The Empirical Manifesto

For reasons unknown to me, the last two days have shown me 10-hour slumbers. I hate when I get less than five, and I dislike getting only six for a week straight. Eight makes me happy only if I get it back-to-back, else eight just makes me angry. 10 is good. But 10 twice in a row seems to be a recipe for disaster:

Last night I dreamed I had rented a truck & trailer to help clear the roads of debris as I had a day off and everyone else was at work. I ended up in one of the subdivisions of my fair city, in front of a friends house toward the end of the day. Deciding that was going to be the last road I cleared, I parked it out front. The guy I rented the truck and trailer from tossed in four or five whole, smoked briskets and put them on the trailer for me. They'd been on the trailer all day. The rental also came with a 'debris dog' who followed the trailer, picking up debris and placing it on the trailer, so all I had to do was push the trailer down the road.

Incidentally, the trailer was still attached to the truck - I was pushing the trailer and truck, but the truck had an auto-avoidance mechanism to steer itself around parked cars. I remember being fascinated with the technology behind this, and studying in intently, watching it work - the tires didn't turn to roll around the parked cars, as much as shift out of the way - which was fantastic, as there was no undue friction at all. I was bewildered.

Since I'd parked the truck and trailer out front, I decided to go into their house. jesskd26 and texas_tangent showed up and we entertained ourselves by flipping through magazines at the kitchen table, but it soon grew dark (and there was no interior or exterior lighting) and I realized that the trailer was blocking the driveway and it was about time for my friend and his wife to get home! I ran outside to push it out of the way, and saw his SUV already in the driveway - he'd maneuvered past it, but he was nowhere to be found. He had entered the house thorugh the garage and came back out the front door. His children (who in r/l are my kids age) were teenagers and started climbing atop the 18-wheeler semi parked between the houses (I was afraid it would be quite a fall from the top of those, but the kids seemed pretty confident).

Unfortunately, when my buddy came out his front door he let his little dog Chester out, who went right for the brisket and started eating it off the trailer! I'd forgotten about the brisket! My buddy and I snatched all the meat from the trailer and brought it into the house for the impromptu party. Everyone was in the living room, standing around, drinking beer. The living room was nothing but drywall with plaster on the floor and plastic sheeting over the windows. As I walked through to put the meat on the kitchen, I saw jesskd26 feeding her baby girl, only thing was - she was the same size as her infant daughter! As odd as that sounds, I remember thinking, "How does she reach the high chair to feed her?"