a short #dream about a big truck

Waking early after a too-short sleep often leaves me rather groggy. That’s been the case today. And that particular kind of grogginess tends to open the door for lucid dreaming experiences. So far today I’ve had a few of those.

Putting head to pillow while listening to the radio about an hour ago, I took off my glasses and began breathing deeply and slowly, relaxing, letting my eyes unfocus and my mind drift.

As if I was driving behind it, I could clearly “see” a big 18-wheeler moving quickly down a road on the west side of Bloomington, IN: a road I used to drive daily but one I’ve not seen for over a decade. The truck ahead of me turned right and headed North at the Highland Village stop light. Then it was gone, the “dream” faded and ended.

A bad #dream with a common theme

Though I’m a decade and a half away from my career as a UPS delivery driver, dreams related to that job still haunt me. And I’m resigned to the fact that they probably always will. Most of the UPS-themed dreams are unpleasant to one degree or another, but they no longer force me awake in a state of terror as they used to.

Something that used to irk me at that job was the occurrence of delivery “irregularities.” Some of these were more common and less troublesome than others, but none were things I enjoyed. They always complicated the normal, productive work flow of my day at least a little, and some times a lot. Examples of this are: a residential consignee not being home, which meant I might have to find a safe place to leave the delivery or maybe come back the next day; a C.O.D. tag with no money amount indicated, which meant I was supposed to collect money when the package was delivered but I wasn’t told how much; an incorrect delivery address, the label showing a building or house number that didn’t exist on the street indicated; etc.

This dream of a few nights ago involved a time-consuming irregularity on a day when I didn’t have any extra time to spare.

In my dream …

… I was delivering packages during Peak Season, that time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas when UPS is busiest. It so happened that I had another driver assigned to me as a helper, which meant there were two of us working out of my truck. After I’d completed a delivery to a fabric store (well, I thought I’d completed the delivery) and was about to walk out, one of the ladies who had just accepted the packages called out, “Wait, Roscoe! Something’s not right here!” She’d opened a box she’d just signed for and was staring at what was inside.

“Oh no,” I thought to myself as I headed back to her. “I don’t have time for this today.”

“We’d never order anything like this!” she said emphatically.

I checked the label on the box, and sure enough, it was addressed to her store.

By this time my helper had completed his delivery and had walked over to see what the problem was. “Have you checked the packing slip?” he asked.

The lady pulled the packing slip out of the box and noticed that it indicated the merchandise should have gone to a another merchant, a cross-town rival of hers.

Picking up the box I saw that there was a second label on it; and the second label was addressed to the rival’s store. Damn! “I signed for this,” she said. “Doesn’t that mean I get to keep it?”

I really didn’t have the time on my schedule to waste with this nonsense! “This is really valuable stuff, Roscoe,” my helper said, looking at the packing slip. “We’d better call the Center and tell a supervisor about it.”

Yeah, he was right. But, damn, I really didn’t have the time to waste on this nonsense! We were going to have to race through the rest of the day if there was any chance for us to get done!

Aggravated, I…

…woke up.

In the past a dream like this would have found me waking in a sweat, my heart racing and nerves on edge, near panic. Not anymore, thank God. I still wake uncomfortable, but not as if from a nightmare. Not anymore.

Dreams about running a laundromat

Last night brought me a few dreams that shared a common theme: me owning and managing a laundromat.

It seems that there were several different dreams, though on waking I could only remember the last three very clearly. There were a mix of characters in them, none of whom I recognized. I was the same person in each dream, a younger, twenty or thirty something version of me, and I was running the same big laundromat, in the same nondescript town.

Though I had employees working the day shift, I handled the night shift by myself. The first two dreams were very similar in that they tested my policy regarding customer behavior. It was my tendency to let folks do pretty much whatever they wanted to as long as they were actually doing laundry and weren’t damaging any of my property.

There was a small but busy nightclub across the street from laundromat, and some of the patrons there had gotten into the habit of bringing their dirty clothes over to my place and running them through the machines after the club closed for the night. Heck, that was fine with me. Business is business. I was happy, they were happy, things were fine.

In my second dream, the club’s patrons came over again after the joint closed for another night. And some of the dancers who worked there came over, too. While the clothes were running through the machines quite a bit of partying was going on. Again, I was happy, they were happy, and a very good time was had by all.

The setting of the third dream was still at my place of business, but took place in the daytime. I’d made the decision to move out of my house and into my office at the laundromat. Part of that process involved holding an auction of all the extra furniture, etc., from the house that I’d no longer be needing. While that auction was taking place at the laundromat, I found myself standing in the background with my arms crossed, rather amused at the strange direction my life was taking.

And then… I woke up.

Taking action in a lucid #dream

The nightly routine of quiet reading, NyQuil, and melatonin continues to set the stage for successful lucid dreaming.

Most of these dreams find me as a passive observer, even though I’m fully ware that I’m dreaming at the time thus qualifying the experience as a lucid dream (at least, that qualifies them in my opinion). However, I finally made the decision during a dream to play a more active role, to enter into conversation with someone there.

In my dream…

…I first found myself being entertained by a small boy, maybe four or five years old, who was wearing an “Elvis is King” tee-shirt and singing Elvis Presley songs. He was trying to do an Elvis impersonation and was actually pretty funny.

We were sitting in the stands of a large auditorium, rather removed from most of the other people, some of whom were snacking, some of whom were chatting, most of whom were watching the action of a martial arts competition down on the main floor. The boy was standing next to has father who was busy analyzing chess games stored in a Correspondence Chess Post-A-Log, and had a book of annotated games and a clipboard on which he was studiously entering notes. When his son moved a few seats away from us to sing to another group of folks, I decided to see if I could more actively participate in the dream. I commented to the father, “Ah! A Post-A-Log. I’ve got one like it at home, but it looks like yours is a lot busier than mine.”

He looked over at me and replied, “Busy!” Then holding up his clipboard, he continued, “I’m trying to finish an article for publication and I’m right up against a deadline.” And he resumed working.

I turned my attention then to the main floor of the auditorium where mats were spread out and and the fighters and judges were busy. And then…

I woke up.

The #Dream About Nothing

Okay, okay, the dream’s really about something, but it’s about The Show About Nothing, hence the title of this post.

Hoping that the recently noticed pattern of double-dosing NyQuil, followed an hour or two later by the 5 mg. of melatonin would give me a respectable sleep and a decent dream experience, I decided to try it again. To my satisfaction, it worked.

The dream it brought me at the end of a too-short sleep segment was entertaining, but otherwise rather insignificant.

I came rather lately to the Seinfeld show, never watching it when it was broadcast in “live” time, but only following it in reruns. Still, i liked the show. I liked it a lot.

And though I’ve not seen an episode of it recently nor thought about it for a long time, it formed the substance of a recent, rather lucid dream.

In my dream…

…I was an observer to what was going on in the dreamscape. And what was going on was an episode of the Seinfeld Show. Or, more properly said, a short segment of a fictional episode of the Seinfeld Show.

As was so often the case, Jerry and George Costanza were conversing in front of an ambiguously defined third party audience. In this instance, Jerry’s part of the dialog pulled him farther and farther away from any rational position. And George, playing the straight man, kept him talking and looked at him ever more skeptically.

Finally George grabbed Jerry by the arm, pulled him out to the sidewalk, and shoved him into the back seat of a car. Looking at him disdainfully, George sighed and shook his head in disgust.

I was simply a witness to this. And this was my dream.

enabling WP.com’s Publicize: Twitter option

This is something of an experiment. There’s no real content in this particular post, I’m more interested right now to see how this works, how the WP.com post sent via its Publicize: Twitter option appears in the Twitter stream.

Two Hours of Lucid Dreaming

I’m not sure what the exact conditions were that caused or enabled my two hours of lucid dreaming this morning, but I’d sure like to repeat the experience! I suspect that there were both internal and external factors at work.

Earlier this week I had a night and day of nasty sinuses and massive insomnia that included wave after wave of intense lucid dreaming episodes. The dream experiences themselves were nice, but coming as frequently and with the intensity they did, the only thing I could do was spend a lot of time in bed and just let them happen. Given the nature of my situation (living alone, fully retired, no outside responsibilities, a flexible schedule over which I have total control) this was no problem.

Today’s lucid dreaming was different in that it was much more manageable. When I began waking, I turned my head on the pillow to see the digital display on my clock-radio. It was a few minutes past 9:00 AM. Since I’d gotten to sleep at 2:00 AM, this gave me seven hours of good, restful sleep. Realizing I had no time-sensitive chores facing me, I was very relaxed. And since there was no outside commotion to disturb me, my state of mind was very calm.

The light-headedness that often precedes and accompanies my lucid dreaming experiences was with me, so I closed my eyes and let the experience begin. In no time at all, the first of many vivid dreams began. Though I was fully aware of where I was and when, and though I was capable of rousing myself, of leaving the dream state and busying myself with chores of the day, there was no real need or desire to do so. So I didn’t. I just lay there and let the dreams unfold.

After several interesting and enjoyable dreams, I again looked at the bedside clock. When I saw it displaying 11:00 AM, the decision was made to rise and get busy with my day. And I did that without any trouble.

Shortly after “fully” waking at 11:00 AM, I still had very clear memory of between five and seven of those dreams. No, I didn’t write down any notes. Wish I had. But even now, so many hours later, I can still remember three of them.

It’s my intention to repeat the pattern of medication and preparation from last night to see if I can repeat that delightful lucid dreaming experience. This will involve double-dosing with NyQuil at approximately Midnight or 1:00 AM, listening to the radio from bed or reading until about 2:00 AM, then taking 5 mg. of melatonin before turning off the lights and closing my eyes. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

A meteor swarm

Today has been a an odd one. Cursed with both massive insomnia and hellacious sinuses, a large part of the morning hours, hours when I should have been sleeping, were filled with episodes of lucid dreaming. One of these was very interesting.

in my dream…

…I was serving in some command capacity at a large military outpost on a remote planet, or perhaps on a moon of that planet. Scientists had just discovered a swarm of giant meteors headed our way. The destruction this storm was predicted to bring was so massive that an evacuation of our base was necessary.

The realism of this scene was incredible. I was standing next to a spaceship, the last to leave, and it was loaded with people and supplies and was ready to launch. Another officer and I were staring up at the star-filled sky when we saw the first of Neptune’s explode, destroyed by the meteors.

“Oh my God!” The officer next to me shouted and started racing up the ladder to our ship’s hatch. “Let’s get the hell out of here! Come on!” But I hesitated, watching the wondrous spectacle of that exploding smaller moon.

For that extra kick

Monday morning finds me mixing teaspoons full of Don Pedro Instant with the cups of freshly brewed coffee poured from my carafe. I’ve no idea what pure Don Pedro Instant tastes like, and hope to God I never have to find out, but it is pretty effective at giving an extra kick to the morning joe.

Up all night

Well, this wasn’t very bright of me. I’ve been up all night reading. Now I’ll probably sleep through a good part of Sunday’s football. Darn it!