Batch

11-14-2012 -- Early parts gone, but I am in an area that is half a small area of streets backing a lake in Florida, and half somewhere on the Fullerton College campus in California. I'm not sure why I am here, but I am at Don Dunn's shop, so it probably has something to do with car repairs. At the back of the property, where it borders on the lake, there is a spider web across the path, with a small red spider in the middle of the web. As I watch it, the spider is growing slightly larger, and is turning into what almost looks like a vaguely sponge ball-ish blob, about an inch across.

Moment by moment, there seem to be more and more of these things, some connected together, almost like centipede segments or something. Somehow they are important, but not terribly dangerous, and they help to keep the path clear, though clear of what, I really don't have a clue. There are some kids who live in a hillbilly-like house back in the mud around the lake that are running through the area.

I seem to be standing here with Bonnie M. at Don Dunn's place, wait for somebody who I am almost sure is Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to bring me something, though at first I am not sure what it is. [Problem is, I have never seen BtVS, so I don't know the character, which makes this very strange.] Whatever I am waiting for, it has already been paid for, in fact it was paid for perhaps a year or two ago, and Xander is very late in providing it.

I'm pretty sure it is supposed to be a state-of-the-art computer which Xander was supposed to be able to get for me really cheap. Anyway, as we're waiting for Xander to hopefully show up, Bonnie decides to give me a worn, slightly bent metal side-panel from a computer, and since it isn't in the best of shape, I'm hoping it isn't supposed to be a part of my new state-of-the-art machine. It isn't, just an extra piece of metal she has found that she thinks I may want.

No idea how or why, but I seem to own an old, beat up truck which is a cross between a box truck and a trash truck. I don't see any use for the side panel except as a bit of scrap metal, so I climb up the side of the truck to toss it in the back. As I go to do some, a worker looks out and asks me "What's up?" Worker? I didn't know I had any workers with the truck .... I don't have anything for him to do, and no money to pay him with, so I tell him he can take the rest of the week off because we have nothing scheduled.

But I find myself thinking that maybe I should start up a salvage yard like Jupiter's Uncle Titus (Three Investigators). I wonder if I might be able to make a living as a junk dealer. I suddenly find myself looking at some old statues and thinking of how I might pack them in the truck to be able to move them safely, figuring in wrapping them in blankets and things to help protect them from damage in moving. It seems to be almost a sort of test.

By this time, the area has turned to Hazelnut in Buena Park, and Bonnie M is trying to call Xander on her cell phone, but is interrupted when a sort of mobile home trailer pulls up to Sean S.'s house. Sean has an aunt or something that is a friend of Bonnie's, and she has just shown up and is unloading something off her trailer. She seems to be handing me bits of foam packing material or something, and I assume she needs help and am neatly stacking the material for her, until she asks me what I think I'm doing. I have no clue, and she doesn't tell me anything, but she doesn't seem to need my help.

About this time, Xander finally shows up and starts unpacking a lot of very large boxes. It seems he finally has my computer, but there are hints that not everything is right. He may need more money, or may not have all the parts because some things were not available. The large replacement hard drive may not be as large as it is supposed to be. And the 20" monitor which was supposed to be top-of-the-line when I ordered it is now more toward the lower end. But it is still a very good Mac system built on the Power PC line at about 367 MHz, which in my dreams is still quite good. (In real life I no longer know what would be a good Mac processor.) I am thinking this system will help me to reacquaint myself with desktop publishing software on the Mac, giving me a better chance at graphic artist job interviews since I still need to find work.

As we're unpacking stuff, Don Dunn comes across what almost seems like large stacks of advertising pogs or perhaps coasters. Small, thin paper-ish discs with pictures and system details printed on them. In some was I'm not really clear on, I'm shooting them out of a sort of air cannon, trying to fire them into a pile out of the way. But the air cannon is far more powerful than I realize, and I end up shooting them several houses down the block. I try to go gathering them all up again, but find all those that have landed on the grass have absorbed the dew, and are too wet to be worth collecting.