It was after 8:00 when I awoke this time, having gotten up in the early morning hours for a walk, changed the station on the TV from an infomercial to Fox News and fell back to sleep. Then the dreams began! One left me rattled, and I believe it started because of a story Erica told me at Trivia last night. She is a high school senior, a truly delightful young lady, who suffered a rug burn when chasing around the house with her dog. Their floor plan is conducive to such races and she slipped on a blanket, skinning her knee on the carpeting. So, in picturing the running around and around leads me to my dream:
Last night when going to visit Willie Mae (a.k.s. MamMa) I saw a big red car like the one I used to drive, and waxed nostalgic for a bit. Earlier in the day I had gotten an e-mail advertisement for Garber Auto Nation, including a Dodge Durango like mine. That comes into play a bit into the dream where Justin was chasing a kitten around the parking lot at my building. He started out on foot, having a good time trying to capture the cat. A young man arrived with a pizza for delivery but then he opened the box and began to eat the slices. He headed up the steps toward Jeff and Tracy's house so I thought he was going to visit them. (MamMa was eating pizza when I arrived, and she is Tracy's grandmother) The dream changed to Justin tearing around the parking lot, in the now pouring rain, with my big red car! Still chasing the kitten but using the car to do so, not in his character at all. Suddenly he skidded out of control and zoomed through the lobby area and crashed. As I made my way toward the site, I was praying he didn't wreck the mailboxes, which are newer, like a typical mother, I am more worried about the mailboxes than my son...ugh!
As I came through the doorway, I saw the car was up against the fountains, stopped against a long cardboard box that could have possibly housed a patio door sized screeen or something. Jeff came to see and I apologized for the damages. I remember him saying, "Well, we'll see...." not sure if he meant my apology or the assessment of the damage. For some reason, Justin and I went up in the elevator, spared from the crash, and when the doors opened, we found ourselves on a rooftop garden, as though we had gotten on the wrong elevator. Folks were sitting around tables and having lunch, so we sat down and ate with Louise B., who was at my house on Sunday. I signed the ticket like I do at The Club (worked on The Palace newsletter yesterday and wrote about the events coming up at The Club) and argued with Louise about her paying for her meal.
Justin and I went back down the mysterious elevator to the lobby and found that someone had nicely moved the car. I had the insurance adjuster's number in my phone (from the Great Flood) and was going to call him but someone else had moved the car from the scene of the crime. Not sure who or what, but there was no mess or anything to clear up. Oh, and we saw Maggie in the parking lot with the young man and the pizza, and I remember thinking, "Of course, he was looking for Maggie!" (End of the dream)
When Justin was a newer driver, he was driving on I-95 in the rain, and did a spin out due to hydroplaning. He ended up facing the wrong direction in the median, not hitting the guard rail or anyone else, but did end up later having troubles with one of his tires, which I later replaced for him. Justin was totally freaked out and had his buddy drive when it was rainy because of it.
I think this came to mind when he was talking to me on the phone yesterday, for an hour, and at one point expressed that he did not understand my apprehension about water leaking. He described it to me as like when lightning strikes, it only happens once. Well, this is sooo not like lightning, especially in our building. Gus has been leaked on about 5 times, this one possibly the worst time but I really cannot say for sure. And the people from whom I bought this unit told me a couple weeks ago at The Club that they had been flooded by the people above them (where Travis and Jessica now live) so seriously that they had to replace their beds and some furniture at the time. Leaks happen and water seeks the lowest point, sometimes seeping into our belongings on its way down.
It bothers him that I am so nervous about it happening again, but I explained it to him using his bungalow with the bad roof. What would it be like for him to come home after work to find that the roof had leaked in last Tuesday's heavy rains? His precious electronics ruined, all his clothes and bed soaked, everything in his 'home' which belonged to him was lost. THAT'S the feeling, the vulnerability of it all. Add to that if he owned the house and someone else's belongings were ruined. In the case that he is the tenant,he could 'blame' the homeowners for the bad roof but that does not replace the items nor quell the fear of having it occur again. He owns stuff, much of which he has not actually earned and paid for, but gotten as gifts or otherwise. It is entirely different, I believe, when I am the owner of the unit, live above other units, and our 'stuff' was damaged, some so seriously that folks had to vacate the premises for four months. THAT is going to make anyone apprehensive because it could happen again. In fact, it did happen on a minute level to me during the summer when Jessica's ice machine over flowed and water ran from my bathroom fan and from my kitchen cabinets. Thankfully Owen came and shut off her water under the machine and helped me clean up the water mess. Insignificant now, horrible then!
I think I made my point to Justin, and now think I should have reminded him how apprehensive he was/is about driving in the rain, fearful that he might spin out again. I guess that might be more likely to happen to him again than for us to have so horrendous a flood here. Justin was down in the lower units that day, helping to drag out the soaked rugs and carpets, putting items up out of the water, using a squeegee on Gus's kitchen floor to clean up the fallen ceiling tiles which had turned into pulp. Yech! I pray that I am as a good neighbor, and as good a sport, if that type of disaster ever happens to me from above, so to speak.
I was talking to my sister, Jill, one day about it and asked if she has renter's insurance. She said she did, and also knows that something like what happened here could happen at her place as well. She is on the 2nd floor of the same building where Mom lives. Someone could over flow their bathtub, have a pipe break or a hose pop off the dishwasher above her. Not long after Mom or Jill moved in, both of them in the same year, there was a problem with the sprinkler system and soaked the carpet, but at least it was in the hall and not in a unit. The same type of problems can evolve, though, because with water comes damage and mold. Yikes!
What else is going on besides my being haunted by dreams and water terror? There is the terrible mess in Egypt, the horrible snow storms and bad winter weather over much of our country, and grey skies here. At least it's warmer here than in WI, yesterday nearing 70 or even better. My friend, Rita, was outside raking leaves while her family in MI was shoveling snow. We enjoyed our Trivia Night at Johnny Angels, had a chance to be winners but blew it in the final round. We had three cities in the US to put in order according to total population numbers and mis-guessed, so we did not win even 3rd place. We all had a chance to shine, and sometimes my answers were correct but not used. We got messed up with naming four presidents whose first names start with W. Woodrow Wilson (I hate that guy!!!) is actually named Thomas---did you know this? We were robbed!
Today is lunch with my Justin, Judy J., and Twila at MoJo's and then we ladies are going to the movies. We are finally going to see "The King's Speech" which I had declined to see at first, given it's R-rating. Many have told me it is really okay to see it, but when Carol encouraged me to go and see it, having already done so, I figured I could. Justin has seen the movie and said it is quite good, "moving" in parts, according to him. I will let you know what I think. We have to go to the early showing because of its length. If we went at 4:00 pm, I would not get out in time to make it to choir rehearsal. Or just barely in time, I guess, to be more accurate. This will work and I will wear layers to keep myself warm in the theater. The Orange Park Mall AMC 24 Theater was shut down not too long ago by the Health Department due to unclean conditions in the food service area, including 'vermin droppings' and such. This would also mean that vermin could be in the theaters, enjoying the popcorn and discarded snack items on the floor. But that's a whole 'nother set of bad dreams----we are going to the Carmike instead!!!!
