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.

Lost, in traffic

Last night’s dream (this morning’s, actually) was one that I have, with some variation, rather frequently.

In my dream…

I was trying to drive a former female friend of mine back to her home from some daytime event we’d attended together. Unfortunately, I was lost.

The streets down which I was traveling kept changing from those that I almost recognized as belonging in one city or town I used to live in to those of another. And landmarks kept cropping up that were clearly out of place.

My passenger was less concerned than I about the strange drive we were on. She kept pointing out places she thought she recognized and laughing at the weirdness of it all. And she frequently wanted to stop and explore some of the more interesting things we were seeing.

Me: I just wanted to know where the heck we were and how to get where we wanted to go. And the volume of traffic was so heavy that I was unable to pull off and ask directions or look for a map.

Driving and banqueting

Saturday’s sleep provided me two dreams: both of them were very detailed, but neither was complicated nor disturbing.

driving:
Once again I was haunted by my UPS past. In this dream I was driving my truck and making deliveries along a 3-block section of the route I delivered in Bloomington, IN, decades ago.

Nothing exciting was happening, but I was moving smoothly and efficiently through every step of the package delivery process: safely parking the vehicle, quickly selecting the packages, walking them into the proper stores, getting the necessary signatures, walking briskly back to the truck, then driving to the next delivery stop. While my every motion was almost automatic, the main area of concern in this dream was the driving: I was looking ahead at developing traffic situations and responding to them sometimes before they happened.

It was almost like real life. On a good day.

banqueting:
The strongest elements of this dream were visual and auditory: cognitive, not so much.

The banquet seemed to be part of a larger conference or event I was attending, but I have no idea about what the subject or nature of the conference was. There was activity going on out in the hallway and other rooms of what must have been a conference center or large hotel, but this dream found me in exclusively in the banquet room itself.

I was dressed semi-formally, as was almost everyone else, and I was waiting to choose my seat at one of the long, nicely appointed tables that filled most of the room. I didn’t appear to have a dinner mate, I was attending the affair solo. But I saw and heard several people now filing into the room whom I knew, (some of whom I now know or have known in real life), so it was clear I’d be sitting near friends.

Speakers and dignitaries were assembling at a table near a podium and microphone, so speeches of some sort were going to be part of the affair. But… I woke up before things could develop any further.

Winter driving…

… is something I no longer have to do in real life, thank God. It’s been many years since I did two things to make sure I’d never have to do that dangerous chore any more: I moved to a part of the country that doesn’t have winter weather, and I quit driving. However, I still found myself doing it in last night’s dream.

In my dream…

…the winter driving sequence was a long, middle sequence of a dream that began and ended in a strange motel room. The room itself was in an upscale motel in Central Indiana. The reason for my being in the motel was unclear, but I had enough clothes hanging in the closet and put away in drawers to keep me going for several days.

While I was packing a suitcase early on the day of my scheduled departure, something compelled me to hurry my packing, run to the parking lot, and drive over to Columbus, IN.

A Winter storm was in progress and most other drivers had the good sense to stay off the road, but I was driving my small, gray sedan (I’ve never owned a small, gray sedan) at nearly the speed limit on a two-lane country road. Yes, I did some slipping and sliding, even swerved off the road a few times, but I never hit anything and I never stopped.

Before I reached Columbus, I realized I didn’t have any idea where the guy lived whom I was planning to see. I also realized I still had the motel room key in my pocket. And I remembered that I’d left clothes hanging in the closet there. Damn!

So I turned around and hurried back. On my return under limited visibility conditions (the Winter storm was still in progress) I somehow drove off the road and onto the estate and into a very big house. It was a VERY big house with a VERY big front door that had been left wide open.

Stopping the car in the foyer, I stepped out and looked around in amazement. When the homeowner asked what the heck I was doing, driving into his house, I explained that I’d lost my way in the snow. And I asked for directions back to the road. Soon I was on my way again, speeding back to the motel.

Fortunately, my clothes were still in the room. As I was hurriedly finishing my packing so I could check out of the motel, the cleaning ladies, busy in the room across the hall, were flirting with me. And a strange little gray man came and stood in my doorway for a few minutes and stared at the room number on my door. Then he left.

Then I woke up.

A short, UPS-themed dream

Last night’s sleep was segmented into two short uncomfortable sections: a 3-hour section from 06:00 to 09:00, and a 2-hour section from Noon to 14:00 hours. Though there mau have been other dreams last night, I can only remember one from the end of the 2nd sleep period.

This dream was:

Very short. Too short, thankfully, to develop into the nightmare my UPS-themed dreams almost always become.

I was driving my UPS truck near the end of my route, late in the day. The sun had set and I was conscious of how my headlights were shining directly into the rear view mirror of the car in front of me. There wasn’t much I could do about this, it was a function of my headlights being at exactly the same height from the pavement as the car’s mirror.

I was going to pull into the parking lot of an A&W Root Beer stand, park my truck, and go inside to do my end of the day paperwork, my daily checkout routine, before returning to the Center. But I woke up before I pulled into the lot.