Dreams of Free Food

I keep having this dream. I'm with other people, usually in a bus or a van, sometimes a car or a caravan of cars. We go and we park, and we walk through gravel paths in oriental gardens. Lots of bamboo. Bricks arranged like fans lining the paths. There is an older trailer home at the end, more gardens around it, and a little hand made, hand written sign along the path that says the food is free. There are tables and chairs set up in different areas in the garden, there is one area on sort of an island in a pond, or between streams. You walk across the bridge, through the bamboo, and you're there. They serve Chinese food. You can also sit inside the trailer, where apparently they make the food.

I don't know the significance of this place yet, but I've been there many times in my dreams. Perhaps part of the significance lies in where I choose to sit. And what I choose to eat. And whether I even ever get to sit and eat, or if I spend my time wandering about trying to find someone, or something.

And certainly, that the food is free.

St. Bernards, Squirrels, and Hot Chocolate

Did you ever find yourself suddenly, randomly realizing some minor childhood belief that never was challenged by reality? I was just driving down the road, and realized that I still had this belief that the St. Bernards went up in the mountains looking for lost people in avalanches, with those little barrels around their necks containing HOT CHOCOLATE! Naturally, what else would you want to get you through? I'm pretty sure that they actually do have the dogs, with the barrels, that go find people. As I recall, there were two, Bruno and Heidi up at Timberline Lodge, though I think they were mainly mascots and not rescue dogs. And apparently, if dogs are carrying the barrels, they contain brandy, not hot chocolate. I suppose they've been phased out somewhat by those tracking devices climbers use now. But even thinking about it now, with my adult brain, I still want to believe they'd bring me hot chocolate and dig me out of the avalanche.

Oh, and we still have squirrels in our ceiling. One of these days, I'll be sitting on my couch, knitting, watching South Park, and a ceiling tile will pop out and a squirrel will land in my lap.

And I'll wish I had a St. Bernard.