Dreaming, playing, snubbing

For the past week or so I have not been having very restful sleep.  I am technically asleep through the night but I have been having a lot of dreams that leave me feeling tired instead of refreshed when I wake up.  I have taken melatonin a few of those nights and it didn’t help me sleep any more soundly.  The dreams have been rather frantic from what I can recall, the type that make your heart rate rise.  For the most part I can’t remember a thing about them until last night.

In my dream I was initially back in my home town of Shillington.  I was working or something like that.  My co-worker from Naples was there with me as well.  Well it was lunch time so we decided to go on a lunch break together.  Our lunch break runs long so we have to hurry to get back.  However the car that we used to go to lunch was no longer there, we had to walk back.  Well I got split up from my co-worker on the walk back. 

My trip back went through a strip mall where there was a new huge store that was soon to open.  It wasn’t open to the public yet but for some reason the doors were open.  I walked through it admiring all of the stuff on display.  Most of it was furniture.  Even though the store was not open for business yet there were two sales women on the floor.  They asked me if I needed any help, I told them I was just passing through. 

For some reason I grabbed a floor lamp and started dragging it along behind me. I was now passing between stores somehow, dragging the lamp behind me. I came to a narrow area that the lamp wouldn’t fit through.  It was the entrance to another store.  There were more women there looking at me in an annoyed way.  I asked them if it was ok if I just left the lamp there.  They said that if I did then they would have to drag it back to where it came from.  I didn’t want to have them do that so I put the lamp back.

Next I found myself in a sandy, desert like area with hills and a canal.  It’s an area that I have been to before in my dreams.  Anyway it was a shortcut to get back to wherever I was “working” .  It was now nighttime and very dark.  I look down and realize I am now barefoot and my pants are all ripped up.  I figure that since it is sand I should be ok to continue along barefoot.  However after a few steps I see a dark shadow slithering along the sand.  “Shit” I think to myself.  I forgot that rattlesnakes and scorpions come out at night.  I can’t do this bare foot.  If I had boots on it would be a different story.  I pull out my phone and call my co-worker to ask him to come pick me up since I am barefoot and don’t want to get bitten by a snake.  He tells me he can’t pick me up.  My dream ends with me barefoot in the desert with snakes by my feet.

Tomorrow I am playing my first 2009 volleyball tournament over in Fort Lauderdale with Randall.  As usual, at least for the last 5 years or so, I go just to play with no idea how well or how poorly we will do.  I don’t even know what skill division we are playing.  I’m sure it will be fun, win or lose just a little more fun if there are more W’s than L’s.

I am praying that the alley opens back up before tomorrow morning.  It has been closed since yesterday afternoon because of a large fire in the Everglades.  Thsi morning as I approached Naples I drove into a thick veil of smoke, pretty nasty.

Like I said our washer has been acting up for awhile.  When it goes into spin cycle the machine shakes violently to the point where it travels across the floor.  As mentioned earlier in the week I have been on the prowl for a nice replacement set.  Well last night I decided to just Google “maytag peforma out of balance”   The search quickly led me to many posts from other people that had the same problem.  A little reading lead me to the conclusion that a funny sounding part called the “snubber” is the likely cause of the problem.  A snubber is a plastic piece that serves as a bushing to keep the basket spinning evenly.  Since it is plastic it is prone to wear.  As it wears out it allows the basket to spin unevenly. 

I did some reading on the replacement procedure.  It’s rather involved and laborious but not out of the scope of what I can reasonably handle.  I looked up the part and almost laughed out loud, $3.90.  I ordered the part and plan to give it a go.  If I can fix this sucker for less than $10 as opposed to spending at a minimum $500 or more on a replacement machine that will be a big huge feather in the cap.