Bad Dream 207 - A Special Flute

In my dream, I am holding a special flute.  It's made from wood, much like my collection of Bansuris, but there the comparison stops.

It's a fairly large diameter flute, but not excessively so.  And it's roughly 24 inches long.  It seems to have been carved out of a larger piece, unlike the bamboo of the Bansuris.  

And it has a great many holes up and down the length of the flute.  Obviously, a single person hasn't got enough fingers to cover all the holes, but it's clearly meant to be played by a single person.  One of the holes near the middle is shaped like a whistle that a policeman or football referee would have.  And on further examination, I can see that it can be played from either end.

I'm with someone, who is most likely my sister, and she and I are both rather taken with the flute and trying to figure out how to play it. 

Clearly, whomever made this flute had something very special in mind, and I wish that person were nearby to show me how it is played.  

It is a rather joyful time, being with my sister and having such a wonderful puzzle -- a musical puzzle -- to play with.

(It should be noted that I haven't touched any of my flutes in weeks, and every time I walk past them, I feel a moment of frustration and commitment to get back to playing soon.  But I haven't made it that far for far too long.)

Bad Dream 206 - What's With Dad and Richard?

My Dad was one of the most even-tempered persons I ever knew.  But in my dream, he is clearly agitated and mad at me.  And I can't imagine why.

I don't recall anything in my dream concerning the place where the dream takes place.  Probably indoors somewhere, but no idea where. 

I ask my Dad what the problem is -- and clearly he has difficulty expressing exactly what the problem is.  He kind of starts saying something, then stopping. He does this several times.  Then he finally blurts out "Your brother has something to say to you."  He then sweeps his right hand horizontally across his body and says "Swoosh."  He then looks at me as if that gesture and word combination should explain exactly what the problem is.  

Richard then says something that I don't recall, but he then makes the same gesture and says "Swoosh" just like Dad had done.  Now, both of them look at me expectantly -- as if what their problem is should now be perfectly clear.  And, of course, I have no idea what's going on.

Now, since Richard's efforts to explain have failed, Dad takes over again.  His attitude is now, "Well, if I have to explain this in specific words, here it comes."  He accuses me of splashing water on the Meeting House's kitchen floor and not cleaning up.  (Please note, my Dad wasn't a Quaker and had only visited the West Chester Meeting House once.)

I feel some relief now that the subject has been explained to me.  But I tell both Dad and Richard that I hadn't been in the Meeting House -- much less the kitchen therein -- in well over a year.  Dad hears this and gets an "Oh, yeah.  Like you expect us to believe that?"  And I assure him -- and Richard -- that it's true: I haven't set foot in the Meeting House for a very long time.

Dad seemingly still doesn't believe me, but he moves on to another point of attack (to prove that he's justified in being angry at me).  And that attack is that he is a strong supporter of Donald Trump.  And he and Richard start cheering.

 

Bad Dream 205 - Can I Help Martha?

In my dream, I've been talking to my sister Martha, whom I love dearly.  She is excited to be working on some new music duets (flutes, of course) with a friend, but is looking for a quiet place to practice.  A place that is conducive to the intense practicing that she and her friend want to do.  I get the feeling, but it's not stated precisely that way, that the two of them have a major performance planned -- or maybe an extremely important audition.  But in any case, she feels the two of them need to be at their best.

I am in the room where Martha is currently using for practice, but it's not clear whether she and/or her friend are in the room with me. I can see why Martha considers the space unusable, as the windows look out over a busy street, and the traffic noises are simply unavoidable and probably go into the late evening or early morning.  

For reasons that are not clear, I have control over another apartment-type space.  And that space is occupied at the moment by a guy in his 30's or so.  A bit grungy and not animated to do much of anything, it would seem.  I am now in the presence of that person, and standing just outside the room that, it would seem would be perfect for Martha's use.  

I explain to the guy that I will need him to move out, and he doesn't seem to mind a bit.  He sort of shrugs his shoulders and gives me the impression that he has other places where he can live.  So all that is okay.

The scene shifts a bit, and now the person that I'm talking to is a youngish woman who appears to be struggling somewhat to make ends meet.  (Her clothing, her overall appearance, her mildly haggard look.)  

She knows what it is that I am there to do -- that is, have her move out to allow my sister to move in.  She understands that I have the authority to make her leave if she decides to try and stay.  She smiles weakly, as if in resignation, but I can tell that forcing her to leave would create a major problem for her.  Losing her living space would create considerable hardship on a person who's already loaded with hardships.  

She looks at me as she smiles, almost in supplication as in "please don't do this to me."  But I've already promised the space to Martha and she's excited and preparing to move her practice stuff into the room.  

So I can disappoint someone for whom I care a great deal or create a major problem for someone I barely know.  But I have to choose one of the two.   

Bac Dream 204 - Looking for Mom with a Good Friend

In my dream, I am spending a considerable amount of time with a delightful young woman.  She and I are both in our 30's or thereabouts.  

She is very pretty and has a face that is almost always smiling.  She is about my height, slender, and looks athletic.  She moves quickly and easily in everything she does.  Oh, and she's African-American.

The two of us are at some kind of family gathering -- my family, not hers -- and there is some event or other whereby everyone will be leaving the two of us alone together for a considerable time.  I think overnight.  There is concern on the part of some family members that she and I will use the opportunity to have sex.  When this concern is expressed by a family member, she (my friend) and I look at each other and we know that we are thinking the same thing: We're very fond of each other and have a great deal of fun together, but having sex could endanger the relationship somehow -- and it's simply not worth the risk to our friendship. 

(Thinking about this later, I feel that this decision we made -- silently but together -- brought us closer than having sex could have possibly done.  I also realized that my affection for this lady was two-fold: I thought she was simply a marvelous person to be with for a whole variety of reasons; but also because I felt she understood and celebrated me at a very deep level.)

The scene shifts.

I am now trying to meet up with my Mother -- and my friend is tagging along.  Mom is attending some event entirely different from the one mentioned earlier.  My dream doesn't specify what the event is, but it feels like a Convention, or a Trade Show, or a new shopping venue just opening.  That is, lots of people milling about with too much noise and practically no order to what's going on.  And she (that is, my friend) seems to be amused and delighted at what's going on while giving me lots of space to try and find Mom.   

This event, whatever it is, is taking place in a large, multi-story building that feels like a retail (that is, small shops) space on a very large basis.  

My friend and I wander through and past the throngs and the mini stores that seem to be everywhere.  I am looking for some sort of Front Desk or Business Directory or Concierge, but to no avail.  

Finally, I see what looks very much like a Front Desk and elbow (lightly) my way over to the man standing behind the Desk.  I explain my situation to him and he tells me he can't help... terribly sorry.  My friend now approaches the Desk and asks -- most politely -- if he could provide a comb or brush for her hair.  I look at her hair and it looks perfectly normal and completely fine.  The guy behind the Desk assures her that the Facility is not prepared to offer such amenities.

My friend goes very quiet, approaches the Desk, and leans toward the guy.  She explains -- quietly and politely but with an aura of impending menace -- that comb or brush should be made to appear in short order.  (Reasons as to what the consequences would to not providing a comb or brush are not included in the dream sequence.)  

I am impressed in the manner in which she is handling this situation.  I didn't know she could do this -- but I think it's terrific.  

I think the comb/brush situation gets settled, but the dream doesn't go into detail.  

In my dream, I think that, if the guy can produce hair care products so easily and quickly that he should certainly be able to help me find my Mother.  He looks surprised when I ask him again for help, and he tells me that he had sent a message to my phone with the information I needed.  

I hear some device in my pocket start playing music -- like a cell phone might.  I pull the gadget out of my pocket and discover that it's not a cell phone at all.  I pull out another gadget from the same pocket and find it is (probably) a remote control for a TV.  I pull one or two more gadgets -- all roughly the same size -- out of my pocket and feel satisfied that one of them has the information I'm looking for.

At the end of my dream, I am staring at a handful of gadgets, but feel my search for Mom may be drawing to a conclusion.  

  

Bad Dream 203 -- Problems in a Discussion Group

In my dream, I am participating in a Discussion Group.  We're discussing something about human interactions -- what makes them work well and what impedes them and similar topics.  The conversation is both interesting and enlightening.  

There are maybe a dozen or twenty people taking part and sitting around the tables. 

The tables were we're sitting have been arranged in a rectangle -- longer on two sides than the other two -- with a large empty space in the middle.  Obviously, the tables might be repositioned for a typical classroom setup or a variety of other arrangements.  

There are two or three persons in the group -- all male -- who are obviously more involved with the topic than the rest of the participants. Their comments are directing the flow of the conversation -- and they often seem to be talking to one another rather than to the group in general, but everyone seems to be comfortable about that. 

There is a Monitor for the discussion -- someone who reminds me of Lathey -- who is overseeing the discussion, but adding little or nothing to the actual dialogue.  After several minutes of discussion, the Monitor calls for a break (so people can stretch their legs, visit the bathroom, etc.).  As part of her announcement, she mentions that I will be handling the Monitoring function when the group reconvenes.  I'm completely surprised and this, as I've taken very little active part in the discussions so far.  And it's not clear to me whether she will be returning to the group herself or whether she will be leaving us to carry on without her.  

After she's left and we've reconvened, there's a few moments of "What do we do now?"  Thinking that having been assigned to monitor the group, I should say a few words just to reconnect us to where the discussions had been going.  So I do that. 

But one or more of the aforementioned guys who had been leading and/or directing the conversation take umbrage at this.  I had said little or nothing before the group took a break, and now -- according to him or them -- I'm trying to take over the discussion.  To take the lead that they had been exercising before the break.  

I want to explain to him/them that I'm only trying to get the conversation started up again and tie it in to the pre-break discussion.  Far from trying to take over the group, I am only trying to re-establish the dynamics that were taking place before the break.  

Clearly the guy(s) is/are not accepting this and would appreciate it if I acknowledged my error, apologized, and shut up.   

Bad Dream 202 -- A Training Project Assignment

In my dream, I am working for a company that manufactures equipment for other manufacturing companies.  I am a bit younger and newer than my co-workers, but am accepted as fully competent and trustworthy.

Our company has recently sold a system to another manufacturer -- a system that they will use to produce their own products.  (This situation is quite similar to several major jobs I've had in my working career.)

I am walking through our plant with several co-workers, one of whom is explaining to me what my next assignment will be:  I am to visit our customer and help with the installation and start-up of the above mentioned system.  Specifically, our system uses our software that needs to be adjusted from time to time by the customer.  This is not an unusual situation, as the customer might be using our system to make small red widgets and later adjust the system to make large green widgets.   So the software needed to be changed to accommodate the switch.  

This project will probably take one or two weeks of my being on-site, and -- as mentioned above -- this extended away-from-home time was part and parcel of several jobs I held in real life.  The travel and away time was never a burden to me in my waking life and Deb was always supportive, which was a huge help.

So as we're walking through our plant, my co-worker is just filling me in on some details and making sure I was well prepared to get the job done as completely and quickly as possible.  He and I had visited this customer prior to the shipment of our system, so we knew the people we would be dealing with -- and we felt confident that they would learn our system fairly quickly and use it effectively.  

Late in our walk through our plant, we came across the company junkyard -- which contained bits and pieces of old equipment that was no longer usable and no one had gotten around to getting rid of.  My co-worker picked up several pieces one at a time and told a quick story as to what that piece was and why it either failed or simply was no longer needed or was made incorrectly.  The stories were interesting and compared nicely to the successful assignment on which I was about to embark.

It felt like a very good dream. 

Bad Dream 201 -- Paucity of Hardware

First a description of threaded metal fasteners.  There are well over a hundred different sizes and compositions of these things.  A good hardware store will have 3/4-inch panhead cad-plated metal screws with a thread measurement of 1/4 - 20.  And another bin of the same size in stainless steel and another bin of round headed screws of the same measurement of both materials.  Then another with hex heads. THEN another complete set set of bins of 1-inch metal screws, and another set of 2-inch screws and on and on.  And a really fine hardware store will have the almost identical set of fasteners with a thread size of 1.4 - 24.

Then there's a completely different set of bins for metric sizes.  And another set of bins for wood screws of various sizes, head shape, Phillips head or slotted head, etc. etc. etc.

Such a complete inventory normally takes up at least one complete aisle on both sides.  And for most projects, there is only one bin out of all of these that will have what you need...

In my dream, I am at one of my favorite hardware stores.  I've always liked it in large part because they always seem to have what I needed.  But when I started looking for a particular type screw for a project I was working on, I find that the store has reorganized their shelving -- and that instead of the double aisle of threaded fasteners I was expecting, there was only a single set of bins for sale -- taking up only a couple of feet of aisle space.  So the chances that I would find the screw I was looking for were practically zero.  

I understood that the rearranging had been done to increase profits.  If they could get away with only this single set of bins rather than the 8 or 10 sets of bins they used to have, it would open up a lot of floor space so they could display and sell more hand tools, work gloves, flower pots, grass seed and fertilizer and weed killer, etc. etc.  

I looked feverishly through a couple of the bins and confirmed that they didn't have anything that would work for my project.  I looked around in a few other spots in the store to see if they had anything else that I might want to purchase, but didn't find anything.  

So I understood their motive for making the change but I felt cheated that the store was now practically useless.  And that deprived me of the satisfaction of finding the hardware I needed.