December 2004

Dreamlog

KEY:
The top entry for each day is dream.
Below ----- is real life.

December 31

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I get the leaves for the dining room table down from the hole, and we prepare for New Year's eve guests. Six arrive for dinner and raisins and bubbly drinks at midnight. Louise also makes mousse.


Our New Year's party

December 30

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We all return to Albuquerque in the rented minibus and fly off to our respective destinations. Ben, Louise, and I reach home at two minutes before midnight, finding all the cats waiting for us.


December 29

The stagecoach waits for Liszt's arrival.

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Ben and I have a muddy run on North Mesa. Louise joins us and we go to the animal shelter where Wendee and I walk Luke and Penny, and we let some of the cats out for exploring and play.

Spaghetti dinner at Wendee's. We drink the cherry bubbly left over from the party.


December 28

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In the morning, ben and I went for a walk in the woods with Wendee and the dogs, then we went up with Steve in his little plane. Ben sat in the front with earphones, while I was in the back with earplugs. I had a good view for picture-taking, but I couldn't hear much of what Steve said to Ben.

At six we had the Lodge for Virginia's birthday party. Louise played "Happy Birthday" on her ocarina, and Corey sang four songs accompanied by his Kareoke machine. We had Vernors and cake. The meal consisted of spinach and mango salad and chicken prepared very prettily.


At the Lodge for Virginia's birthday party

December 27

We travel to New Mexico. Wendee and Virginia meet us at the airport. At Wendee's home, we are greeted by some very revved up dogs.


Waiting at Metropark for the train

December 26

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We prepare for the trip. Ben and I grab a few hours' sleep, but Louise cleans her room and packs all night.


December 25

I'm going to write my Kokiro novels from the POV of a narrator who has knowledge of alternative histories of Earth, perhaps granted by an imperial mindsea such as Thermeon. My characters would age as if they were born in the year I made them up. For instance, Kokiro would be forty-one in 2004. I walk about my place, a monumental community habitat with extensive views of the landscape that open up in certain places.

As I walk through the place, holding a tome in my arms and singing "Swinging the Alphabet" in order to focus my mind, Judy tags along, trying to be helpful, not realizing that it's the process I need. We come to a huge high cabinet full of pianos and rolls of paper towels. When I wish that Rhoda was there to see it, she comes along.

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We have Christmas after Ben returns.


Christmas presents

December 24

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Ben at his father's.


December 23

Attequol shapes evolution through his protegés. He tried with the dinosaurs first, and when that didn't work out, he turned to mammals.

I assure Liz that her COMRYES PASS can outdo Tad Williams' SHADOWMARCH.


December 22

Bad guy shoots boy with a red light that hypnotizes him, and he rampages. The bad guy has a building where he promulgates his business.

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My Liszt letters book arrived.


December 21

I have a picture of Brian, broad-shouldered and manly, with his red tie loosened as he prepares to get to work. I'm planning to post it on buildings in the S. Bruns. ghetto.

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Louise and I get the turkey.

Her ocarina arrives.

I have a thought about "Beautiful Victory" where it's not like Puflet saving Thermeon in the Lists of Night.

We watch "It's a Wonderful Life" in the garage.


Louise & ocarina

December 20

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The Bonniebug Xmas dinner at Brioso's. We're all there except for Deb, who's giving an exam, Susan, who's in Florida, and Rita, who's home sick. A good time had by all.


At the Bonniebug Xmas dinner

December 19

Franz Liszt in the wild west.


December 18

A gathering at Groverton. Bridget comes down the hall with a walker. My mother has a cane.


December 17

Louise and Ben are playing a game that involves hanging black tags on the branches of bushes that have only one bud. She can't explain to me how you get points.


December 16

Thermeon and I are doing a show together. Someone kills our backstage person, then Thermeon disappears. I feel the sting of a chemical attack on the back on my neck and flee on all fours through many rooms, a husky man in pursuit.

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I work on Chapter Sixteen.


December 15

I get all my stuff packed in my little car and I'm ready to leave the ranch, but my mother wants to line up all the American cars before we go. The caterpillars we ordered hatch in the corner of the hallway.


December 14

I meet Asimov in the home of a couple who live above Forty-third Street in Manhattan. You can see the circle in the hole that opens in their floor before the street cleaners come.

I really enjoy being wafted out through the doors of the building and right into my limo.

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Finish Chapter Fifteen.


December 13

I move into the bottom end apartment in a building with lots of college students.

The system announces that it has deleted its voice recognition program because it didn't recognize voices, and advises everyone to check their computers.

An Irish-accented AI asks nosy questions of everyone.


December 12

Clues to houses of mystery are keys.


December 11

The story of inmates of a mental institution overcoming their problems and leaving one by one. One of the girls puts soaked ashes on things as the sign of her overcoming. One of the boys needs to collect five weird things. When ready to leave, they descend by robes from the hospital which floats high in the air. In the end, the former patients visit each other once a year as they all live out in the world. We see them getting older, achieving small but important victories in their lives.


December 10

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Worked a bit one Chapter Fifteen.


December 9

My Danish bill comes to seventy-five hundred because I pushed the button and caused damage that could only be rectified by use of a blow torch.


December 8

Story of freedom fighter Litton, who was a minor character in Tad Williams' other novel.

He is rescued from the ruler's airship by a motely crew in a private flying car. The crew includes the swimming Link from Majora's Mask.

Litton's next move will be at a temple as the full moon rises. You have to watch out for Amano Abbots, because you get addicted to looking at their eyes and nose.


December 7

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Pif helps me wrap Christmas presents.


Pif helps

December 6

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I hear an owl hooting from the woods.


December 5

The Dinosaur Riders of Koom.

When a little girl is a great success with computers, the riders are summoned. She feels the ground shaking and hears the vbooming as she is led to the meeting place, but doesn't know what it signifies.

At the end of the walk she climbs the railing onto the tyrannosaur's back. There are rooms inside the beast for facing one's fears.


December 4

A man, his wife, and a young woman are traveling through space. The wife is always riding her horse around. The man plans her death so that he can marry the young woman. You see him decompress the chamber where the wife is riding her horse. Woman and horse fly around as the air goes out. Somehow their bodies are joined, and a centaur is created.


December 2

Planetary civil war. Factions One and Two attack those who look to me as allies.

A promontory curves against the sea. On the last spot there, an old man and a girl are playing ball.


December 1

A great champion ascends the cliff to the mirror of the gods, carrying his people's petition.

My companion and I urge a woman who, unlike us, is not the target of evil forces to get out of our car and go somewhere safe. She sets out in her car with her stuff on the roof rack. First the car goes off the road, then it slides under a fallen log which scrapes off all the stuff on the roof, then it rolls over and slides some more, and finally it lands in the ocean. My companion says he will call on our dolphin friends to help her.

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Very windy day.