Dreams: By Tag: Car

Thursday, September 02, 2010: Dog in the road

He ran into traffic to catch his small dog, Pippin. Pippin chased another dog into a busy intersection. He shouted at Pippin to come back. He shouted at the cars to stop.

Friday, May 28, 2010: Calling for Ice Cream Delivery

He stood at a gas station. It was daylight. There were cars and people filling up their cars with gas.

He felt bewildered, not knowing where he was. He was talking on a cell phone to a woman. He was asking her about ice cream delivery. She asked him where he needed the ice cream delivered to. He looked around for street signs, but didn't see any. He asked others where he was, but they did not tell him.

Sunday, May 02, 2010: Station Wagon

He was driving on a highway in a green station wagon. He did not own the station wagon; he was taking it for a test drive. The exterior of the station wagon was worn, but the interior was immaculate and upholstered in white. He told his wife, over a hands-free mobile phone, that he was seriously considering buying it, and they reminisced over the old green station wagon they had during the first couple years of their marriage.

Thursday, April 22, 2010: The Bomb

He climbed a street to the top of a hill. Looking down, he could see a smoking light blue crater, the remains of a large part of the city.

He knew another bomb was coming. He climbed into the driver's seat of a white van. Others climbed into the van. He called his daughter on his cell phone. She sounded distressed. He told her what was happening, to take cover, and to not panic.

After hanging up, he found himself inside a rectangular bunker with white walls. Through thick windows, he watched the blast-wave of the next bomb approach.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008: Three women

Off the main road, a path of gravel opened upon a clearing. Under a sunny blue sky, three women sat in a convertible car. A man offered the women to him. The three women all had red hair. One was younger, one was older, one was oldest. He chose the younger.

Saturday, May 17, 2008: Fighting a dragon and a stranger

They assembled within a strong building of brick and steel; still, it had large windows and doors. This place was like a fortress for them. And from inside this fortress, they defended themselves from the attack of a dragon. This dragon had scales of green and gold, a wide mouth of long white teeth, large round nostrils; and this is the part they could see, for the head of the dragon was too big to fit inside the building. One of their number could fly through the air and fought off the dragon with power of will.

In a different dream, he found himself on a city street at night. His parents pulled up to the curb in a car. A stranger holding a hollow steel rod started to threaten him. To defend himself from the stranger, he lied down on the sidewalk, under a structure of strong glass and metal. When the stranger tried to prod him from under this structure, he grasped the end of the rod and pried it from the grip of the stranger. He came out from under the structure, and drove the stranger away.

Monday, March 17, 2008: Lost

I dreamed that I was walking down a street at night in a strange city. I had two companions, but we separated, and each got into their own cars and left. I walked down the street and turned left. I realized I did not know where I was going, and I turned to walk back to where I started.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008: Missiles, Ladders

I had a dream that missiles were flying, one by one, across a dark sky. The first missile fell on a distant target, the second a closer target, the third a closer target. I took cover, prone on gravel, between a concrete barricade and two cars, both shiny classic vehicles, one blue and the other orange.

In the next dream, I was with my wife, one of her old roommates, possibly others. We were in vast, dark, concrete building full of black ladders and conveyor belts. I had a stack of red books with me that I carried up a ladder. Somebody mentioned a lever (pronouncing it leh-vur); I jokingly corrected them and pronounced it lee-vur.

A common element in both dreams was the knowledge that I could travel between worlds, and that the first dream was one world and the second dream was another world.

Saturday, February 02, 2008: Car on fire

I had a dream that I was sitting in the backseat of a blue Chevy Malibu [my first car] at night, while a coworker drove the car, and her daughter sat in the front passenger seat. We dropped off her daughter, but as we were driving by, I could see flames licking from under the hood. I told her to stop the car and get out; it was on fire!

Sunday, January 27, 2008: Trip to the country

Matt, his older brother and I drove in a white car to a rural town. After parking the car, we parted ways.

I met a girl. She seemed to know me, or at least, she was interested in me, and friendly. She had long wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes, a light coffee complexion, full lips; her blouse and jeans fit her curvy figure. As we walked, she put her arm around me, hugged me, and kissed me. She brought me to her workplace, a home goods store, and introduced me to her coworkers. I jokingly put a square of plastic turf on my head before we departed; it was her day off.

We walked to a county fair. We looked around, and ate some food. A small swarm of beetles, joined by a long strand of material, flew at me and wrapped itself from my arm. It felt very irritating. She said that they were called bracelet beetles. I carefully peeled these bracelet beetles from my arm and tossed them away.

We drove back in her black sports car to the parking lot where Matt and his brother were waiting. His brother backed the car dangerously close to the edge of a cliff. I swore at him. He got mad. Matt calmed us down. We drove home.

Monday, January 21, 2008: Driving circles around Vermont, bagel shop

I was driving in a counterclockwise circle around the outskirts of a city in Vermont. To my right were snowy mountains. To my left were buildings. One building was topped with a giant inflatable crab.

I walked into a bagel shop. There were bakers and servers behind the counter. I spied through a doorway on the right metal racks of bagels. I walked over to a rack of bagels on the left. I looked over the fresh bagels. I saw a salt bagel. I reached for it with my right hand. I noticed my right hand. I thought to myself, I am asleep. I tried to feel the right hand of my waking self, and I moved my fingers in my sleep. Then I woke up.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008: Car accident, Scrubs, round table discussion

While pulling out of my driveway, I nudged the car of my neighbor under one of his trucks. I felt terrible, and apologized profusely. I could not figure out how we were going to get his car out from under his truck.

Before this dream, I can only recall a bit of another dream: Dr. John Dorian (Zach Braff) and Dr. Kim Briggs (Elizabeth Banks), from the television show Scrubs, take handfuls of cocaine, snort them, and have sex.

We were seated at a round table having a discussion. Seated around the table, I saw different versions of myself wearing elaborate masks. Some said that all of this was nonsense; others said to give it more time.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007: Infiltration, trashscape, driving up a cliff

We infiltrated a dimly lit building, running down corridors and hiding briefly in rooms. We stole a square blue elevator car robot. We posed as students in a classroom, and traded illicit pencils.

I climbed carefully across a landscape of trash, a dump that stretched to the horizon.

I drove a car along a steep road. The incline rose until it the road became a cliff. Some cars tried to ascend the cliff, but they rolled back or came crashing down. Some cars tried to descend, but came crashing down as well. A police man tried to descend in his car and stuck half way. He attached a winch to the car and told me to grab the other end of a rope. I refused. I fell into a dumpster. I climbed out of the dumpster. I pulled clinging pieces of trash from me. I picked a small round black beetle off of my leg.

Saturday, December 15, 2007: Sleep paralysis and seven other dreams

After falling asleep, I dreamed that I was lying in bed. The room was dark. The bedsheets were white. I could feel the dog lying on the bed at my feet, and my wife was lying to my left; I was turned on my side facing her. I could not move! I could not speak! I tried to wake up but I could not wake up. I could feel shapes sliding past me, shadows, nightmare thoughts, slipping past me, trying to emerge: a mouth, lips and teeth, fingertips. With great concentration, I moved my right hand over myself. I could feel it tingling, as if it were waking up. I tried to speak to my wife. Shelby, help me wake up! I repeated this over and over.

Finally, in real life, she woke me up. She said that she heard me while she was sleeping, asking her to help me. After sitting up with the lamp on for a few minutes, I returned to sleep.

I had a dream that I was investigating a cellar with my aunts Florence and Jeanne. It was dark, and made of old poured concrete. There was a door which we entered from the ground level. The cellar was cluttered with objects so covered with dust and cobwebs, I could not distinguish them. There were spiders and other insects crawling about. I kicked a piece of something, and silverfish crawled from under it. One spider was at least three feet across! At the other end of the cellar was a door, and stairs up to another door. Below the first door was a rectangular drop, without stairs, a ten foot cubic hollow with another door! I asked my aunts about it and they said they did not know where the door leads to. I considered how I would climb down to investigate

I had a dream that I was on a tour bus. The bus was full of people of all kinds. A group of children were sitting together. I told them the story of Jesus. When I concluded, one of them asked with astonishment if it was true. I laughed and said, no, it was not true.

I had a dream that my silky terrier was chasing rats around and bringing them back to me in his mouth. I felt worried that he would catch a disease from them. The rats he brought back had big teeth.

I had a dream that I was chewing something, and the teeth on the left side of my mouth crumbled to pieces. After, I inspected them, and they were all still intact.

I had a dream that I was walking up my street. An old high school friend, Brian, pulled over in a convertible and offered me a ride. I got in the car, and began to tell him everything that had happened since I saw him last.

I had a dream that I walked the dog outside, and it was warm. When I went back inside the house, the house felt cold. I mentioned this to my wife, and suggested we open the windows of the house to let in the warm air.

The last dream left me with only vague impressions of being at a party, and meeting a celebrity, but I can remember no details.

Thursday, October 04, 2007: On Hamilton Street

I had a dream that I was standing on Hamilton Street, observing an elderly gay couple with a penchant for pranks. One of them had fallen asleep behind the wheel of his parked car. The other started the car and put it in drive. The car drove slowly down the street, the driver still asleep.

I walked down Hamilton Street and encountered a genetic giant couple, a blond woman and a dark haired man. I asked them questions, but I do not remember what the questions were, or the answers.

I entered the rear passenger side door of a futuristic-looking silver car and sat down. The car started by itself and steered down the street, apparently on autopilot.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007: Tresspassing in Vermont

I had a dream that my wife and I were driving to Vermont at night. She was driving; I was in the passenger seat. We made a left turn, and the silver mid-sized car went up on two wheels along a paved embankment. My wife managed to get the car under control and parked. When we stepped out of the car, we found ourselves on the rooftop of a building. As we descended multiple staircases, the police arrived. They fined us $50 for trespassing.

The dream repeated itself, starting again as we descended the steps, only more people were with us. The police came and fined us again.

After leaving the scene, we visited a Vermont historical museum.

Monday, March 12, 2007: Leaping

A member of my former church, Michelle, was giving me a ride to work at night in her car. Traffic near downtown was bad, and the roads were twisted and confusing. I got out of the car and started leaping from car to car on hoods and roofs and trunks.

Monday, February 12, 2007: Another Bicycle Dream

A narrator was discussing the new ultralight and sleek bicycle that I was riding. As others tried to pursue me, by foot, by bike, and by car, I outpaced them at every turn. I rode next to a fenced median. With my left hand, I grabbed the top of the fence. I lifted myself and the bike over the fence to the other side of the road without stopping.

Friday, January 19, 2007: President Favor, Strange Ritual

An old friend of mine, Stewart, was walking with me on Hamilton Street. We were meeting with the president. Apparently, he owed Stewart a favor. A black limousine pulled up next to us at a bus stop. President Bush stepped out of the vehicle. He appeared to be very distracted, as he has urgent business elsewhere. Stewart explained that he needed his help to take revenge on somebody. The president asked why he wanted revenge. Stewart said that he couldn't remember.

In another dream, I was with a group that was infiltrating a castle at night. We subdued any guards we came upon. We found ourselves in strange chapel. Two women appeared, one dressed in brightly colored clothes, the other dressed in dark clothes. They told me to lie down on what appeared to be a hospital bed. I asked them why. A black dwarf told me to shut up and just lie down. When I looked back at the two women, they had merged into one person, half dressed in bright and dark clothing.

Sunday, December 03, 2006: Gathering, Sabotage, Flying, Restaurant

There was a gathering taking place. My friends were there; ex-church members were there, too. We were going to verbally dismantle the church. We rehearsed, but I cannot recall what we rehearsed.

Afterwards, I spoke with Will about our writing and gaming. We were pleased with our progress. We flipped through a book of pencil sketches of Lovecraftian subjects.

I drove a car into a parking lot late at night. I discovered that the other car tires had been flattened. No doubt it was church saboteurs. But my early discovery of this plot could be easily undone in time for our coup with the church.

Morning came, the sun lighting green leafy trees along a street. I saw a young black girl playing. As I walked down the street, I leaped into the air, and floated down. I repeated this several times, until I was able to stay aloft by flapping my arms. The young girl was amazed.

My wife and I got into a blue Dodge Charger. I needed to go to the bathroom, but I said that I could go at the restaurant. We drove to the restaurant. There were two restaurants, actually, both with crowded al fresco dining areas. One restaurant was called The Ghost in the something something. I cannot remember what the something was, but we guessed it was an Irish pub. We walked over to the other restaurant. I was barefoot, despite the cold. I thought that I should go back to the car to put on shoes, but I did not go back. Katherine Helmond was our waitress. We exclaimed, “Mona!” She seated us in a far corner, near the restrooms.

Thursday, November 16, 2006: Vermont Trip Preparations

My wife and I were outside, preparing for a trip to Vermont. As we packed our luggage into the car, I realized that I did not recognize the car. I examined the unfamiliar vehicle: it was a brown station wagon with a sunroof. On the back seat were several large bags of M&M candies. I asked, “Is this our car?” She replied, “Of course. We’ve had this car for a long time.”

We went back into our house. The interior of the house was a pastiche of all of the houses I have lived in before.

My wife sat down for a moment in the living room. A voice in my head said, “What is missing from this picture?” My daughter appeared, dressed for ballet, in white tights and slippers, dancing around my wife. I thought it was a riddle, but I could not discern the answer.

We said our farewells to our children. I hugged my daughter. Then, I hugged my son. After hugging him, I realized that he wasn’t my son; he was my daughter’s boyfriend: tall, with spiky bleach-blond hair.

As we were driving out of a parking garage, a white car appeared in front of our car. The driver looked like Tracy Morgan with wild hair. He looked angry. He pushed our car backwards with his car. After a brief car tug-of-war, we managed to get our car around his car and drove off.

Suddenly, I found myself inside a old workshop, with off-white walls and a white tin ceiling. There were small desks with sewing machines and old typewriters on them. My wife was not with me. I realized that I was dreaming, and that I needed to get back to my wife so that we could go on our trip.

In a separate dream, a friend and I were getting a tour of a haunted house. We doused any lights we came across during the tour, until the house was completely dark. As I began to wake, I saw circles of blue light.

Saturday, October 28, 2006: Road Trips, Pet Injured

A co-worker and I were driving down a long well-paved two-lane road. It was windy and raining. Apparently, the car was a convertible, but the top was so flimsy, I had to hold it down to keep it from flying off.

In another dream, I was in a chartered bus full of passengers. We were driving down the same road as the previous dream, but in the opposite direction. There were many obstacles on the road, some frighteningly difficult to navigate, including large patch of eroded road that threatened to swallow up the bus.

As we neared the end of our trip, we pulled over for a stretch. A passenger and I went for a walk with our dogs. We climbed down the embankment into a wooded area. We let our dogs wander far, but still on leashes. Suddenly, a blue car rolled down the embankment and struck our dogs. I don't know the condition of the other dog. My dog returned very slowly, as if he were injured. Indeed, when he approached me, his face appeared to be swollen. I immediately returned home, to take my dog to the vet. Before I left for the vet, I took my dog in our fenced-in back yard for a walk.

Thursday, October 19, 2006: Bedside Visitations

While napping in an out-of-the-way room, I felt a presence enter. I opened my eyes. An old friend, Josh, entered the room and sat down at a computer. I sat up and said, “Hello.” He said, “Hello.” He apologized for waking me, and said that he was just going to be a moment; he was checking his email. The room got brighter, and another old friend, Bob, suddenly appeared. “You old hippie,” I joked. He laughed and hugged me.

These visitors departed, and I continued to nap. My wife wandered into the room with a basket of laundry. I showed her the book I had cut and taped together into two strips, joined, and twisted, to form a Möbius loop.

I napped more. My son came into the room and left.

Still I napped more. My daughter came into the room. She sat at the foot of the bed and asked what I was reading. I opened the book, and began to read from it.

As I read, my own voice became the voice of a narrator, and I was in the story, guiding a white sports car along snowy hills, simultaneously a passenger inside the car, driving, and outside the car, holding in my hand a small replica of the car. The car skidded off the road, crashed, and drove on.

I have been reading Mark Z Danielewski's Only Revolutions. This is the source of the Möbius loop and the driving narrative.

In the dream, I felt as if I was more than napping; I was convalescing. I felt at peace, but I was resting because of illness or age.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004: Accident, Decay, Rooftop

Sitting in the backseat of a co-worker's car, in a parking lot at night. There was snow on the ground. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, we accidentally ran over the leg of a woman who fell near the car. Everything was moving slowly.

In another dream, I was in my house. I went into the bathroom. When I flushed the toilet, the toilet sunk through the wooden floor, which seemed waterlogged, spongey, and decayed. The water draining through the holes in the floor reminded me of seawater sinking into bubbling holes in beach sand.

In my last dream, I was walking with a friend in a strange neighborhood during the day. Colorful houses sat atop green hills. I climbed onto one of the rooftops of a house and discovered that I could not get down.

Sunday, October 31, 2004: Zombies

I sat in the passenger side seat of my sister’s car, as we drove on a road through nowhere at night. We pulled over to the side of the road, and went into a house. Suddenly, the house was surrounded by zombies. I closed the door, but one particularly large zombie put his huge, booted foot through the door.

I began to wake up, or rather, I began to wake myself up. Before I fully woke up, I thought to myself, “This is just a dream. I can handle this.” I slipped back into the dream. I filled the room with umbrellas. I walked atop the umbrellas to avoid the zombies. I used other umbrellas to strike the zombies repeatedly.

Since it is Halloween, I’ve been watching a lot of horror movies. It seems like a zombie movie slipped into my dreams.

Thursday, August 26, 2004: Green Hills, Gold Rings, Marriage

I was climbing a green, grassy hill. As I ascended, I found a gold ring. As I continued, I found another gold ring.

In the other dream, I was in the rear seat of a car. My brother was driving, and my sister was in the front passenger seat. They were asking me questions about my relationship with my wife, with implications that I was only with her because of the church. I told them that I genuinely loved her, and besides, I was no longer with the church. This shocked them.

Saturday, July 31, 2004: Vehicles, Haunted House, Fiestaware

I was outside, during the day, looking at dusty, old automobiles. Only one of them could start, but the other couldn’t start.

In another dream, I was outside at night with friends. An attack was mounting. I jumped into a jeep, but the jeep was under remote control. The doors and windows closed and locked, and the jeep began to drive away with me. My friends shouted to get out. I unlocked the door and jumped out.

In the next dream, I was at a carnival. I got on a haunted house ride. The walls were painted black, and the monsters were day-glo colors. I seem to remember a tall man with a drill.

In the final dream, my wife and I were in a store looking at Fiestaware, in all its different colors.