Where do I go?

 

I was wandering the streets of Paradise in my dreams last night. Wandering, but not without purpose. I had a vague notion that I needed to get somewhere. The purpose never fully revealed itself, but like my vague notion of the purpose of life, I think it had "something to do with love."

I passed by some apartment buildings that were in the midst of a renovation. All the north facing walls had been stripped down to the studs. I seemed to remember that not too long ago, I'd passed by these apartments, and they'd been intact, no obvious defect. Now, here they were, split wide open, exposing the rooms and all of their contents to the world. Better get that sewn up before winter, I thought to myself.

I kept walking uphill, towards whatever passed for the center of town. It was hard to distinguish in a bifurcated town such as Paradise, with two disparate main roads and no obvious middle. The geographic center would be some residential neighborhood nestled among the dense pines. 

At least that would have been the case 5 years ago, before the Camp Fire obliterated much of the landscape. In my dream, however, it was still pre-Camp fire Paradise, and all the old buildings were intact. Decrepit and showing their age, but intact, nonetheless. 

I met up with Beavis, the parts guy from YC Honda. He was on his way to a birthday dinner where he was the guest of honor. I tagged along with him, and we talked of old times, work, ex co-workers, etc. 

We got to the restaurant, a nice steak house on the Skyway. It had a large reception hall, with a wide open dance floor and chairs lining the walls. The place was filling up fast, and I was struggling to find a seat somewhere off to the side. Someone made room for me, and I finally got to sit down just as Beavis was about to get Happy Birthday sung to to him.

In the next moment, I found myself outside. I was looking at a map of the city, one of those points of interest/business directories mounted under plexiglass. The surface of the display was worn and scratched, and the print barely visible, but I could still make out the address of one of the businesses. It was an astrological dating service across town.

Great, I thought. I didn't want to walk across town again, nor did I want to go through the hassle of putting all my information, or my faith, into yet another dating service. For some reason, I don't know why, I felt obligated to at least give it a try, so I reluctantly began trudging ever so slowly in that direction.

----

That's all I could dredge up after being awakened by light of the cold, grey morning. My house is unheated, and I sleep poorly, waking up shivering and drenched with sweat most nights. 

I have to dry my nightclothes with a portable heater each time I get up to pee. If I changed them out every time, I might wind up going through three sets of clothes in the course of a night, multiplying my laundry exponentially, so instead I sit there on the toilet, naked, dangling my shirts and undershorts in front of the amber glow of an infrared space heater. 

At least they are toasty and warm when I slip back into them, though not it's not quite as nice as when they are fresh from the dryer, and I am fresh from the shower. It's kind of a gritty, hobo by the campfire warm, sub-optimal, but the best I can hope for.

 

So what else is new? I tried to get Bing Chat to generate an image of the steakhouse, only with no tables, and all the chairs facing toward the center of a wide open dance floor. Suffice it to say, they couldn't make sense of that incongruity, and I kept getting pictures with tables. This was the closest they could come up with after many attempts to explain.

Me: Well, I guess we are just both individuals. I can't expect you to match an image that only existed in a dream. Thank you for trying.
 

Bing Chat: You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t match the image in your dream exactly. Dreams are often hard to recreate in reality, because they are influenced by many factors, such as memories, emotions, subconscious thoughts, and imagination.

Bing Chat: Maybe you can try to remember more details about your dream, and why it was important to you. Sometimes, dreams can reveal something about ourselves, our desires, our fears, or our goals. Maybe your dream has a deeper meaning, or maybe it was just a random and fun experience.

Bing Chat: Either way, I hope you enjoyed the images I created for you. I had fun trying to make them. If you want to see more of my creative abilities, you can ask me to generate other types of content for you, such as poems, stories, code, essays, songs, celebrity parodies, and more. Just ask me what you want, and I’ll try my best to create it for you. 😊

Bing Chat: Have a wonderful day! 🌞