Breakfast and a junk pile

June 2, 2011

I was in line for breakfast at a cafeteria, debating about whether to get a small normal meal like a bowl of cereal and some fruit or something larger like bacon, eggs & pancakes.  There was one section that had plates full of things that I wasn’t sure what they were, but they were colorful.  I was examining a bowl on the plate that had little 1” diameter balls that were brown on the outside, like they’d been fried.  I was trying to determine, without touching, whether they were rice or maybe sticky oatmeal or grits.  The plate had a piece of meat and several brightly colored fruits.  While I was deciding I had walked up to a corner in the line. 

I thought I would go around the corner and continue, but I saw that the people on the other side of the line were coming to the same corner and paying there.  I realized I would have to choose quickly or lose my place in line and start over, so I thought I would go ahead and try the sticky oatmeal balls, but when they set the plate on my tray all it had was several pieces of lettuce.

June 8, 2011

I was standing above a gulley that had been dumped full of junk.  As I looked at the junk I realized that while it was ugly, it was not without value.  There were dozens of rolls of ¼ inch round rod stock that all had been a little banged up, but the scrap value alone had to be hundreds or thousands of dollars.

I started walking down in amongst the junk and gradually I was no longer in an open ravine but inside a factory.  The junk was piled in one area adjacent to a newly remodeled area that I had been familiar with before the remodeling.  I was surprised to see how much the remodeled area had been cleaned up.  It had huge machines like the older areas, but everything was bright and clean and had the latest high tech gadgetry.  I was up against a wall and there was a multiple sheaved pulley directly over me that was dipping down like it was going to pick something up by me.  I couldn’t see the cables that were holding it up, but it moved up and down just like there were normal cables there.  I moved around it to get a view from different angles, but never could see the cables.

I walked over to another part of the building and now was in a gathering of people who were standing around eating plates of breakfast.  I realized I didn’t have a shirt on, and even though these were construction/factory workers who probably didn’t care how I was dressed, I felt under dressed.  I found a pile of what might have been clothes or might have been rags and looked for something to put on.  Several times I found shirts that I was sure were mine only to find them full of holes when I put them on.  Finally I found a pullover that had just a couple holes that were probably below the belt line if I tucked it in, so I put it on.

I started talking to an older man about the project we were working on.  It was enjoyable to be able to explain to him what we were all doing there.  I remember thinking that he was impressed by what I knew and that I liked that he was.