How many times have you had one of those dreams straight out of left field? I had one a few days ago and it definitely fits the bill. This dream was so crazy, as soon as I woke I started jotting stuff down. Here’s what I’ve got:

I’m on call and out tornado spotting. I see not one, but FOUR tornadoes merging to one “Big Momma” tornado so I call in my position and head away from the monster. I’m driving my Dodge Ram with emergency lights going down then road, when all of the sudden, the road makes a hard right, then immediate left. Since it’s dark and raining I didn’t have time to respond, so I stabbed the brakes to stop. The brakes felt like I was stepping on marshmallows. I wound up stopped in a field, which I knew I couldn’t get out of on my own. Before I could get out of the truck to investigate, I look back and some lone individual has a rope in his hand and is (successfully) pulling my truck out of the field and back onto the road.

A dude this awesome deserves a ride.

I asked him if he needed a lift and the next thing I know, he and his buddy from out of nowhere are hanging on the side of the truck as I go down the road. Oh, and my Dodge Ram is now a mid 80′s Chevy Blazer with the top removed. I stop and ask them if they want to ride in the truck instead of hanging on like idiots and they get in.

We’re running along this dark, wet and winding road so I turn on my SAR radio. Immediately I hear a familiar voice on the radio and after a couple of seconds I realize what’s being said. The person on the other end is not in good spirits and almost sounds depressed and suicidal. Definitely stuff that shouldn’t be broadcast on the radio and even more so, broadcast within earshot of the public – which these two fellas in the truck were. I reached down to turn off the radio and one of the guys moves and bumps my hand in a thinly veiled effort to get me to leave the radio on. I turn it off anyway. I’ve got to get these guys out of my truck so I can go see what’s going on at the other end of the radio.

In the blink of an eye I’m now riding a bicycle – yes, complete with wigwags and emergency lights. Why my mind thought to put flashing lights ona bicycle, I’ll never know. Even though I’m on a nimble bicycle, I’m on the scene of something big and there is a mail truck blocking my path. I tell those involved I need to get through. In order to pass through, they have to “scan” my bicycle with a magic bomb finding stick. After they scan the bike, they move the mail truck to let me through. I look to my right and one of the guys from my SAR team was standing there. I ask him to go with us because we need to take care of business after I drop these guys off. I point back to them and the bicycle is now the open top Blazer again.

I try to covertly get information from the SAR member I picked up about their interpretation of the radio chatter and he basically said to keep it hush-hush until we could get these guys dropped off. I could barely hear him say we had to keep it quiet.

Eventually, we reach our destination so we can get rid of my two passengers and we can talk. It was only then that I find out it was an elaborate joke on another SAR member.

Seriously? WTF?!

Life in the Real World has been different. Memorial Day weekend had us patrolling Arkabutla Lake. A few others and myself stayed the entire weekend while the rest of the unit came out to work in shifts. There wasn’t as much activity as we were expecting. I think the scattered rain, high winds and whitecapping water kept a lot of boaters away. I decided to pitch in with the groceries and bought 30lbs of crawfish. Note to self, don’t by 30lbs of crawfish unless there will be an army there.

I can’t wait for the July 4th weekend. The lake will be packed and I can’t wait to disconnect from everything again.

This past Sunday found me helping a friend with a horse that broke through a fence. When all was calm again, things took a turn for the worse when the horse found herself in a 12 foot deep drainage ditch. I’ve never been around horses. Not even a casual brush with one. To go from what’s a bridle? To a full on rescue out of a ditch full of water is one heck of a way to get aquainted with horses. I should probably spend a little time learning about horses. Well, learn more than the fact they look like oversized Doberman Pinschers…

Helping the corps of engineers. Lots of sailboats on the lake today

Swapped out for a ride on the pontoon. Gustav is slowing but chances
are, he will build stronger when he hits the gulf. It’s going to be an
EARLY morning tomorrow!

Not much time for pictures when you’re riding a jet ski!