August 2007 Archives

I woke to a loud rumble. I don't know what time it was, because our clock is so bright we keep it covered with a piece of thick cloth. You know how it is, you wake in the night and stare at the clock so you stress about how long you have til it's time to get up, and you can't get back to sleep because you are stressing about it, rinse, lather, repeat.

Anyway, this loud rumbling. My first thought was that we had just had and earthquake, you know, the kind that roll, and the sound was the sound of the earthquake rolling southward. Must have been up in LA or something. Then I thought, no, maybe it's a train going too fast. Sometimes the trains leaving the Port of Long Beach, with all the goods of the country on them, can be heard when the wind is right. Then, no, maybe it was a big truck barreling away from my street. What is that?

I opened the curtain and could see my whole backyard as if it were daylight, the sky was clear and the moon bright overhead. I left the curtain open a bit because the air felt nice and cool after such a hot-and-humid day. I started to drift off again, and a flash through my eyelids caught me. Huh? Is there some kind of freak out in my backyard taking pictures through the little triangle of curtain that is exposing my sleeping face to the yard? I reached for my glasses, and a little startled, I peer out of the triangle of exposed window, ready to scream if I saw someone.

There was nothing out there, but then I heard a little rumble again. What is that?? I start to fall asleep again, and there's another flash, and a rumble right away this time. Then it comes, the most incredible dumping of rainwater just started falling all at once, as if someone slashed the bottom of a giant ziplock of water over the backyard. It was raining so hard, and the air smelled suddenly clean and fresh, and I didn't even mind the temporary increase in humidity.

And I do mean temporary, as it was over as soon as it started. I don't think it rained for more than 15 minutes over my backyard. I must live on some strange climate-cusp, because more often than not, when we experience these torrential rain pours, they occur only in the backyard, but if we look out the front windows, we can see that it's just spitting or not raining at all in the front of our house. I didn't bother to check this morning, since it was all over so fast, but I was glad that there wasn't some pervert snapping photos of my through my bedroom window. Somehow my husband slept through the whole thing.

The things the mind comes up with when interrupted from a good sleep...

oops, I really broke it

I've been beta testing the new MT4 in another directory for a few weeks, but was too chicken to try and upgrade my real blog. Seems like it worked though - if this posts I'll know for sure if I broke something.

Well, posting worked but commenting doesn't work yet. I'll work on that tomorrow, I guess.

Ok, now the comments are being posted, but you don't get any sort of acknowledgment that they posted. I'll work on that tomorrow, really.

There's a new baby in the world, and she needs a new sweater.
This is the little kimono sweater from the Mason Dixon Book.

And I started on some socks. There's some weird pooling with the green. But otherwise, I love the colors, so vivid! And purple and green. This pattern is my own design, so I may rip it out and start over if I don't like how it goes. There's a lace pattern on the top, and just stripes on the bottom.

I still haven't sewn in my zipper, but with the weather the way it's been, there's no need for a sweater.

I made a little trip last week:

It was amazing. I'll have some more to say about it later, and more photos and even a video if I can figure out how to get it on here.

My husband woke me from the weirdest dream this morning, so I just had to share:

I was in the family room of my mother's house [1]. I was sitting with a friend on the couch and heard some noise outside. We both look out the window (one each) and see a creature that looked like it had the body of a moose, the color and humps of a camel, and the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It also had a pair of arms above the forelegs, that were lying along the sides of the humps, but could be raised as needed. There appeared to be some moss on the back and arms of the creature.

He was gnashing at a nest[2] in a tree on the lawn. The tree was completely non-suburban New Hampshire stock, and the nest was made of those palm fronds that look like a accordion fan. Totally not the right kind of vegetation for the area.

In the tree, which is now big enough to hold a person, is Annette O'Toole, shielding a bird from the Tyrannosaurus Camel. At the foot of the tree is Ed Begley Jr., trying to scare the T-Camel back into the woods.

The nest comes down in the T-Camel's mouth, but the birds are safe, so he leaves, and Annette O'Toole lets the bird go, and it is a raspberry day-glo blue and flies away. [3]

I yell out the window to get the attention of Ed Begley Jr. "Ed, Ed!" The media are all over the lawn now, interviewing him. He finally breaks away and comes over to my window. Suddenly I am outside the window, [4] standing in the shrubbery. I ask for his help with the nest. Should I try and put it back in the tree or toss it over in the woods at the side of the driveway?

He thought that the birds would never come back after the T-Camel saliva and the touch of humans, so we should move it to the woods. I asked if we should wear a dust mask, so that we won't choke on the dust. Ed replied that I should not be afraid of the bird dung in the nest, but yes, I should wear a mask. I looked at Ed Begley Jr. and he was wearing a navy blue surgical mask [5] with a cardboard clowny smile taped to the front. For some reason, I wasn't completely freaked out by the clown smile, and then it was gone.

He gestured to the house across the street, and asked if I knew D, the girl across the street [6]. He was now in a Tuxedo. He said "she was kinda..." "A salesman?" I replied. "Yes, a salesman." he agreed. [7]

We then notice a ton of graffiti on the windowsill, written in magic markers and pens and those silver pens people use for scrapbooking. Words like "Debbie", "2000", little hearts, more like the kind of stuff you'd see on a desktop at school. Ed Begley Jr. told me that he was very upset at what's happening to the neighborhood. "They keyed my aluminum siding!" [8]"That's terrible " I replied.

Just then, my (anonymous) friend sticks her head out the window to tell us that the media are all up the street. "It's on tv! The vandals are up the street keying someone's house!" Ed Begley Jr. looks at me and says " Let's go! We can catch the vandals!"

As I was starting to run away up the street with Ed Begley Jr. to catch the vandals keying the aluminum siding, my husband woke me up.

I started to tell him all about the dream. He was freaking out by the amount of detail I was giving him, he was pre-caffeinated and was starting to overload. All the way to work I kept remembering more and more detail, and he kept trying to wake up.

Then, around noon, my husband IMs me at work.

[huz] BABE!!
[huz] BABE!! You there?
[me] yes?
[huz] I'm listening to Frosty, Heidi, and Frank. Today's guest is Ed Begley Jr.!!
[me] Holy crap!


[1] This was before it was renovated, so vintage mother's house.
[2] I had watched an episode of Survivorman over the weekend where he tore down a nest from a tree in the Kalahari Desert.
[3] I don't know what happened to Annette O'Toole after this, she was just gone.
[4] Must have gone through, I seem to remember pushing on the screen to see as he approached the house.
[5] My husband later reminded me that he was on St. Elsewhere, so...?
[6] My best friend since 1978.
[7] I have no idea what this means.
[8] Somehow, I doubt Ed Begley Jr has aluminum siding. Remember, it was only a dream.