Last night I had pizza, and I knocked off a few beers too. It was a long day at work, as that I had to be there at 5:30 AM to attend a meeting via telecon that was being chaired on the east coast. I hadn't felt like cooking, so the fare last night was a Safeway pizza with two Coors Lights to follow.....or maybe it was three.
I also wasn't able to fall asleep last night when I should have, as that I had to repeat this 5:30 AM thing again today. I set the alarm for 3:45 AM after which I entered the realm of the subconcious.
The subconcious is one of those entities that is probably among the least understood. A co-worker of mine once referred to it as "The Garbage Can of the Mind". In the subconcious, practically anything goes. Whatever it is you can't do in real life is something that you can do in the subconcious. You can float in the air, you can visit other countries, you can meet famous people, you can walk around naked in the grocery store and not be arrested, and you can also live out some encounters that can't really be described here. Garbage Can of the Mind? That sure seems to fit.
Last night's adventure, or I should say, this morning's adventure took place in Lordsburg, New Mexico. In this dream I had somehow picked up my Remington model 870 shotgun from some lady who was storing it for me. During the course of the dream, I was a passenger in a car with the shotgun, and the driver took us to Lordsburg. One of the passengers then grabbed the shotgun and bolted out of the car. He started threatening people with it, and it was apparent that I wasn't going to be able to talk him into giving me back the gun.
In real life, and in the dream, the Remington only had a capacity of three shells. It's a hunting gun, and thus has a "plug" in the magazine to limit the capacity. (This is due to a federal law that regulates duck hunting, which is what I bought the shotgun for when I lived in California). In the dream, this madman was threatening people, and he pulled the trigger. That was one round gone, and two more to go. Two more rounds, but he still had to be stopped.
I took cover, hiding in a room in an old abandoned gas station. I had my cellphone with me, and so I dialed 911. I really needed to stop this guy and I needed to stop him fast. I was going to get help and get this taken care of before he killed someone.
I didn't get an answer when I dialed 911. I instead got that aggravating "menu tree" that you get in real life when you are trying to call someone. I then pressed "0" to get the operator, and I instead got a canned message that said "you have made an incorrect entry. Please listen to all of the menu options before making a selection." And then it was back to if your call is for this type of situation, press 1, for that type of situation, press 2, our resources are very limited so please do not pick the wrong selection, and for this press 3, for that press 4....and on and on and on. The madman is talking loudly and waving a shotgun, and I've got to put up with a menu tree!
The saga ended when the alarm clock went off. It was one instance where I was glad to be rousted from a dream.
So why Lordsburg?
Good question. I go to Lordsburg occasionally to get fireworks, which are not legal in Arizona. I know that I was thinking that I need to do another trip there, and to get this done sometime before the holidaze. I can't remember if I was thinking about needing to go there yesterday, but I do know that I felt the need to get there.
Why the shotgun? The last time I had my Remington out was when Todd and I were looking for rabbits over in Graham County, and that was at least two years ago (we didn't see any rabbits either). There's a possibility that we might go out for quail sometime, but I think the next time out will be for whitetail deer in the Whetstone Mountains.
What's really funny about this dream is that it closely paralleled one that I had in high school. I was living in San Jose when I had this dream, and in this dream my friends and I had discovered this counterfeiter. The counterfeiter was somehow onto us and was wanting to kill us. I found a payphone in the parking lot of this shopping center near where I lived, and I dialed the operator to summon some help. Instead of the operator answering, I got a recorded announcement saying that "the operator will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please listen to the following commercial." I was forced to listen to that commercial, after which "the operator will be with you shortly", after which they played another commercial.....and then another commercial....and then another! I was really glad to wake up from that one too.
I have several other dreams that I could tell you about.....some of them funny, and some of them just plain weird. Those will have to wait for another entry, as that I'm very tired, and I expect that I will be needing to return to the Garbage Can of the Mind shortly after this posting.
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Portland was a blast! I got to meet Dave Moser again on this trip, where I learned that he also worked in aerospace engineering. He worked on the Apollo Project, while I worked on MILSTAR, BSTS, Ikonos, Superbird and Globalstar (satellite projects).
Ken and his family are doing very well. I'm thinking of going up there twice next year. I'd really like to do some fishing there, but my godson isn't interested in fishing.
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We're having budget problems at work (this is a rare moment, me talking about work). Our systems team will shrink from four people down to two. I'm one of the two who gets to stay, though I could have volunteered for the assignment that was offered to the two who are leaving.
Eventually I'll have four circuit cards to be responsible for. I was a year ago responsible for all four but we hired a few folks who took some load off of me. Now that we're rolling them off, I'm taking them all back.
I'll be busy, but it's better than not being busy.
* * * * * * *
One of my cats right now is demanding my attention. So I'll now be following the advice that I so much love to give.
He's a good guy, so he'll get his pets.
I'm sure the other one will want his too.
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