Houa's VW, April's wine and chicken dinner and my roadside demise

I dreamed I had Houa at my house last night, and once again, he was being an annoyance to me. This time he'd partially disassembled a wrecked VW Bug, and he wanted me to help him put it back in order. I mightn't have minded so much, had he not insisted on starting the project in the middle of my kitchen.

I began by examining the radiator and then rinsing it out in the sink. (Yes, I know Volkswagens typically don't have radiators, at least not the older ones). I filled it up with water and set it on the counter for a moment while I started the car. After a minute, I realized that I oughtn't have started the car prior to installing the radiator, so I hastily opened up an auxillary radiator cap which existed independent of the radiator and was teed into the main hose going to the engine block. 

The car burped and belched hot air from the non-radiator coolant port as the engine rapidly got up to temperature. I quickly shut it off and emptied out the radiator into the sink, refilling it from a jug of coolant from the pantry. I looked around for the place on the car to install it, but I had to stop, since there was some front end damage to contend with first. I put the radiator aside and went to talk to Houa about the extent of the damage.

----

At April's house, I was being treated to a "thank you" dinner. What I was being thanked for I can't recall, only that she was going all out: Chicken Marsala paired with a nice red wine. I sat down at the table and took a big fingerful of the sauce before she had a chance to serve me.

"Delicious," I declared, helping myself to a double serving.

"I was thinking," April said as she watched me single-handedly devour the meal, "Maybe you and I finish off this bottle, and..." She gave me a knowing kind of look, which I believe I interpreted correctly as a bit of a come on.

"I can't..." I said, hoarsely. "I'll tell you the real reason: It's because I'm married. I have a sick wife at home." I was firmly convinced that this was the case when I said it, although after a moment or two, it began to dawn on me that this was not so. I was a widower, and single after all.

A friend of hers began singing Elvis Costello's "Alison," and I mentioned that I knew that song on the guitar. The friend thought that this was wonderful and hurried off to her car to fetch a guitar while April cleaned up the table from the meal. I waited around for a while, but the friend never showed up with the guitar, and meanwhile, April had made other plans for the evening.

I thought to tell her that I was mistaken, I wasn't married, but it appeared that I had missed my chance. She'd found another date for the evening and had dolled herself up in a smart white dress with a lavender belt and a matching hat. She looked a vision. 

I couldn't identify her date, but I knew one person that it wasn't (besides me). Danny Sudduth came storming down the stairs and brushed past me angrily. He was dressed sloppily in jeans and a t-shirt, and his hair was a tousled mess. 

"Hey, Danny," I called after him. "It's been too long. We need to catch up." He grumbled something at me and kept going, not looking back. 

----

I woke up soon afterward, realizing that it was Tuesday, February 7, and that I had a dental appointment at 9 o'clock in Rocklin. Sometime between the realization of the dentist appointment and the time my alarm clock was set to go off, however, I managed to slip in one last dream segment.

It was an overcast day, and I was driving down Loma Rica Road in a black Honda Civic coupe. I pulled over to the side to let some cars pass and found the front end sliding rapidly into a culvert filled with rainwater. I tried the e-brake, and then reverse, but the car continued to creep forward into a swampy marsh that turned out to be deceptively deep.

Before I had a chance to contemplate the gravity of the situation, I saw muddy water start to cover the front windshield as the car sank deeper into the muck. Within a minute the car was 90% submerged, and I found myself trapped in the back seat with all the windows and doors stuck shut and only a tiny air pocket left to breathe. 

I had time to think, "Is this it? Is this how it ends?" but that was about it. I soon woke up for real, and I made my way--very cautiously--to the dentist appointment.