Don't blog much these days. It's just too easy to sling a quick update on Twitter/Plurk/Facebook. Sometimes I can't sum info up in the maximum allowed characters, so the ol' blog still serves a purpose! Last night I had the most lucid dream(s) I've ever had. Trying to get "home" from somewhere. Old friend JW and I started at the same time, but I decided to go by lighter-than-air craft a.k.a. balloon. I created one out of thin air: big red bulgy bubble with convenient handle on the bottom. I grasped it like Mary Poppins holding her brolly, and floated into the air.
I could see my friend running down the country road we'd both been following. It was about to merge into a nasty highway, so he veered off onto a track through the woods. By this time he looked like Mowgli from "The Jungle Book": floppy hair and a loincloth. I floated up and in the same direction he had taken. It was like a race: could I drift as fast as he could run? The "rocky mountain with the spiraling road to the top"* loomed up, and I quickly floated to the stone structure at the top and landed just before my friend came puffing around the bend.
"Wouldn't you rather float home with me, instead of running all the way?" I asked him? He was dubious, but I assured him that this was all a dream, and we could do anything we wanted. He didn't trust the lifting power of the balloon, which was only about the size of a VW bug. So I grabbed the handle and threw myself off the precipice. He flinched, but laughed when I simply floated out over the chasm then floated back to the mountaintop.
I began modifying the balloon for a long trip and two passengers. Out of thin air I created a gondola with a complex suspension system to hang it from the balloon. At first the ropes were flimsy cotton twine, but I was able to take them in my hands and "fatten" them into 1/2" three-strand rope. It was very satisfying. I enlarged the balloon itself, and added some stabilizing fins so we wouldn't spin. We climbed in and took off.
After cruising for awhile, the sky began to darken. I saw we were headed for an enormous thunderhead! All I could think of was to drop under it, since I couldn't really steer around it. So down we went. There was a bit more, but not particularly interesting.
* This mountain is one of the bits of geography I routinely dream about. It's roughly equivalent to McKenzie Pass in Oregon.
