THROWN UNDER A BUS, WHEW, JUST A DREAM

 Many books have been written about the subject of dreaming, as in seeing things while sleeping.  I wish I know a better word to describe it.  Nowadays, to dream can also mean wishing for something, a positive thing.  The English language can be great for making puns and being ambiguous but sometimes I want to be direct about the subject.  I want to simply talk about the things I saw while sleeping, something that my brain somehow made up on its own, not because I want it to really happen.  Sure, it maybe something I did subconsciously, fer sure.  But not something I actively want.  But enough of the meaning of "dreaming".

In real life, I am a cautious pedestrian.  I always look both way crossing the street.  I don't wear headphone and such, so that I am always aware of my surrounding.  Definitely not staring at the smartphone screen while walking, as some people I know regularly do, very annoying.  But in last night's dream, for lack of a better word, I caused a three-bus accident at a street intersection that seemed to be that of Canal Street and Baxter Street in Manhattan Chinatown.  I crossed Canal Street from the north side to the south side but then immediately tried to cross to Baxter but the light was changing.  A bus in the bus stop was moving forward so I tried to run behind it but then another bus was going in the driving lane.  It seemed as I tried to go back to the sidewalk yet another bus came from the other direction of the two-way street.  Now, in real life Baxter Street is very narrow, just enough for two parking lanes and one driving lane, it's a one-way street.  In this dream, it was a two-way street, wide enough for buses to go through, so maybe it wasn't Baxter, but hey it was a dream, it didn't have to match reality.  Anyway, perhaps because the third bus tried to avoid me, it braked too hard and went flying and hit the first bus.  Again, physics may not apply in dreams.  One thing I was sure is that as the levitated bus came at me, I was alert enough to lay flat and the bus flew right over me.  I do recall feeling guilty for causing the accident, who knew how many people died or got hurt, so I guess my dream version also had integrity.  I don't know what happened next because the shock in the dream woke me up.  Or maybe it was my busting kidneys needing to unload.

Yes, back to reality.  It is a three-day weekend, Memorial Day today, thank you to all who made the ultimate sacrifice.  It was rainy for the first two days so I was home all day.  I was hoping to do something outdoor today but the house has a plumbing problem.  A plumber came yesterday but the problem is bigger than originally thought.  He's coming back today with tools to rip off part of the bathtub wall etc.  Water's been shut off for now for the whole house.  It's a minor inconvenience, we lived through worse times.

RECURRING SLEEP-VISIONS

I heard that the German language has a word for every situation.  Supposedly, the Japanese language does too, although I heard about German more regularly.  There are some words, English or otherwise, I wish I know that would better define the following two scenarios:

DREAM.  As simple as it sounds, DREAM is a misleading word.  It may have started out as just something you "see" while sleeping, but then it became something that you wish to come true, as in Martin Luther King's I have a dream.  When I want to discuss something that I just saw while sleeping, it may be just something interesting to me, nothing dramatic that I would wish to be true.  It may not be so bad as to be labeled a nightmare.  For now, I use SLEEP-VISION, I love coining words, assuming that SLEEP-VISION is not already a word.  I think hyphens are underused also so I try to throw them out there whenever I have the chance.  Onto a SLEEP-VISION I had recently.

I was supposed to setup a bunch of computers for a training session.  Nothing unusual, just the CPUs connected to monitor, mouse, and keyboard.  Oh year, Ethernet network connection, too.  Funny thing is I had that vision before, that someone told me about the training schedule so that I would be there x days before the event to set things up.  I think I arrived late.  Maybe a few hours before the training event, or maybe a few hours late on my scheduled time.  If anything, it just means I sometimes think about work.

So what's the German word that aptly describes the situation?  Something that was seen while sleeping, that seems to continue after a period of time.  Inquiring minds want to know.

I Wanna Try A Tri

Over the Dr. King holiday weekend, I took my son, J, swimming all three days of the long weekend.  Up to recently, these swimming trips are mostly for my son's sake.  He needs to exercise but does not share my love of running.  Or even walking.  He had a few years of swimming lessons and practice so he is good at it.  If I have the choice, I would not accompany him into the pool.  I can barely swim and quickly run out of breath so I can only swim a short distance.  A very short distance.  But if I do not swim with J, he most likely will not like the experience as much.  Beside, even though I am a lousy swimmer compared to J, since we only do open swim in shallow water, should some freak accident happens, I can be of immediate help since I am already in the pool.  Ideally, J's cousins should swim with him.  They need the exercise, too, either to build strength or to lose weight.  Unfortunately, they usually have excuses not to go and are thus unreliable partners.  Oh well, father-and-son team it is then!


The first time I got into the open pool at the Flushing Meadows Aquatic Center, or Flushing pool for short, I thought to myself, "There is no way I can swim the entire pool length!"  Luckily, the depth is only 3'7", so any time I felt tired I would just stand up.  If I get splashed in the face or take a gulp of water, I would stand up and the discomfort would be over.  I recorded the distance for my my swimming exercises as 200 meters or thereabout, based on the length of the pool (25 meters) and the number of times I "swim" from one end to the other.  In reality, I always interrupt the trip across the pool, because of tiredness, water splash, water-swallowing, or one of many other factors.  I definitely walked half of the time.


As a lousy swimmer, I always worry that if I do not move my arms fast I would sink quickly.  Somehow this past Saturday, perhaps thanks to the serotonin or adrenaline generated from my morning 16-km (10-mile) run, I was able to experiment with swimming slowly and calmly.  I was able to control my breathing and a few time almost made it across the entire 25 meters.  On Sunday, even though the pool needed maintenance so we only had half an hour to swim, it was not as crowded so I had more chances to slowly swim across the entire pool length.  I still felt tired afterward, but I was able to ignore interferences like water splashes from nearby swimmers.  Monday I did even better, completely and calmly covered the entire 25 meters.  I even soldiered on after taking a gulp of water.


Whenever I read beginner runners' declarations that they will some day run distance of x kilometers, I smile quietly.  Been there, done that.  I still want to do an ultra-marathon some day, something like a 60k, but that would be about it for me, as far as running.  I will still try to aim for shorter finish time, like less than 2 hours for a half-marathon or sub-4 for a marathon.  But how about something slightly different?  Like a triathlon!


I got the idea from a co-worker I've been exchanging workout stories.  He is a good swimmer and cycles often, but needs much work with running.  I am a lousy swimmer, probably not that bad with cycling, and pretty confident about running.  Just like a few years ago I did not think I had what it takes to run a half-marathon, never mind a full marathon, who knows how far I can swim a year or two from now?  Like running events, not every triathlon involves the distance of the Ironman.  There are sprint triathlons that involve short distances in swimming, cycling, and running.  On TriFind.com, I even saw one that measure the effort in set amount of time, like 10 minutes of swimming, 30 minutes of cycling, and 60 minutes of running.  I am sure I am far from being qualified for the swimming requirements, but I plan to work on it.  Definitely not 2012, not 2013 either, but who know, 2014?!  Check back in 2 years!