that lead to the short back hallway where three of the salesmen's offices were.

Though I am dressed as a security guard, there are some crooks who think I am some kind of evil wizard who is working with them to plan some kind of crime. Since the crime has nothing to do with robbing the House of Imports, and since these are dangerous individuals, I do not feel responsible for trying to stop them, but after they spill most of their plans to me, I do have to tell them that I think they've confused me with somebody else, and am hoping they don't decide they need to kill me or something. Instead, they just get out as quickly as they can, and I'm just working on clearing everybody else out of the place, slowly but surely.

---

[Most of this one was long and interesting, but not the kind of thing that you could remember in great detail. First dream of the night, and the earlier parts were very choppy, so perhaps while the body was only starting to get into REM sleep or something. Cool stuff, but not all that reportable.]

Long bits of interesting search / chase / explore kinds of stuff in an odd cross of science fiction / dream powers kind of world. Its hard to explain, but its like there are little points of light scattered all about, and you kind of grab one in your mind and create a beam of light between you and that point, and kind of travel that beam of light to get there. (Kind of the light ships from the original Tron movie, but without a ship.)

So I'm creating large networks of these beams of light, traveling between lots of different light points, and going all over the place, and it is really neat. But that is only one of three or four areas and methods of traveling. Others involve creating floors of interlocking tiles (probably hexagonal), again, just by concentrating on willing them into being, and even other methods of traveling around. Wish I could remember more of this part, because it was really cool stuff.

But at one point I am chasing a kind of cute lady (no idea why) but the trying to create new connections and light to follow her isn't working. So I figure I may need to use one of the other methods. I am trying the create the hexagonal tiles to follow after her, but it is very hard, very resistant. I can only manage to force a single ring of tiles around the platform I am on, and even that requires a huge amount of effort.

Up to this point, things have been very science fictional, but of a real life sort. But here it starts changing into more a real life version of a sort of video game. The hexagonal grids are turning into a sort of game surface. Though there are no hexagonal grids in Risk, it is taking on a Risk sort of feel. There are several different teams of human players wearing Tron-like light outfits in different colors.

You have to take over territories, and fight against your enemies, but you can pass through empty territories without claiming them or having fight for them, moving quickly to get to areas where your enemies are. And it is people moving around this landscape, which has hills and valleys and trees and ridges. But when they have battles and manage to win them, they receive ships that seem to be out of Star Wars, kind of. These are detailed models of ships like the Millenium Falcon or an Imperial Star Destroyer (though in my dream it was called something like a Rigelian Battle Cruiser or something), and they are like two or three feet long, so people can carry them around, though they are sort of bulky.

The models are incredibly detailed, sharp, and realistic, really quite amazing for something in a dream. So we're running around these hills with hexagonal grid lines all over them, and I'm dodging other players who are mostly ignoring me, as I don't seem to be attacking anybody, when suddenly one of the little figures in the model I am running around with seems to use some sort of small fighter or escape pod or something, to blast out of the ship.

I'm trying to go back for him, fearing he'll be killed or injured and taken prisoner or something, but instead the thing seems to be enlarging and growing until he pops out and becomes a real person, running around like the rest of us. Soon we're in a large library or something, with lots of people sitting around talking or reading at lots of tables. I'm following this guy or maybe he is following me, and I think he is turning into Joe Simon (friend from Disneyland), though I am not sure.

I soon find myself looking out a window at one of the hills we'd been running around, and it is now covered with snow, with some light tracks from where people have been sledding and the like. I decide I'd like to sled down the hill, and am heading out to do so, but by the time I get outside, instead of snow, the hill is covered in corn or wheat or something. But I am still getting on a sort of round sled-like thing, and going down the hill, knocking down stalks and leaving trails in the corn.

As I get to the bottom of the hill, Joe is there, and he is talking about how much he loves the show I introduced him to, but is trying to remember the name of a character. He starts to describe somebody with dark hair and a dark mustache, and I know the show is Doctor Who, and I recognize the character as the Brigadier, but whatever I am calling him is neither the character name nor the actor name.

10-14-2012 -- [Dream during a nap. First parts missing, as always.] I'm riding somewhere with Cheryl, her family, and various of her friends, on my way to work, I think, though I have no idea where I am going or what kind of job. We're in their minivan, which seems much, much more like a full-size bus in the dream.

I have my eyes closed, trying to take a nap, and one of the kids keeps blowing on my face, trying to annoy me. I end up with both my hands over my face, just trying to keep from being disturbed. I do fully wake up, though, about the time I think we should have hit the freeway interchange for the 408, where there is lots of construction I remember from other dreams, because we don't seem to be getting there.

Cheryl turned off just slightly before I would expect her to, and we're making our first stop somewhere in downtown Orlando, where she swaps out a water cooler. Oddly by almost tossing it out of the van/bus, and just tossing in another one, very casually. Can't remember water coolers being so easy to either find, or so light to easily toss. Oh well.

Quick second stop for something that seems almost more like dropping people off on the old Nazarene Sunday school bus, and I'm getting kind of worried about work, but I have no idea what job. Suddenly I find myself thinking I need to get to House of Imports for my weekend shift there, since last week they finally hired me back. Wait? Was that really last week? Feels like several weeks, at least. Now I am worried I may have missed several weeks of work because I forgot they hired me back, and am afraid I may get there just to find I have been fired again. [In real life, the dream where I was rehired was probably two to three months ago, and may or may not have been one I wrote down or typed up. But I did have such a dream in the last few months.]

The next stop turns out to be at the Buena Park Mall, and I separate from everybody else to go my own way, just to find the Mall is a lot bigger than any time I visited in the past. [In real life, the mall 'enlarged' twice in my life, and I still dream of the second time, occasionally. First, when I was really young they did some enlarging and remodeling to enclose the mall, changing it's name from the Buena Park Center to the Buena Park Mall. The second time they added the lower level, a movie theater complex, and the JC Penney's 'wing' and I still dream of construction sites from that enlargement somewhat regularly.]

This time the mall has added another three floors of shops, and a huge stadium, and I find myself approaching the stadium, where they are filming something. I think it starts out with filming a wrestling show, but soon seems to change to filming a game show. It is a cross between Family Feud and Jeopardy. They are doing the final round where both people have like 15 seconds to answer five questions and they are trying to reach 200 points, but the answers have to be in the form of a question.

That bit has just ended, and a large, powerful, slightly redneck character carrying a rifle around with him (looking much like the Big Boss Man) wanders into a snack bar, where he is kind of threatening everybody with his rifle. Every single one of them pulls out a handgun and aims it at him, and suddenly they are all friends because they are all NRA members and can defend themselves ... including the guy with the rifle. They are talking trash about the Democrats, and though I mostly agree with their viewpoint, I think they are carrying it slightly too far.

Anyway, I need to get home and get ready for work, so I head over to the elevator, where there is a long line. It moves quickly, however, and I find myself getting into an elevator with interesting decor. They seem to have gone for a sort of a retro-future style (think the Jules Verne-themed Tomorrowland rehab). I find the correct button for my floor and push it. Others push for theirs, and the elevator just sits there.

One guy is pushing buttons almost at random, and one lady is walking in and out the doors muttering complaints, and finally the doors close quickly ... right on the lady. She is being trapped in between the two sets of doors, neither on nor off the elevator, and we're afraid she will be mangled, but we can't find the door open button among all the fake controls for the futuristic theming. I finally find the button by the time we've gone about three floors, but by that time, I figure we're almost to our floor, why bother. The doors open, and the woman is still standing between the sets of doors, perfectly fine.

I'd kind of figured that might have been the case. It looked like there was almost a sort of platform attached to the elevator between the doors, and I thought she might be find, especially when there had been no screaming. She is slightly shocked, but her husband is just strutting back and forth, threatening to sue everybody in sight, and not checking on how his wife actually is. I lean over and quietly ask her if she is OK, and she is all over me. She is grinding herself against me, and kissing me very passionately, and I'm kind of enjoying myself. Her husband asks what the blank is going on, and she lets me go, blushes attractively, and says I showed concern for her, and she just couldn't help herself. Attractive brunette.

I'm still trying to come to grips with that pleasant scene when the folks I came to the mall with stroll past me heading for the car, and I join them for the ride home. They've changed from Cheryl's family to Aj (Veronica)'s family, but I seem to fit right in.