Saturday, July 29, 2006

Another dream, what could it mean?

Probably that I had a restless night

7/29/06 Saturday
I woke at 4:48 this morning. Had another very different dream though not as vivid as before. In this one I am running a crew dismantling and removing the business furniture in a large office building. There are many personal effects that have been left behind by the previous tenants. Everything is old and dark in a traditional walnut way. My boss is an inscrutable oriental whom I give the respect a sensei receives. I am keeping everyone honest as we work and make sure everyone is staying at work and not being lazy.

We get towards the end of things and the pace steps up as the excitement of finishing approaches. I am dismantling the final walls from the inside as the crew on the other side of the walls take the pieces I hand them. It is going well and finally I remove enough of the wall that the others can come in where I have been working alone.

Just as we are carrying the last pieces onto the truck all hell breaks loose. A band of rough looking characters, dressed in leather armor reminiscent of the Chinese warriors of ancient times, are coming through the crowds of people on this busy city street. They are swinging whips that resemble a cat of nine tails made of thin steel cables and fling them into the air where they all fall across the power lines. The leader of this group comes to me. I see his knarred face with it’s Fu Manchu as he tells me “You’ve got till then (Pointing at his watch) to turn the electricity off or 23,000 will die.

Me and a trusted associate spring into action. “How do I get to the top of this building” I say as I look at the towering office building we had just emptied. I knew the elevators and inside would be booby trapped and there are no windows in it. With a flash of desperate genius I leap on the side of this skyscraper and begin scaling it using the bricks that were decoratively sticking out of the walls like a rock climber. “This is impossible to do” I think as I grasp one brick at a time and slowly hoist myself up, careful yet in a hurry.
I make it to the top. Coming over the edge to the roof I see the crown of this skyscraper. It is a wooden dome, weathered and dark. As I look the front rolls open and I see an old friend who had been in seclusion there for ages. He looks at me with his face now covered with the bushy beard that has grown in his years at this place and says “Welcome my old friend, are you ready for that game of chess”. He opens his arms which are covered by the long baggy sleeves of his monks robe. I see the chess set already set up, waiting for this moment as it has been since he arrived to this place decades ago.

My associate just now makes it over the top and comes to me questioningly. I tell him to play this man a game of chess and “Be careful, he’s good”. With the game starting I rush to find the breaker box and turn off the electricity. Running down the dark stairs I find the switch and pull it in time with great relief.

Then I woke up. It is now 6:09 and I have made a pot of coffee and finished the first cup. Actually it is sitting next to me half full and half cold. Good morning world! I have started. Still tired. Went to sleep just after midnight so I got four hours of sleep. I suppose I should take my medicine. Cherie is stirring on occasion but still asleep. She woke up around the time I did with one of her hot flashes so sat on the edge of the bed in front of the fan till it passed. I gently rubbed her back and still asleep she mumbled something and laid back down.

The night has turned into day as I recorded this dream though the sun is not yet visible. I think I will check my E mail now. Perhaps post this on the blog.
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8:49 – Cherie is hurrying to get ready to visit Eileen. It always takes her a while but that is the way it is. She has to make sure everything is right before she goes out in public. Living on the farm may be rough on her in that regard but maybe not. I fixed French toast this morning so we had some good protein before we leave.

I looked on the Toledo map after hearing what streets the sewage system had backed up on, filling basements up to four feet high with raw sewage. I wanted to see how close Allen’s house was to that cause he lives in a basement and has flooded during hard rains before. Yeah it’s close. I have not called him since I offered him a free computer and he was worried if it was good enough or not. He doesn’t own one at all and it grated on me that he would do this. Now however I must give him a call because he probably needs help cleaning. Also because he isolates himself so much he will probably be unaware that there are faith based groups reaching out to help flood victims as well as FEMA.

Looking forward to visiting with Eileen. Will take this laptop because it has all the pictures in it.
Just called her and she said she needed to run over to her sister’s house so wouldn’t get back till 10:30 or 11:00.

We got to visit with Eileen. I will perhaps write about it later. It is 7:19 now and I am not doing well. Real foggy and got a headache again. We stopped at a restaurant called El Tipico on the way back. Probably spelled that wrong. We were going to find a Taco Bell but saw the restaurant on the way there. We had heard about it or something so figured it had to beat Taco Bell. It not only beat Taco Hell (My nickname for it) but beat most of the Mexican restaurants in town. Nice small place run by a husband and wife. His father had passed the restaurant down to him. Real Mexican food, not the commercial stuff made to satisfy Americans found in most places. I had ordered tamales cause that is a telling proof regarding Mexican food. Good stuff with shredded beef, clearly made by hand. We will go back. What’s funny is it beat everything we found in Midland Texas which has more Mexican restaurants than anything else.

Allen returned my call. I called while at Eileen’s. Come to find out he did not flood which is good but he didn’t call till 6:00. That indicates he is still not keeping anything that resembles regular hours. In fact he wasn’t even aware of the floods blocks from him and asked me when it rained. “Was it last night, was it the day before?” he questioned me. He wasn’t aware it has been roasting hot for days now. His satellite feed got roasted he told me so even that conduit to the outside world has been cut off. I probably ought to visit him and will. It is often uncomfortable but that’s the way it is. I am beginning to understand he is mentally ill. Thought it was the addiction to pain killers but realize it is much more than that. Not much I can do other than be a friend and fight his isolation by visiting. I think I will get him the computer despite his attitude cause it may help him get in better touch with the world.

The visit with Eileen went OK. She has been loosing weight cause she can’t keep food down. Things were nice at first but then the phone started ringing. Boo came to visit with her grandson whom she calls “Half breed”. Watching how they interacted was a shock for Cherie. It was F this and F that. “You better F-ing shut up” Boo would tell the ten or so year old kid when he bugged her to go back to Maumee and got the bathing suit he forgot. I took a picture of them though Boo wasn’t keen on that.

Eileen’s son, Bobby, came over from next door. His kids came by to swim in the pool. Eileen said Bobby was getting more respectful after Mick, Eileen’s boyfriend, told him he better straighten up. Mick is a biker and a Vietnam vet who doesn’t mess around. Bobby knows Mick will kick his ass in a heartbeat. He wouldn’t like me writing this but that’s tough. I would like to meet him cause we are very much alike. Bobby still has a drinking problem but that's not news. Eileen and I talked about how many times I fired him when he worked for me. I think I hired about everyone in her family except her daughter over the years.

Each visit to the East side is culture shock for Cherie. It’s home for me and I am very comfortable there but is like nothing Cherie has experienced before. We passed the house that had been firebombed a few days ago. It is at the end of Eileen’s block. They tore it down already. This is a hard place to grow up in.

Cherie went shopping to get a present for Pat going on three hours ago. For her shopping is a way to unwind. I am sure she needs that after being on the East side. We were both glad to escape the cigarette smoke. I am so glad I kicked that nasty habit. While there Eileen got a call from her niece. Her father was dying of lung cancer. Boo talked about how the lumps in her throat weren’t cancerous so she would smoke till they were. My mother was the same way and told me once years ago that she would never quit despite having cancer several times and beating it. It finally beat her and she died before Lee, her mother, did.

I got a credit report in. There are a few things that I need to check on. It is really kind of cryptic and doesn’t give a clear picture of what debt is what, just gives an account number. I need to take it to the lawyer who handled our bankruptcy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob, I think your dream is an anxiety dream about moving and dismantling your old life. The old man could represent your rediscovery of the past. But you climbed a skyscraper, did the impossible, and made it! Seems like a very good sign.

Bob Westbrook said...

that fits. There are some who wrote me off and feel that I will never amount to much. My dad is on top of that list. I'll keep climbing