June 2002Dreamlog |
KEY: The top entry for each day is dream. Below ----- is real life. | |
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June 30 |
Reading science fiction from the time of the American Revolutionary War. Great flying dragons are considered to be enemies of democracy because of their size.
Telling Charlie that I think his story in F&SF inspired this dream. I'm getting married and my cousin Linda wants to sing at the wedding this time. She says, "I'll train those drapes and ponies." |
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June 29 |
Someone teaches Jingles to shoot a water pistol.
----- In the morning as I was sitting in the livingroom painting some dinobanks for Debbie to pick up on her way in to the store Deborah called me upstairs because a deer was under her window trying to get acquainted with Slayzer. |
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June 28 |
One of the characters in the movie has a gigantic head. It's supposed to be comical, but I find it repulsive.
Two men fight for possession of a bridge, and the challenger wins. Thirty years later the loser (me) returns to the bridge with his wife. From the distance he hears the new bridge-owner vaunting his mastery, and also calling out, "Toooollll! Tooollll!" to let everyone know that he collects a toll for crossing. When I reach the bridge I let my wife go ahead so that I won't upset her balance by stepping on the shifting planks at the same time as her. When she reaches the toll-collector she pulls off her jeans, shouting, "Don't tell me that you're not more of a man than him!" She doesn't realize that I've caught up with her and hear everything. I realize that it's time to dump her. |
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June 27 |
They accuse me of not really enjoying the slides but only going down them to impress people. I protest.
------ Thunderstorms after a hot day. After waiting for the storm to pass I took a walk to the local store to get some food for my cats. Another storm hit as I walked, and I was soaked to the skin. I noticed a firetruck up ahead; it was blocking off the street where a tree had fallen and taken down a line. Another firetruck blocked the street from the other side. By the time I got home the rain had stopped again and it was pleasant |
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June 26 |
Waking up to find the tide has come in, and my sleeping place is flooded. Evem my pillows, which I always put higher, will be soggy. The suitcase with my clothes is completely underwater.
After driving through the city gates in a vehicle with unreliable brakes, I meet professor Cray for whom I was supposed to write down the wave equation. She is teaching a class in Japanese. I keep falling off the top of the bunk bed and interfering with the play. In the end I get into a four-footed race with a girl on the top of the bed. To my surprise she goes on hands and knees. |
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June 25 |
Ben and I are watching a movie where the evil government guys are shooting a lion and tiger who are friends with the protagonist. We see the bullets come whistling through the air one by one and striking the animals. It's pretty gruesome.
Ben goes and sits beside the wounded animals. The tiger stirs a bit, then gets up and wanders away, but the lion cries for him, so he comes back. I go to another scene, but I hear the booming when the government returns to finish off the lion and tiger. The protagonist accuses them of being so cowardly they dare not even remove the skeletons they have rendered. Flashback to the beginning of the movie where the protagonist walks out of his stone-walled estate in Scotland with a hawk on his shoulder and a sheep's mask before his face. Our cosmic project: what molecule will fit the equation--chlorine, perhaps? |
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June 24 |
People keep giving me nice pieces of sandstone to put in my fishtank. I have collected a few of them, more than I really need. The tank is very big and nice, but some of the fish don't look well.
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June 23 |
------- At about 2 AM Louise saw a raccoon walk down our street. I saw a hawk on my walk to the local store for bread and milk. Louise had to go into the city to meet her aestetics class at the Met. I drove her to the train station, and saw her later that night on campus when I drove Ben back. She'd gotten to the Met late and had a hard time tracking down her class, although she found them eventually. Ben and I discussed a cosmological summer project.
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June 22 |
The land of Litulty, beloved of the sun-god. I'm looking at a map of Litulty decorated by lush vegetation dripping with violet blossoms, the breeze freshened by mist blowing from the fountain of youth. I recognize the shape of the landmass--it's Florida. Reading on, I see that Litulty consists of three states; what lies beyond is unknown, unexplored. Most of the continent of North America lies beyond a veil of ignorance.
Is this because of the sun-god's blessing, I wonder? Are people so happy in their paradise that they have no need to look beyond? |
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June 21 |
A quest where an Israeli team and an Arab team compete. Arabs are the ones engraving the Israeli chest since they are the only ones who can pass through the stone archway to get to it, so they shouldn't complain.
A newsletter called "Radio Television" full of clever political commentary. China is represented as a cute little bear holding a four-leaf clover. ----- Pick up the kids. Louise and I discuss novel collaborations and D&D as we walk to Quikchek and back. Later that night she catches a glimpse of the mouse Slayzer brought in a few nights ago skittering across the kitchen floor in the reflection from the front door. Ben thinks it's made its base in a space between the dishwasher and the side of the cabinet.
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June 20 |
Watching a movie adaptation of the sf novel with the alien gold and silver shapeshifting ponies. The ponies go through escapades where they elude the humans by mimicking the sunet's colors on the cliff, etc. I think what wonderful, clever characters they are and wish I could invent characters like them.
Trying to catch up with my kids in a video game. The game involves the good king, who wears a circlet of entwined purple and white sweatbands over his helmet. He is chasing an Indian (native American) through a huge complex throughout most of the game. The first item I pick up is a pickle, but I soon have apples and apple chips and small piggies. I keep a careful listing of my items in my notebook. As I go through the complex I see another villain coming my way. I warn everyone to avoid him and try to run myself. But he catches up with me and whispers in my ear. I realize how hateful a whisper sounds. It's one of the things that most unnerves me. A picture of flying ducks with a graph overlaid. The notation reads: "Gravity ten thousand years ago. Gravity today." The levels are identitcal. |
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June 19 |
A scene reminding me of "Doom of Camelot."
I'm at a camp where everyone wants to go off to the special water tour, but I stay behind and do bowling with Lisa of Scrambles because it's cheaper. I find a patch of giant four-leaf clover, some kind of alien plant. |
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June 18 |
Longing for love smashes a creature's carapace, forming a big hole in the head area. From thence a horn grows, and the creature becomes a unicorn: "So beautiful... leader of the sky-sing."
I gather all of my stuff, including a pair of shoes balanced on the rest, and ring the bell to get off the bus. A chair blocks the path. For a while I stand before it in a daze, listening to the music. Then I realize the chair has been set up for the archbishop. Not wanting anyone to think I'm usurping his place, I start to slide my stuff around the chair. The archbishop comes along and asks me whether I'll give a talk on the gems in my rings. I enter the church to find out when my scheduled talk is supposed to be. After wandering around for a while on various levels, encountering various young people engaged in different projects, I encounter a priest. I ask him when I'm supposed to give my talk. "I'll be giving a presentation on Warsac's 'Soul-Gems,'" he tells me. "That would be the time." "What's that about?" I ask. "They say gems can steal souls." "That's very similar to my experience," I say. "You're familiar with the book?" he asks. "No I've never read it. But my own experience is similar." He gasps in surprise. "You know what's in the mind of a young boy?" As I leave the church I transform into a dragon and rear up into the air, roaring. The priest and everyone else in the church quakes with fear. As I fly off as Thermeon in dragon form, I cry out, "I don't want to be evil! I don't want to hurt people!" |
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June 17 |
Robot wars. As a robot, I recharge my gun by sticking it into an energy sphere that splits open. But I keep zapping the wrong robots. There are about three different kinds, but it's hard to figure out which are on my side.
------ I lay awake mentally listening to Katora's conversation with Thermeon about glowworms in the new Chapter Six of Starfall, and it drifted into other dreams...
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June 16 |
Telling how I used to leave the doors to my balacony open to let the wind blow through.
The bug from the swimming pool. An enormous, elegant white mechanical arm that folds in and out. When hooked up it pumps cash. |
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June 15 |
A very tall woman named Queteacha Warfa.
I act as medium in a séance, telling the heroes where to search: Langelinie where the mermaids swim and Avalee. |
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June 14 |
Horses milled about me, very friendly. They seemed to want to be ridden, so I pulled myself up onto the back of a white one and rode him barebarck, without bridle, just holding onto his mane. He went everywhere I wanted to go, even taking a small jump. I decided to call him "Starlight" since I didn't know his name.
----- In the middle of the night I imagined writing a book on child-rearing called "It's About Love." A rainy day. The kids came home and we lined our laptops up on the coffee table.
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June 13 |
Love notes to an engineer named Gary. A Danish march that my brother liked when he was a very little boy.
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June 12 |
Skiing.
Going to an old arcade where people hit calves on the head with sticks. ----- Elaine and I planned to meet at the boardwalk after work for a walk and then dinner. Thunderstorms threatened, but we decided to go ahead with the plan anyhow; if it was raining we'd go for dinner without the walk. It poured rain and thundered and lightning flashed as I drove from work. Elaine was waiting for me at the fountain. "It's raining, isn't it?" she said. "This is hardly anything compared to what it was," I said. Only a few drops were falling. "Maybe I have a hat," Elaine said. By the time she found her hat a rainbow came out over the ocean. We walked to the fading grumbles of thunder, the ocean mysterious and silken under a light mist. Afterwards we found a restaurant called "The Italian Grill" and had caesar salads. We talked about her fountain with its corkscrew plants and my bonniebug and wondered where life would find us one year from this date.
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June 11 |
Louise and I are in the pool for an early morning swim. We can see the bottom.
Suddenly the water level seems to have gone down. Louise is cleaning the bottom of the pool. "Where's the water?" I gasp. We look around, but the pool is completely dry. "It can't drain so quickly," I complain. "It must be hidden somewhere." We search for the switch to bring the water back. |
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June 10 |
Einstein is over for dinner. I'm not seated at the table with everyone else, but at a little table to the side. But I turn around and catch his eyes anyway. I ask him if he uses Java yet. He says no. Then the hostess tells me that she was planning to ask me about Java a little later.
Unbeknownst to the hostess and Einstein, I've already gotten together with his daughter Olga to improve one of his calculations with a java method. ------ I began to post the Davies journal as part of my Weblog archives.
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June 9 |
I was trying to get up to the 21st floor, but the elevator I chose didn't get that high, so I was going to have to get off and go to another elevator. This was troublesome because I had the bassinette and a lot of other stuff with me.
Finally I caught a flight for my space shuttle. I still had a lot of stuff, though not the bassinette. The shuttle was motionless overhead; not in stationary orbit, because it was still in the atmosphere, but just hovering. The craft I was on screwed into its docking nozzle like one of the hoses for the swimming pool. I had to get out and climb up metal ladder steps into the shuttle. My legs didn't want to move. "Legs, lift!" I ordered. ---- Then I awoke and found the blankets holding my legs down.
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June 8 |
Tales of Sherlock Holmes. In one episode his sidekick (not Dr. Watson) is nearly killed. Holmes removes the leaf-shaped badge from his torn body and places it over his own heart.
----- A beautiful day. I went out for a morning run in the park and saw all the geese parents herding their goslings about. The kittens and Louise and I lay around downstairs the rest of the day watching Ben play Grandia 2.
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June 7 |
Final, the Martian city, which sees Mars through the rise and fall of its civilization as the planet's orbit changes. Corey, no Ben, keeps calling, "Where is Jane?" She must be his girlfriend. I'm waiting for my boyfriend to come along. Finally he arrives with some friends. He has black cat fur and a gargoyle face. Messages I wrote on the wall of my room are exposed since the house has been taken apart and I live in a new house now. I want to check up on my agent, and I think the woman who wrote my book about Thebes may know until I realize how old that book is. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs and gods customarily told their stories in the first person. On a field trip I'm the only one who volunteers which arch excursion I'd like to take. Through the arches we will encounter the dangers of Mars: aliens and wild humans. ----- Pick up the kids. Ben mows the lawn while I set up the pool filter. I expect the pool to fill once the water starts flowing, but it doesn't, so Louise fills it with the hose.
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June 6 |
Ben knocks over a rack of glassware and a tall glass with dinosaurs gets smashed. Someone says that it can't be replaced. Then I recall that the dinosaurs are illustrations from a sf series, and I'll easily find another copy at any used bookstore.
------ Today is Kokiro's birthday. When I opened the back door to let Jingles out at about 5 AM I saw the skunk sniffing the clover. It looked just like a fat black cat with two patches of white on the top of its head. Jingles ignored it. After a while the skunk gallumped off toward the woods. |
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June 5 |
A little girl (155 lbs.) gets the attention of the police needed to stop criminal activity by knocking over portajohns. What else could a little slip of a girl do?
I'm driving a truck. It doesn't stop really quick when I step on the brakes and I have a hard time maneuvering around obstacles. A bus bringing writers to the convention misjudges the turn onto a bridge and tips over. A little car behind it doesn't stop in time and flips over into a ditch. I'm watching from the blue house on the hill where I live with my mother. Telling Mom to call the police, I go down to check on the people in the car. It turns out they're okay, all four of them. ------ After work I visited Mary and we had dinner together--Icelandic fishcakes. We talked about selling her dolls through Bonniebug. Then I helped her set up her website for the Hiddenfolk. |
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June 4 |
Playing a game with many mysterious and beautiful boards. I roam them myself.
A little girl dressed in a dragon suit dives into the pool and swims. The dragon-flukes help her stroke strongly. I find my baskets filled with trash and decide to put them away. But the storage area is a long ways off. When Louise and I arrive there we find trains coming and going, overhead lights going on to warn of their approach. Suddenly I don't know which way to go to get back to the river, but I take the first available ride, and it drops me off in just the right place. |
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June 3 |
I'm going to visit someone in prison, but when I get there I'm not sure exactly who he is. Nevertheless I give a name, and the warden looks on her list, but her answer seems ambiguous, and I'm not sure whether the person I after for really exists.
I enter an office asking after a "Salamano" screenplay I submitted. A young man recognizes the work and hands it to me. It's graded "B." "We can't accept it because it lacks external action," he says. ----- I went to work despite feeling lousy. But without Donna, there's no one else to do the art work. I treated myself to a couple hours working on Katora's intro chapter before going to bed. |
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June 2 |
A giant equestrian statue of Horl with one of the horse's hooves off the ground
----- I came down with something yesterday and did nothing but lie around the house today underneath the cats watching the kids play videogames.
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June 1 |
Kokiro and a plump, middle-aged black woman sit side by side coloring shapes on a photocopied sheet. Kokiro fills in his star carefully, but the woman covers hers completely with a big green square. She laughs at his concern. Kokiro grows bolder, smudging some of his colors with wet fingers to create rainbow effects.
Descending the stairs into a grand but dark and empty hall, I see my reflection and realize that my hair has turned completely white, like Thermeon's. I try to fly up around the ceiling, but I can't really lift off. The abilitry will come in time, I think. Ascending again, I pass into the hallway of my grandfather's house, Groverton, which I know so very well. ----- Today is the anniversary of our moving out of Bruce's house into our new home at the edge of the woods. Deborah, Ben, Louise, and I will celebrate with a cake and some treats.
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