I’m glad I was on the #4!

When I ride the bus up from the Riverwalk to Alien Worlds on North San Pedro, I have the option of taking either the #4 or the #3 routes. Both cover essentially the same territory, and both will drop me off pretty close to where I want to go. #3, however, is considered an “Express Route.” It makes far fewer stops and runs from downtown out to the North Star Mall and returns to town again much faster than does the #4.

Before we reached the bus stop in front of Alien Worlds, I pulled on the signal cord to let the driver know I wanted to be let off, but nothing happened. There was no *ding* sound, and the red light at the front, near the driver didn’t turn on. Uh-oh. So I pulled again on the cord and… again nothing happened.

By this time we’d driven past the stop where I wanted to get off. Darn it!

So I moved to another part of the bus and pulled the signal cord over there. *DING!* Whew! And the red light by the driver flared on. He knew someone wanted off at the next stop.

Luckily that next stop was only about another block or so up the street. After climbing off the bus and walking back down the street I could see Alien Worlds through the trees in no time at all.

I counted myself lucky that this incident happened on a #4 bus. Lord, if it had happened on a #3 I might have been a good half-mile or more up the road before I could get off the bus.

Lesson learned: Next time pull the signal cord EARLY, and be ready to reach for another if the first cord doesn’t work!

Who WAS that woman?!

Last night’s sleep was properly segmented, and the first such I’ve had in weeks. Some folks get all their nightly (or daily) sleep in one solid chunk. Sometimes I do, too. But usually my sleep is divided into two distinct parts: the first one being five or six hours long; and the second, coming sometime later in the day, is generally two or three hours long. And it’s this second sleep that usually contains my dreams. That was the case this morning.

In my dream…

…there was a higher degree of lucidity than is normally the case for me. This awareness that I was dreaming while I was in the dream manifested itself a number of times and finally allowed me to wake calmly from what would otherwise have been a rather disturbing situaton.

The setting of this dream was here in San Antonio. As a matter of fact, it began down in the residential foyer of the hotel in which I live.

As the door to the elevator opened, I found myself eye to eye with an attractive, smiling woman whom I apparently knew in the dream world, but whom I cannot place among the various women I know or have known in real life. I could see her very clearly, and heard the sound of her voice as we talked. I’m guessing that she may have been a composite of different individuals I know or have known. If I was an artist, (which I’m not, by the way), I could very easily draw a sketch of her.

She was headed out of the hotel as I was headed up to my apartment, but we decided to spend a little time together. We took a stroll down by the river, then rode the bus to a part of town where she was headed. At a number of times when we were walking and on the bus, things seemed more than a little strange, as they often do in dreams. When the strangeness would distract me from our conversation, I’d apologize to her, saying, “Oh, you’ll have to excuse me. I’m not usually this disoriented, but I’m dreaming.”

And she’d laugh lightly each time, telling me not to worry about it, that she understood completely. Then she’d put her hand on my arm or her arm in mine and I’d laugh, too. All would be well, then: happy and well.

When the bus finally dropped us off she used a pay phone at the bus stop to make a quick call. I looked around and realized that I didn’t know where we were at all. Looking back at where the pay phone had been I saw that it was gone, and so was the woman with whom I’d been spending time. The bus had pulled away. There I was standing in a strange place. But I realized that since I was dreaming, all I’d have to do is wake up and I’d know exactly where I was.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Nightmares: 2 out of 3 bad dreams

From time to time I’ve mentioned that the only dreams I’ll share here are those that don’t involve real, private people whom I have known and who are still on this side of the dirt. Neither will I mention those dreams that involve immoral or illegal activity. There’s no need for me to write anything that might embarrass a private person, nor anything that might overly interest the gendarmerie.

To that short list above of dream types I won’t talk about here I now must add those dreams that overly disturb me: nightmares, if you will. This week I’ve had some of those.

These three “bad” dreams were all long and extremely detailed, but I’ve had time to think about them and believe no harm can come from briefly mentioning their general themes.

flying:
Dreams of flying are supposed to be among the most common, if we’re to believe the literature. But the one I had earlier this week was my first. Oh, I’ve had plenty of dreams about falling; they were common during my childhood, but falling and flying are not the same things at all.

The flying part of this dream was okay. At first it was somewhat thrilling, but the newness of the experience wore off rather quickly. It was other elements of this dream that made it unpleasant and disturbing. While not as nightmarish as the next two I’m going to mention, it was still a bad dream.

bad concert experience:
In this too long and vividly detailed dream I had a number of extremely bad experiences while sitting in the audience at a classical music concert. From sitting around rude and noisy people, to losing my ticket, to having my seat stolen, to darned near being trampled by rowdy, stampeding folks… Oh man, this just kept getting worse and worse until I finally woke up.

missing a bus:
Again, this was a long, very detailed dream that I’ll only mention briefly. It had me making a relatively short intracity bus trip, but one that involved making a few bus changes (from route to route, etc.) on the way to my destination. And it was extremely important that I arrive at the destination on time.

While waiting for the last bus, I stepped inside a nearby convenience store to get a snack and… I missed the bus. I was SO disappointed, and I knew that others would be, too. It was just so sad! Heartbreakingly sad! The depth of the sorrow was such that it was what woke me. Woh!

M&M cookies and coffee

The dream from which I woke today was both gratifying and frustrating.

In this dream…

I was waiting for a bus in Bloomington, IN, when I realized two things: i.) it would be several minutes before the bus arrived, and 2.) I was standing across the street from a bakery that used to be one of my favorites. So the decision was made to step into the bakery and order a snack to take with me.

When I walked into the bakery I was greeted with happy smiles, back slaps from the regulars there, and, “Hi, how’ve you been?” like I was some favorite, seldom-seen family member or something. That was both surprising and satisfying.

Standing at the counter I ordered some M&M cookies and a lerge coffee to go. The boy behind the counter bagged the cookies quickly and set them in front of me and walked over to the coffee machine. Taking a quick bite from one of the soft, chewy cookies, I knew I’d ordered wisely.

“Oh, here,” said the shop owner, “let me heat those up for you.” And she took the sack from me and stuck it in a small microwave oven.

Some small talk with the regulars and employees followed as I stood there at the counter waiting for my coffee and the return of my cookies. And a few minutes passed. And I still stood there, waiting for my coffee and the return of my cookies. The situation was becoming frustrating.

Worried that I might miss my bus I quickly checked the time…

…by opening my eyes and looking at my bedside clock. And I realized I was waking up.