Merge Ahead

The traffic is unrelenting, and it seems to be composed entirely of big rigs and vans, and suddenly I'm cut off and going much too fast for the lane I'm in. The only way I can avoid a collision is to slam on the brakes, veer to the right, and then veer back to the left at the last second, all without losing traction. Amazingly, I manage to pull it off, stopping within an inch of the blue van in front of me.

But that's not the end of it. Later on, in what appears to be a similar spot in the road, it's a big rig, and there's more drama involving high speeds, merges, and near collisions, but this time I've had enough. I still manage to avoid the collision, but I decide to forgo another fifteen minutes of sleep and get up. My day can only get better from here. I will have to use the freeway -- it's unavoidable around here -- but not the section of I-5 that dominated my dreams.

I can't say that I like the car dreams. I've been having them for a long time, and there's always a similar theme. Usually, it's a curve that comes up suddenly, and I'm caught in a faulty control loop where I don't want to turn too much to the right or left, and the need for precision prevents me from turning at all. It's as if my hands are locked in position. That's always my cue to wake up. Still, that one is a little better than the one that preceded it, the one where I'm driving in a convertible. As the car goes over the crest of a hill a little too fast, I fly out. And wake up.

Falling dreams, crashing dreams, drowning dreams... I'd prefer the Mendeleev kind of dream where a friendly snake shows me the solution to a problem. For all I know, I actually have them, but they're drowned out by the noise of the crashing automobile.