The History of Dreams

I'm sure I had them when I was young but I don't remember them nor do I remember having any terrifying situations. I only begin to remember them when I would have problems running Let's Play Sports (letsplaysoccer.com). The company had a stunning growth rate as I just kept adding to the portfolio of properties and new situations were popping up all the time. I found I could think about them as I was going to sleep and after two or three nights of dreams exploring options I could generally find a solution. It was like looking something up on the internet before there was the internet and all the real life options got played out and either accepted or dismissed.

Then as new facility growth slowed down some and I had to find new revenue sources from existing locations I would get down deep into the books through the income and expenses. I could push myself into the income and expenses. Actually go down the rabbit hole with Alice inside the life blood of the facility. If the natural gas bill went up usually it would be two of the air units working against each other. The settings might be wrong. When the air came on at one and got to a certain temp it would trigger the heater to come on at the other one, thereby forcing the air to pick up the pace and the heat after that. A never ending cycle. Would the trash company let me knock off one payment a year if I'd pay a year in advance since on the overall expenses it was so little and so time consuming and would save us both labor. If I made the walkway in the bleachers exactly the width of a push broom could I clean them faster without popcorn falling underneath or in the cracks? Those kinds of things. At night when I'd pick a facility and have that dream I'd feel like I was in the lifeblood running through the facility and it was talking to me telling me to look in the corners in the cracks for the little things.

I got to know every single detail about each of the locations though hundreds of miles a part. Then it got weird. I know. You thought we were at weird already. The facilities lived inside me and I could feel them. I could sense when there was trouble. I could tell when one of them was being broken into before it happened or right as it happened. I'd wake at 3am and head down the stairs. I'd tell Linda that when the alarm company called to tell the police to meet me at the facility. I was on the way with keys. I'd hear the phone ring in the house as I was backing out of the drive way. I always knew when the facility was being broken into and it didn't matter where, Denver, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Boise, Wichita, Houston.......I knew. I would fly around in my dream visiting them each night and as I passed over I could feel it before it happen. It seemed natural and not unusual. I lived and breathed the indoor soccer facilities.

As I retired from Let's Play and became full time here at the lodge, the gift, or curse some might say, traveled with me. I can hear people talking on Hurrah Pass sometimes, or smell the smoke of a fire over at the Wind Caves. I can hear the bats and I've only had three or four guests tell me they can hear them. I can be driving the road and know there's a vehicle coming from the other way. I can be hiking and three steps in front of me know that if I put my foot there it's a good place for a snake to lay in the shade and get bitten. I know way before people get to the lodge. I can see a vehicle on Hurrah Pass and it enters in me somewhere that it will be about 15 minutes to get here. Or maybe I hear without realizing it the tires on gravel before it turns down the driveway from the main road, or see a flicker of a head light in the distance or in day time in the distance a white-tailed antelope squirrel is sounding the alarm and it feels like it's 30 seconds away, it's night and the crickets have quit chirping, there is something here they don't know. Most of the time I don't notice or realize those things they just register automatically from all the time having spent here. It doesn't feel like anything special it's just knowing, feeling, what my surroundings are telling me.

Six months or so ago I started having dreams where there was a problem around the lodge and I was in a real jam and knew how I got there. I would just wake up and say to myself "That's stupid. What a waste of time. I would never do anything like that. I'm not going to have this dream." It would be over and in time I just quit having them.

But now I have one that I feel very bad about though I'm not yet sure I should. I have a visitor at night in my dream, not every night, just some. A few days ago revealed itself as a female and I finally saw a face. One I'm sure I've never met. She won't leave me alone so I'll have to play it out and I'm good with it though not sure I want to know the answer. So where weird wasn't good enough now we'll take a pinch of eerie and stir it in the bowl. She didn't talk to me with words, just told me with feelings to go find an answer. So once again Alice and I will be traveling partners and I'm sure we'll be spending significant time in the keyhole.