A flood in the laundry room

It is with a great sense of relief that I note the return of dreaming to my sleep segments. For approximately the past week I’ve been rather under the weather: not terribly sick, not enough to keep me from functioning, but certainly visiting enough unpleasant symptoms on me to restrict my activities. That nastiness appears to have passed, thank God, and things seem to be returning to normal.

During the week of illness my sleeps were nearly devoid of dreams, they were certainly empty of any dreams I can mention here. But now I’m feeling better, generally, and I have dreams to post. Today’s second sleep segment brought me a pair of interesting and unrelated dreams.

In my first dream…

… there was an episode of flooding here in the hotel where I live.

Noticing the unusual sound of running water outside in the hallway, I opened my door and saw a big water stain on the carpet in front of the laundry room. The laundry room, by the way, was situated next door to my apartment just as it is in real life. The stain was growing larger by the second, fed by a mini-waterfall cascading from the slightly elevated floor of the laundry room, which is one step higher than the level of the hallway.

Very curious about this situation, I looked into the laundry room (which, in this dream, was much deeper than in real life) and saw a plumber working feverishly with a big wrench at some pipes in the back of the room. “Looks like we have a bit of a flood here,” I shouted back to the plumber.

He turned to me and yelled back, as he continued to work, “And it’s a cold flood, too! I’m about to freeze! Hopefully I’ll be able to get it stopped pretty soon!”

Looking at the mess I shook my head and… woke briefly.

A boating dream

It seems that returning to a healthy sleep pattern and regular dreaming (regular dreaming being an important part of healthy sleep, in my humble opinion) is taking longer than I thought it would. But the impact of that early-mid February interruption will fade with the passing of time, I’m sure. And all will eventually return to normal.

Since returning to San Antonio I’ve been having a number of dreams that involve actual, living people whom I know in real life. And you do remember my policy in that regard, don’t you? Those are dreams about which I do not post out of respect for the privacy of others.

Last night, however, I had a “safe” dream: one I can write about.

In my dream…

…there was a lot of water, and me in a boat with other people having fun. This is rather odd because I’ve actually spent very little time, ever, on boats. I’ve never owned one, never been on a cruise, and have never been one to spend recreational time on boats. While I have enjoyed the hobby of fishing at different times in my life, I’ve either fished from piers or from the shore – pretty much always.

But in my first sleep of the night (which is not the one that usually brings me dreams, by the way) I was a passenger with unidentified friends on a respectably sized motor boat taking part in some sort of regatta on Lake Michigan. The boat in which I was riding was one of several traveling in a rather large circle, and there were folks riding jet-skis zooming around us and amongst us.

This was all taking place on a bright, sunny afternoon. Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

I have absolutely no idea where this happy dream came from nor why I had it. But I liked it.

Happiness is a precious commodity and one to be treasured, both in real life and in dreams.

killing a vampire, and a broken washing machine

Last night’s was a weird sleep. As this respiratory bug lingers, I’ve sworn off coffee and alcohol to let my system fight it off more efficiently. As a consequence of this, my sleeps have become longer and my dreams more easily remembered.

For more information about my sleeps, refer to my sleep log.

When I woke I had clear memories of the two dreams that occurred just prior to my waking, though I suspect there were others that have faded from my conscious mind.

The first dream:

I was a vampire hunter leading a team of other vampire hunters chasing an infestation of the bloodsuckers in a modern, urban environment. The city in which we were fighting was nondescript. None of the other characters involved were known to me in real life.

The vampires were powerful and in the process of overwhelming us; it was clear to me that I’d have to find and destroy their leader if we were to survive.

I finally found the master vampire. We were fighting each other in the attic of a big house when I forced him out through a weakened section of wall into the direct sunlight through which he fell.

The vampire wasn’t immediately destroyed; rather he transformed into a little gummy-bat maybe an inch long. I grabbed the gummy-bat firmly and carried him into the house’s kitchen. Pinning him to a wooden cutting board with a steak knife, I knew I’d have to put a wooden stack through his tiny heart somehow.

Aha! On a kitchen shelf near me was a container of wooden tooth picks. In a flash I grabbed a tooth pick and pierced the gummy-bat’s heart, killing the master vampire. When a supernatural glowing cloud escaped from the little body and dissipated in the light breeze blowing through the kitchen, I knew we’d won.

The second dream:

This was clearly a lucid dream, as I was more awake than asleep when it happened. It could easily have been described as a hallucination had it occurred under different circumstances.

Laying in bed, in the slow process of waking for the day, I had the clearest vision of looking down at washing machine full of clothes. Its washing cycle was apparently finished, but the tub was still full of water. It looked like the washer had gone through its final spin cycle but none of the water drained away.

Then, as soon as it came, the image of the washing machine vanished. And my eyes began sliding open as I rose from the pillow, waking to face the day.