Renaissance at Morgan and Lindsey

Rarely do I post one of my own dreams any more.  Though they can be vivid, they are often forgotten before I can write them down.  This one survived.

I was visiting a shopping mall that, “in real life,” became defunct years ago.  Somehow, some of the stores had survived or maybe had been resurrected or re-opened.  In particular, a Morgan and Lindsey store I visited years ago was in business again.  (M&L was a “five and dime,” a precursor to the modern “dollar stores.”)

The store resembled an upscale bookstore I also visited many years ago (apparently now also out of business, shuttered by competition from larger stores such as Barnes & Nobles as well as Amazon), and mostly dealt in rare vinyl records and sometimes CDs or tapes.  In particular, they had a rare EP by Renaissance (lead singer Annie Haslam) with Carpet of the Sun on one side and Ocean Gypsy on the other.  I woke up, saddened by the loss of these many old stores and places and one of my favorite bands.  However, in researching the links for this entry, I did discover that Renaissance is back together again.  Maybe time to buy a copy of their latest project?

Let’s be clear: it is a dream about loss and growing old.  I suspect, too, that it is a dream about death, particularly of places and things around me as well as people and, eventually, my own.  Maybe it is suitable for a dream between the Winter Solstice and the Capricorn New Moon.

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Mustang Fastback (Couple O’Drawers)

Dreamed I was in a small parking lot outside a small strip mall with maybe 5 or 6 shops in it.  Was talking to another individual, a male, when a third individual, also male, came outside of one of the shops.  We were discussing automobiles (mid 1960’s to mid 1970’s muscle cars) and the third got into his car, a late model Mustang Fastback designed to look like the 1969 Fastback.  This car was gun metal blue, and it had been “tricked out” to have a magenta light show up an exhaust stream that had a small amount of steam added to it.  All of this was encased in lucite or something similar and visible from the outside (sides?).  However, the car had no visible emissions past the end of the tailpipes.

For some reason, we got in the car with the third guy (who looked like Jeremy Sisto).  He was trying to not say much, but he shortly pulled up at his place of employment, another small shop.  This shop was called “Couple O’Drawers.”  So, we asked, “what do you do?”  He told us that he cleaned out drawers.  Apparently, he had a business cleaning out drawers from old furniture purchased at auctions (typically unclaimed storage units) and looking for lost treasure.

(Woke up.)

The Water Game

Dreamed I was in a game or competition set in a desert, the Sahara possibly.  The game was all about accumulating water and keeping the competition from doing so.

To be certain, it was a very “hot” dream with very bright light.  (The morning sun must have affected this dream.)  I was discussing the rules of the game as my competitors scattered to their starting points.

Momentarily, I saw my gear and water containing equipment zooming by me.  Turned out that one of my competitors had taken advantage of me discussing the rules to steal my gear.  And, turns out the rules permitted this.  I had to take off to try to get my equipment back, and “things” did not look good.

This must be a dream with the lesson of “you snooze, you lose.”  🙂

Buying 3.5 inch disks

Dreamed I was living in a mobile home park or maybe a campground.  I think I had a motor home there, and had been there for some time (weeks or months).

My life was that I was semi-retired and worked part time as a novelist with some modest success.  I did not disclose my writings to others, and most simply thought that I was retired.

The people running the park had several school age children.  Much as some children sell (all too expensive) candy bars to help pay for school, this family sold 3.5 inch diskettes.

Who would buy those?  Oddly, a fair number of people because the computers at the campground (mobile home park?) were old ones that had floppy drives.  To preserve any work done on those machines, 3.5 inch floppy disks were needed.

Although I had a modern laptop hidden away in the motor home, I did use the computers at the park and, so, I bought some of these disks.

I had second thought about buying these otherwise worthless items that could easily become yet more clutter.  One excuse was that I did it to help the children (who often disturbed me with their noise during my most productive writing time).  The kids could be pesky, but I decided that the world would be a better place if they had an education.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I had a nagging thought that maybe it was time to “move on” from this scenario.

The Panic Room

Dreamed I had a home office similar to where I usually do my computing.  However, the room was larger, and had a door at one end.  The door was covered up with items like a coat rack.  I had never used the door or peered into it.

Somehow, someone (a group of younger people) came along to “help” me “reorganize” my office.  To be sure, it was a mess, but they made it worse.  In the process, they uncovered the door at the end.

Some people showed up how seemed to be Federal agents in suits.  They claimed that I had a panic room in my house, and they wanted to look inside.  The door, heavy steel, was nearly impenetrable but they somehow entered.

Inside was a control room with video monitors, some of which no longer had a signal.  One or two saw the outside of my residence.  The place was dusty, and it looked like no one had been inside for 10 to 20 years.

Apparently the Feds did not find what they were looking for, and they lost interest and left.  They gave me some version of the “we will be watching you” speech which did not endear them to me.  But, now I had access to the room (as well as the ability to lock it), and I never knew I had that ability before.

(Now, to clean up my office!)

Big Blue Buick Parking Spot

Dreamed that I had a 1970’s Buick Electra.  It was dark blue and HUGE.  The car was very elegant, but I had trouble parking it.

I was trying to park it in a parking garage that I am familiar with.  But, I could not seem to find a spot where it could fit.  Nobody makes parking spots that big anymore, or so it seemed.  The few that were available tended to be taken by large pickup trucks.  The drivers of the trucks were very aggressive in their efforts to get these spots.

This dream seems to be about a kind of elegance that is vanishing (or left only to the very wealthy).  To be sure, it was a bit sad.

Honey (The Sex Dream)

Actually, I have very few “sex dreams.”  And, I almost never have one about a celebrity.

This one was about a B-List actress whose name I do not know but face I recognized.  She vaguely reminded me of Anne Francis (whom I have always thought was quite beautiful.  RIP, Anne).

We were in a cool setting, like the cool of the evening in the summer that simply has not existed in Dallas in years.  This was in a more hilly kind of setting, perhaps Nashville or somewhere like that.  (Hayden, from both “Heroes” and “Nashville” was not the star of this dream, but she could have been.  I really like her, too.)

The woman in question was a blonde, perhaps a blue-eyed blonde.  Her face was a bit angular, but she was still pretty.  And, she was very, very “girl next door” in a thin sun-dress that was just too sexy.

Anyway, we were at some kind of garden party, and we started talking.  I cannot remember what we talked about, and I do not think it mattered.  She gave me a smile which I interpreted to be a “come hither” look.  Needless to say, I awoke before any meaningful fun could happen.

After I woke up, even though the celeb was someone OTHER than Anne Francis, I could not help but think of her.  I did a little research, and found “Honey West.”  For some reason, the name “Honey” was in the dream. 

Not sure what this dream means, either.  (But, I bet someone will comment! 🙂 )

Conventions, Legal Books, and Guns

In this very strange dream, I was a lawyer.  But, I was not a typical lawyer.  I was something more like a law school professor, and I was in a rather large room full of lawyers, maybe some kind of lawyer convention.

All the the rest of the lawyers were very chic in their appearance, and I fit in about like Jack Black would at a convention of super-models.  I was trying to “lay low,” but it was difficult.

Suddenly, someone started giving away books.  I really needed them for my (professorial?) work, but I was having difficult competing for them.  In the end, I got a few but needed more.

Then things became truly weird.  Someone started giving away guns, mostly rifles.  I decided to try to get my share of those, too, but that was even more difficult.  And, I was not sure why I wanted a rifle.  I think, really, I was just competing because the others were.

IBM PC’s and the Prep School

This dream was clearly set in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s.

Dreamed that an old friend of mine had been hired to install IBM PC’s in a prep school  At first, they bought ONE pc (aka “the” computer) and it was in the Headmaster’s office.

This only worked for about a year (dream was in multiple pieces) until the school decided to buy a few more machines.  Eventually, they decided to build a network (and you know what happened next).

Once a dialup link was put in, and the students (predictably) cracked the inadequate passwords (“secret” and such), my friend had to clean up the mess.  I had the distinct advantage of being an observer and not having to clean it up myself.

Now that I am awake, I have to wonder “just how many times this drama has repeated in real life?”

Contaminated Convenience

In another dream, I was a senior scientist working in a research lab.  I was having a conversation with a few new hires about computers.  They had overheard a conversation I was having with a colleague on a telephone.  In that conversation, I was discussing articles in the New York Times that compared high schools in New York to those in other parts of the country.  I was lamenting the poor state of education and made a comment about “box people.”

The new hires asked what I meant by “box people.”  I explained that I had been familiar with computers for a long time, and that I was not a “box person” and I was not the other extreme.  The other extreme involved people who built computers piece by piece, much as if they carved every block of every letter to build a printing press.  However, they did have the advantage that, if something broke, they usually knew what it was and could quickly locate and repair or replace it.

On the other hand, “box people” tended to want a computer to be a single monolithic box.  It was easy to purchase (but expensive) and easy to install.  However, if it broke, they could not repair it.  They had to send it off or throw it in the trash and buy a new one.

My comment was that I preferred to be in the middle of those two extremes.

Then I had to leave the lab where we worked.  I went to a nearby convenience store, but it was late at night.  And, some homeless people had slipped into the store.

I had to be careful not to touch or be touched by them.  In the lab where I worked, contamination could be an issue.  (Apparently I was working in some kind of biological lab.) 

Take This Job and Shove It

Dreamed I was temping in a building about 6 to 10 stories talk and made of black glass (on the outside, anyway).  One could call it a “Black Box.”

“Ran late” for being there; they expected us to be there early to login to the computer even though they did not pay us until the shift started at 8a.  I wore a button down shirt and khakis, and they were unhappy with this expecting me to were a sport coat and tie on a the pay of a temp.  (The rest of them were probably not paid so well either.)  Most of the staff was female and anywhere from mid 20’s to mid 30’s.

(This was the last in the series of dreams, each being a day in the work week.)  On this occasion I arrived to find the workstation they had for me occupied by someone else: another temp, female and dressed the way they wanted, and obviously better accepted than me.  I had the impression that the most she could hope for in life would be to be a cube dweller like the rest.

I was pointed to one “workstation” that turned out to be a keyboard similar to a piano keyboard.  Oddly, I could play it, but that did not do the job I was paid to do.  I was pointed to another workstation, but then told that was “the nurse’s workstation.”  It was decorated with fuzzy red & green Christmas things (flannel dolls & such), and it was not the right spot for me.

Then I was told I could work at so-and-so’s station.  So-and-so would be back tomorrow.

I had been told that, when I logged on, that I had to complete their time sheet.  I did this a bit resentfully since the temp agency had their own time sheet.  But, I did not bring that with me because I was afraid that the co-workers would steal it.  So, I wrote down my time on scrap paper (to transfer to the real time sheet later).

Could not find my “training manual” so I had to borrow one.  I was given a speech about this as well.  Only a few sheets of paper, I knew the speech was a load of crap.

Finally, I started work.  I knew that I did not want to be in this environment with these people, but I was not sure what I should be doing next.