Saturday, April 6, 2013

Thursday, April 4, 2013

I am in a factory where cows are being dropped into large vats in which they are liquified. A man who is in his early forties explains to me that this is the real way in which fuel oil is produced (apparently it's not actually drilled out of the ground).

"And we can only use ultra-lean cows. The fat cows...we just have to destroy them. We cannot convert them into oil."

Peering down inside one of the vats, I see various cows in various stages of liquefaction.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

March 27th, 2013

I sneak into the basement of a mansion. It's a modern structure with lots of straight angles. The basement is large. At one end is a bathhouse--I head there, towel and a change of clothes in hand. As I step inside the bathhouse I notice that the walls are covered with large cedar shingles--the type you would normally find on the exterior of a home. I turn on the water and begin showering. There is white calcification forming on one single; I figure I'll bleach it out later.

As I shower, I grow nervous that the owner of the mansion will catch me here, so I cut the shower short, dry off, and get dressed. As I'm leaving, Dustin Hoffman arrives--it's his home. He's not at all angry and we chat for awhile.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I'm in a field of tall, dead grass. There is an oddly shaped lake nearby and a few, leafless trees grow in various spots around the field. A cow is in the field and I hear a voice tell me, "You must save the cow." In fact, I have the strong feeling that in order to save all humankind, I must save this cow. It's not grazing and the first thing I do is encourage it to eat some of the dead grass. Then I realize it's dehydrated, so I lead it to the lake, where it drinks. The cow suddenly turns into a tall, Mr. Stay Puft marshmallow man (the thing from the Ghostbusters movie), except that instead of being made of marshmallow, it is made of meat--raw, red slabs of meat. The meat giant seems friendly and walks slowly into the water. It dives under the water and swims around like a manatee. I see an alligator swimming toward the meat monster and I jump in to wrestle the alligator away.
Thursday, March 21, 2013

I'm in my 18' Precision sailboat. My wife and two friends are with me. It's daytime and we're afloat on an inter-coastal waterway that has thick forests on either side. There are lots of other boaters out. One of my friends asks what our motor looks like and I point to a small, blue electric outboard that looks nothing like our motor. I turn to my wife and tell her, "I forgot the battery." I'm referring to the lithium-ion battery that powers our electric motor. Even so, I get the motor working and we begin zipping along through the waterway (we're not sailing, just motoring around). The water is milky like an eye with a cataract, but the edges are turquoise. The water level begins to drop rapidly. Large masses of mud seem to rise to the surface. I have to do some slick steering to avoid them--and I don't avoid all of them. We skim over one mud mat and I both hear and feel the keel scrape the bottom. I'm worried we'll break the prop on the motor, but it just skims the top of the mud and we continue on. I grow increasingly more worried for the safety of the boat--and its passengers--as the water level drops even more.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March 11th, 2013

My wife and I are walking on a street in a busy town (could be a suburban-looking part of a city). It's night time and we're strolling along under an overpass. I'm feeling joyous and eating an apple. My wife turns to face me and walks backwards as we continue on our way. She seems very playful. A police cruiser pulls along side us and crawls forward, matching our speed.

I think that the officer is displeased with my wife's carefree attitude, and that he is especially upset by the fact that she's walking backwards. I shrug.

We reach a large, Victorian house where my aunt lives. My wife remains outside for a moment while I go in. I grab a couple of cans of sparkling water and go back out to an empty front lawn. My wife is gone. I look around the hedges, up and down the street, but I see her nowhere in sight.

I'm suddenly panicked, thinking she has been taken by the officer who was following us. I begin shouting her name, each time increasing in volume until I am shrieking her name.

No response.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Friday, March 1, 2013

Pope Benedict, the news anchor reports, resigned because he had a lover. This, the anchor explains, is the reason he was such a huge proponent of priests being granted permission to marry.

The ex-Pope plans to marry in a private ceremony in Germany.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

February 22, 2013

Driving with a friend in a parking lot at a large strip mall.

The lot in front of the store we want to visit has only handicap parking: row after row of blue-lined spaces. I grow frustrated and am tempted to park in one, but decide against it thinking I'd get a ticket.

We park in the adjacent lot in front of Target. This lot is filled with rows of good for sale--reminds me of a flea market. Elderly folks are picking up linens, marveling at them.

---

Driving with the husband of a friend and his three small children. He sits in the front passenger seat, a small toddler on his lap, two children to his left (both a bit bigger than the one on his lap). He wears a white T-shirt. I've never met him before.

We drive over a bridge from Philly to NJ. As we approach the town where I live, we see two teens, on opposite sides of the street, pointing guns at each other. At first, this makes no sense to me and I continue driving, but suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of a gun fight. I become terrified as bullets whiz past the car, just missing us. The man next to me tells me to back up. I do and we simply drive down a parallel street.

I'm now in the back seat. No idea who is driving, but the man is still in the front passenger seat surrounded by his children. We discuss the gun fight. I lean way over the seat so I an look at him and his children with complete seriousness, "You will raise good children, and that is how we'll have hope for the future."