h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It was the most amazing invention I had ever come across. For a modest price, I bought a three-wheeled device that I could ride around town. Granted, I had to turn the pedals with my feet and press a button to initiate charging of the battery, but once the battery was charged the speed increased and I could go places quite readily.

Then it developed some kind of problem and wouldn't charge. I was at the library, two miles from home, and dressed only in my bathrobe.

Worse, the library had nowhere to sit down, as the books and shelving had been removed so the place could be painted. Would I have to drag the bike home, or stow it in some out of the way spot and walk home to get my car?

Remember to coast wherever possible.

Thanks, I do that.

I guess the principle was that as I cranked the pedals, the action moved the front wheel and also cranked some kind of generator that charged the battery. The battery in turn kicked in and ran a battery powered engine. Now, there are some very nice models that get power from solar panels, and they cost around $4,000. The one in my dream acted on a motion-capture principle [like the one in Toyota Priuses, and was much cheaper. Maybe solar panels are expensive.

Do you dream of your w*rk often, paulh? I know I did. Up to several month after my retirement I would dream of horrendous w*rk days where nothing went as intended and the deadline slowly but steadily became a threatening menace

It's been a while since I last had a nightmare of this nature. Luckily I can usually make up for it by sleeping in so it doesn't affect me for very long

As you can probably guess I still don't miss going to w*rk

I don't miss the w*rk, but I often dream that my employer kept calling me back to help out when staff was stretched too thin.
Naturally, in such dreams I would forget the login password .
I would need to go upstairs to technical services and find the stairs melted, so they would be too slippery to climb. If I did manage to get upstairs, the building would start shaking and I would be worried about getting back down and out of the building safely

I have this theory: Maybe my nightmares haunt me because I have been procrastinating a lot private paper w*rk for years. Maybe I punish myself by having nightmares about hard times at w*rk

We'll see. Only two days ago I pulled myself together and w*rked for 10-12 hours and now most of the paper w*rk is done. I didn't have time to finish it yesterday and today, but will do so in the next few days.

Then I'll see.

The subconscious, which feeds the dream world, seems to be where a lot of guilt feelings go.

Well put, paulh
Makes a lot of sense to me

I had no memorable dreams last night. Maybe my guilt were off somewhere else.

Good thinking, paulh!

Usually I introduce the voices in my head to each other and let them w*rk things out between themselves while I take care of my own stuff.

Maybe it's possible to preoccupy dream in a similar way

I shudder to think of my dream possibly getting together for an apocalyptic dream

There is that risk, of course

After I retired from my Army job, I had frequent nightmares about missing work, a serious matter in the Army, considering one can go to jail for that.

I guess it just took time for my subconscious to accept that I didn't work there any more, after a couple of decades of steady employment with much overtime.

Old habits die hard.

You can say that again.