Clyde Machine

10.23.2011
Coming from an earlier dream, I am with a couple very young friends, running through a muddy pond-sized puddle. I avoid some deep spots to make sure I don’t wind up drowning myself, since I can’t swim, and run through shallow waters with the group to join a group of unfamiliar older adults on a lawn on the other side. I suspect they are of some relation to me, but I don’t actually know any of them.

Lead by a tall man among them, they are reciting some long historic quote which I recognize but haven’t memorized. When they’ve finished I walk around a bit and overhear someone asking another how to install Linux on their computer – they ask, “do you have to use a CD?” I can answer their question, but I feel like I need to drive somewhere. After thinking about it a moment, I choose not to interject into his conversation, and hop in a silver mini-SUV and drive off the lawn, down a driveway that has appeared where the pond was earlier.

I stop at the road (also replacing the aforementioned pond), still able to hear the would-be Linuxer’s questions. I think about driving off like I’d planned to, then I throw the car in reverse, hop out, and push the car by its hood backward to the group of people, intent on helping out. (Somehow I’m able to drive the car without operating the steering wheel, but I think nothing of it.)

When I arrive back at the group, I push the car away and find that they’ve all gone silent. One elderly man, an ex-sailor possibly a veteran of military service, stands from his lawn chair and approaches me, and begins reading a script. It reads like a funeral speech, or something you’d hear on Memorial Day. The man’s son was killed/died early in his young life, and the group gathered every year to remember him. However, the man began directing the speech at me, going off the script to tell everyone that I am dishonouring his memory, “standing there looking all cool, wearing the shoes he could have worn.”

His words were painful for both of us, but the sadness and guilt I was feeling was quickly replaced with anger. I became thoroughly pissed and pulled off my sunglasses, disgusted that he was publicly blaming me for his son’s death. He continued to rant, both of us standing there face-to-face with no more than three feet between us, and I could feel the situation about to escalate. He pulled out an oversized handgun, loading it with a single shotgun shell. Someone came up from behind me and tried to talk him down, as did I, but to no avail. I tried to get closer to him with a kind of diagonal sidestep in the hopes of disarming him, while making it difficult for him to aim at me, but I wound up twirling as I moved. Obviously, I start to freak out because I’m moving much more slowly than I’d intended to, and am expecting to feel a bullet break my skin. However, the ex-sailor appears to have turned into a short dark-skinned boy and is having trouble figuring out how to operate the gun. Since I can’t run, I twirl a couple more times, and someone manages to stop him – I don’t see how exactly.

I find myself on the road in the silver mini-SUV, and I’m barreling down the road. I am on the phone with the boy that saved my life, and I excitedly laugh that the scene I’d just witnessed reminded me of the movie Donnie Darko. I ask the boy on the phone if he’s seen Donnie Darko, and explain the comparison: if I hadn’t started down the driveway in the SUV, then returned to try answering the Linux guy’s question, I might not have survived – it made sense in the dream. He agrees with a laugh, and the dream ends.


Earlier dream fragments:
I am with Chelsea listening to an old woman talking. She is switching between French and English, with a heavy Mexican accent to all her words. I interpret the French words for Chelsea where I recognize them.

I’m on a train which is driving on the freeway, high above a big city, and the door next to me is open to allow me a clear line of sight to the people driving cars next to us. One person is driving what appears to be a blue-coloured variation of the Dalek suit from Doctor Who, and I call it a TARDIS (without realizing my mistake). I’m incredibly entertained by seeing this as a functioning vehicle.

10.20.2011/Non-Lucid
I dreamed I was joining the US Air Force. I was in a room with a lot of strangers, almost like a kind of waiting room for a train station, about to leave for either training or some kind of active combat. I was wearing a green uniform and looking at my military ID card in my wallet when I realized I didn't want to do this - I was doing it to impress a girl, I think. I started to reverse my dream, watching earlier sequences go in reverse like a movie being played backwards. I wasn't aware it was a dream, I just knew I could undo my life at that point. I stopped just before applying for the Air Force, and I don't remember doing anything besides before the dream ended.

10.17.2011
I am in an unfamiliar house with many other people. It's clearly some kind of social gathering for older adults, with whom I somehow blend in. While mingling I come across the host, a black man in a white robe who looks like Morgan Freeman, but younger. He is addressing the whole room and although I don't hear all his words, I realize he's about to go around the room asking what everyone's spiritual beliefs are, and it becomes apparent that it is a move to single me out as the only non-believer in the room.

Of course, he goes straight to me and places his hands on my shoulder, smiling wordlessly, expecting me to profess my beliefs. I tell him uncomfortably that I'm atheist, which leads the whole room to let out an awkward laugh. The host turns to the crowd gathered around us and mentions that I am in need of saving and that I need to accept their God, clearly assuming I'd simply not been exposed to it. I correct him in his assumption and say, "I was born Catholic, raised Christian, and chose to be an agnostic atheist." This was more disturbing to them, which produced an even more awkward laugh. I laugh myself, feeling less uncomfortable than before, and am left alone.

10.13.2011
NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I find myself in a bar almost identical to the college commons. I overhear two guys talking about how they'd like to get dates for the night. They're clearly nervous at the thought of talking to a woman, and I tactfully let them know as I pass by: "Sorry to tell you guys this but you're beta as fuck!"

I give them a little peptalk and offer to show them how it's done. There's a lady in a blue and white dress standing somewhere nearby. I call out to the bartender to get a drink for her, and two for me. The bar suddenly appears populated, and the bartender (also a lady in a blue/white dress) brings me a tall glass, filling it in front of me. I thank her and join the others at the bar.

When I sit myself down I find Chelsea is seated next to me with a drink of vodka, and she appears to be enjoying it/my company. I am surprised to find that my own drink tastes really good, and I find myself successful in showing the others how a gentleman handles himself. Her wonderful smile stays with me as I wake up from the dream, and put me in a great mood to start the day with.


I don't know what it is with Chelsea and vodka, and she doesn't know either! XD BTW In case it wasn't clear, my dream-self didn't determine if the girl I'd bought the drink for was actually Chelsea, but it seems to make sense since she isn't a drinker and would be unlikely to have one in her hand had I not ordered it for her.

I also recall having a short lucid dream earlier in the morning, but it is of an embarrassing nature, so I'll simply say it happened and leave it at that. To protect the innocent, shall we say.

10.11.2011
NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm on a field trip with Chelsea. We're at some outdoor event, like a carnival but with shops. Chelsea is sitting at a table much like an outdoor cafeteria and says she would like some vodka fries. Yes, vodka fries. I disappear from the group to peruse the shops and after several weird reactions from shop owners, I found a shop selling a bag of vodka fries. When I brough it back to her, I wouldn't let her have any, prompting her to chase me around before getting any.

She didn't get any vodka fries before I woke up. =P