Very large supporting cast

Another employment dream. This was less about the actual job but more about acknowledging my place in the very large supporting cast of characters who have aided in my employment journey. There was a board meeting going on, I believe everyone I'd ever worked for or with was there. I wasn't guest of honor or anything. They seemed to be discussing other matters. I was walking around the periphery, kind of waiter-like, perhaps. 

I gleaned bits and pieces of conversations, but I don't remember them. My name was mentioned in passing, but I wasn't called upon to perform any actual duties or give a speech, so I kept a low profile. I said hi to the people I recognized, which turned out to be just about everyone. 

I had to get back to some other place and didn't want to get into the spotlight of the meeting, so I went into a small drafting room that some more ex-coworkers were using to run a small electrical engineering business. 

Some ex-coworkers had arranged a couple of gifts for me which they gave to me in the break room. One was a comprehensive reference guide with numbered pictures and an appendix which listed the names of all the electronic components and circuits in the world.  I believe it was from Michelle Hankins, the boss lady's daughter at Honda. 

I thanked her and was going to start opening another present but got called away. The gift would have to wait. I still had Corn Woman, Jeanne Nelson's present to open.

Kay Doering, the ex-Hondo Die Supply embezzler receptionist was there. She had a state of the art desk and computer monitor. I teased her about the amount of hacking she could get done with this new setup. 

She laughed and showed me a few things on her specialized keyboard, which was programmed like a McDonald's cash register, with dedicated buttons for ordering special electronic components. 

It looked like a combination ex-ray/microfiche viewing machine. When you pressed a key a large image came up on the monitor with choices of many different items which would be identified by sight rather than description. 

The screen as well as the desk were touch screens. Anything you touched would be singled out, zoomed in on, rotated and a description would be available, if needed. I got the impression that Kay didn't know the first thing about the names of what she was ordering but just using the little pictures and doing quite a fine job of it that way. 

Ken Vigen was also there, also from Hondo Die Supply, as was my father. Ken was the engineer and was not so good with finances. He was working on improving that and had enlisted the help of a tax guy who was showing him all kinds of ways of committing legitimate fraud. I was apparently going to benefit from this, and he slipped a check for $2000 in my pocket. 

"This is a loan," he said, but winked at me as if to say I wouldn't be paying it back. I didn't have plans for the money, so I figured I'd use it somewhere within the business to cover expenses. 

My dad met me in the tool shed just as I was about to set out to meet a client. I was gathering up the items I thought I'd need: a protractor, a couple of drafting templates and a micrometer. My dad made special mention that this was the family micrometer and to take good care of it, like he was trying to have a father and son moment with me. 

I noted that he was sniffling, but it was because he was coming down with something, not out of sentimentality. He assured me that it was not COVID, but I wasn't super concerned. No one in my dream was wearing masks, this new reality hadn't quite penetrated that far. I told him to get some rest, I had the rest of the business deal covered.