To dream or not to dream

I was outside working. Honestly. It has been a busy few weeks for me. Then, I made the mistake of walking by White Bear who was up to his usual antics -- lounging about, reading, watching Wild West films, sitting under the shade of our own magical "guardian tree," drinking my liquors and wearing my watches. Well, what can I say? The little rascal told me to take his photograph again. "No one has seen me for weeks!" he exclaimed. "I am sure they miss me. Go get 'our' camera." So, here he is, White Bear, on the evening of July 6, 2011. He picked the music for this post, too. He said although we have used this song with its utterly fantastic guitar work in the past in a live, onstage version, he thought it would blend in with our mood and would fit in with this post and our next one, which are related, although it might not seem that way to a casual observer.

 Reoccuring dreams .... one more time

Reoccuring dreams are fascinating, to me, and I sometimes write about mine. Right now is another "sometime."

In my most recent, I am driving my Suburban along a lakeshore. There are familiar landmarks here and there, but, essentially, it seems like a place unknown to me. There are homes along much of the shoreline, but as I round a ninety-degree curve, I arrive at an open area several yards in length. I pull in and park, facing the lake. As I shut off the engine and look out over the lake, I glance in the rear-view mirror and see a blue, pickup truck come round the bend and continue on down the road. There, the dream fades away.

I had this same dream a number of times when, abruptly, several nights ago, the blue, pickup truck turns in beside me and parks. The dream ends. A few nights later, the same thing occurred, but, this time, rather than park next to me, the blue pickup continues on and cautiously proceeds over and down a steep but passable incline, and continues a short distance to the actual waterline of the lake. Here, endeth the dream -- slowly and calmly.

Then, last night, the blue, pickup truck stops to the side and the front of me, blocking my view of the lake. I spend a few moments debating whether or not I should get out of my Suburban and confront the driver of the blue pickup about his rudeness.

You know me. (You do, do you not?) There is no reason for self-debate. I would confront the devil himself if he blocked my view of a lake. I exit my Suburban and walk to the driver's side of the blue, pickup truck. The window is up. All I see is a reflection in the glass as I rap on it. The window stays up. I rap again. Nothing happens. I lean down and move next to the glass so I can see beyond the reflection and into the blue pickup. It is empty. No one is inside of it; no one had been driving it.

This startled me very, very much. I awoke with a literal leap into the air -- shuddering, sweating, wondering where I was at and why no one was with me.