I'm Just Gonna Tell It Here And Be Done With It

First, in case you haven't read the post below, walk fund-raising:

Ruth & Kathy, Breast Cancer: Here
Leigh, PKD: Here
Debbie, Alzheimers: Here

And no comments asking when I'm going to participate in a walk. It ain't gonna happen until I first am able to walk a mile in another person's body.

So I have this dream to recount, and I can't figure out who to recount it to... as it's the sort of dream that might inspire people to feel they need to comment or say something of comfort or otherwise voice something that feels somewhat obligatory.

Thus, I've opted to just share it here, to get the sharing part out of my system, and then go take a nap.

Last night I dreamt that through some plot device now lost to the dreamer, I'd travelled back in time some vague-yet-small amount. Somewhere around ten years or so, I guess.

Anyway, I was in the middle of whatever it was I was supposed to be doing when I suddenly realized that Patsy was alive and in her right mind, and I could go see her again.

So, I pick up the mobile phone--which I think some lucid part of me realized shouldn't work, as it was the past and the phone number hadn't been activated... and might not have even worked if it had been--and I called Mom.

She didn't know it was me from the future, and I just asked her if she was going to be home for a while so I could come visit.

On the way to the house (I don't know where I started... it seemed to be some mix of Center, Kansas City, and maybe some Los Angeles in there), I ran into all kinds of difficulties. At one point I had to climb up onto an overpass, only to find the overpass had flooded, and for reasons not made clear to my lucid brain, I had to avoid the water. So I was jumping from car to car, eventually climbing on top of what I believed to be a train, even though it makes no sense having a train on the highway.

In the course of all this, I got on the phone again, and somehow I was jostled and the phone hit my chin and a piece of it broke off.

This is the strange part.

Okay, one of the stranger strange parts.

My lucid brain, which was apparently less lucid than it should be, as it was buying into this dream, thought "If I wake up and my phone is broken, I'll know I really went back in time, and this was God giving me a chance to see Mom one more time, as she was."

So much for "lucid", right?

So I got to the house (this happened off-camera... I just suddenly was there, and I don't even remember if it was the old house or the current one), and there was Patsy. I made such a noise of joy/grief/anguish/jubilation that I am 100% positive I actually made that noise out loud in my sleep. (To clarify, the grief/anguish parts of the noise were coming from the lucid brain in me.)

And that noise, I think, is what woke me up.

I didn't check my phone, because lucid brain was having nothing to do with that, instead just clearing it's throat and making tut-tut noises while not making eye-contact with any other part of my brain.

Okay, I'm off to nap...

Walkers

No, not Texas Rangers, or a herd of that thing I used to get around when I had a broken leg...

I just wanted to link to some people participating in different fundraising walks.

Ruth and Kathy are finishing their walk today. They've made their goal, but if you want to give, go here and follow the links to their walk sites... or read the latest newsletter... or watch the video again...

My friend Leigh is walking in the Walk for PKD. To read more about PKD and her walk, click here.

Debbie, who I have only spoken to via e-mail since... I don't remember the last time we talked in person, actually. It might have been in the 80s. Anyway, I've known her since seventh grade... where was I? Oh yeah, Debbie is walking in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk in St. Louis. Click here to visit her walk page.

Oh, and that lack of memory joke in the last paragraph wasn't meant to be a bad Alzheimer's joke.

Where Have You Been?

Don't ask!

Okay, the short version is: Pre-Algebra Curriculum. Although that isn't an answer to the posted question, it explains why I've been so computer-shy these last... um... 50 days or so.

Every time I'd sit down to do ANYTHING at the computer, I'd be reminded that this curriculum mess isn't fixed yet.

As for the mess, seriously, don't ask. We can leave it at "It's done now" and move on. I will say that it got so bad that when I finished Thursday night/Friday morning at 12:15, I seriously considered going out for a drink or ten.

Anyway, on top of the "not posting" mess, I'm also having a "what the heck is going on with my e-mail mess", which involves me not being able to successfully send e-mails abou 95% of the time.

So, after this, I'm going to pop over to a blog or two to explain that this explanation is here, and them I'm going to go out for a drink or ten. I kid. I'm actually going to... I don't know what I'm going to do.

My website is updated to July, finally. I hope to update it to August sometime mid-week, and finally be in September next weekend.

Oh, the poem is posted, and the results from the 2nd poll are as follows:

People who have known me for less than a year: 0/7 (0%)
People who have known me a year or over, but less than five years: 1/7 (14%)
People who have known me over five years, but less than twenty years: 2/7 (28%)
People who have known me twenty or more years: 4/7 (28%)
People who don't know me: 0/7 (0%)

The lesson here is that only seven people who read this thing take part in the polls... and that's assuming somebody didn't take the poll more than once.

Anyway, the poll should be changed now (unless you read this in the five minutes after I post it... in which case, come back in ten minutes).

I have thoughts to post which I will post later. And news to post which I will post later.

Later!

Finally, That Poem

ODE TO THAT FEELING OF MY FEET LEAVING MY WORK SHOES AND GOING INTO MY SANDALS

How can I do justice to the feeling of bliss
Inspired by the simple act of stepping out
Of shoes (whose painful nature others might dismiss)
Into sandals? I suppose I could simply shout
From the nearest mountain top, or perhaps a hill,
But the words I'd shout escape me. It's late, as well.
This peacefulness accompanied by no small thrill
Is not unlike, after twenty-five years of Hell
Finding, right beside you, where it's been all along
The tallest, coolest glass of water, just for you.
And, as you slowly drink it down, you hear a song
Played in your head say, "Through these years you always knew
That right beside you, waiting for your open eyes
Was peace, and joy, and love. But you kept your head turned,
Letting what you couldn't help work toward your demise.
I've been waiting here, while inside you this fire burned.
But now, you see. And, home at last, you find relief.
And now, you see that darkest night has led to dawn.
And now, you know that all along you had belief
That all would be well when you had your sandals on."

Copyright 2007, Mark Travis Riggs