Wild Weather

Dream

I’m watching a newscast. The first part I can remember is a weather story with a team of storm chasers in the field. They're tracking some phenomenon and broadcasting live, but it hasn’t shown up yet so they switch over to another story. Some footage about a revolution in Eastern Europe starts. It shows a crowd gathered in a public square and there is a bunch of people standing on top of a bus holding a banner written in a language I don’t understand. The news mentions that they overthrew the tyrannical government and received aid from some of the neighboring democratic countries. I think to myself that revolutions like this have been happening a lot lately and that maybe this is a result of our global technology level. Something like how the ease of communication is making democracy the natural form of government. They switch back to the storm chasers because the strange weather system has finally arrived. The storm chasers are in a kind of tricked out van and are parked in a residential neighborhood looking at some shale bluffs. There is some excited talk as they say the phenomenon is coming over the hill and the camera shows a small but very intense cyclone moving down the bluff. The commentary states that this sort of thing has only ever been seen in the upper atmosphere before. The cyclone moves into the back yard of a house and picks up a child’s toy. Now a big pink and yellow cloth flower thing is spinning in the center, giving the storm a more defined shape (and also making it look kind of silly). Readings from the various instruments on the van are being rattled off, with wind speeds of a couple hundred miles an hour and a temperature of 5000° F in the core. This temperature sounds ridiculous and one of the storm chasers says that they are “checking the physics” on that temperature. The cyclone continues to move around the van, and they come back to say that a temperature of 5000° isn’t physically possible and the measurement must be a bad reading. Next it shows a mailman standing in shocked surprise as the cyclone moves within about 20 feet of him. As the storm moves past the side of his body facing it is terribly burned. He collapses to the ground with singed clothes and all the hair on one side of his face is burnt away and blister instantly appear (this is my brain telling me it’s a third degree burn). I’m shocked and the guys in the van talk about how the temperature reading is apparently correct. The camera only stays on the mailman for a moment before continuing to follow the storm. I start getting mad that nobody helps the mailman because he was sort of reaching towards the van as the camera pulled away. The new people comment that he's getting up and walking away and I feel a little better knowing that he can walk but still think that maybe they should have tried to help him rather than just continue to watch the weather, no matter how scientifically important it is. Then a doorbell starts ringing, because it’s actually 2:30 and I’m taking a nap and they guy is here to put salt in the water softener.

Analysis

This is one of my dreams that exists somewhere between lucid dreaming and hallucination. It happened after I had woken up from sleeping and stayed lying in bed. I was still drowsy and let my thoughts and imaginations ramp up into a full dream-like state while I was still semi-conscious. These dreams are usually third person and my thoughts and emotions will influence the action in uncertain ways. An example is how in this dream, when I got mad that they didn’t help the mailman they talk about him walking away instead of actually doing what I wanted and helping him.

The fact that I’m watching the news in this dream is a little odd since I don’t watch the news (not having cable makes it hard). I do get little highlights whenever I hear people mention missing airplanes and what not, but I never really follow these up. This explains my thoughts about recent revolutions since those are something that I often hear about. so from my perspective it seems like they're happening all the time. I assume that there haven’t been any more revolutions that normal recently, but my thoughts about increased communications encouraging the creation of democracies is a real thing.

Weather reports are something I definitely don’t watch since I believe that looking out the window is all the weather information I typically need. It’s not like I change how I dress depending on the forecast or anything. If anything real crazy is on the way I usually hear about it through the grapevine anyway. That’s how I learned about our blizzard last week, which is probably what got me thinking about intense weather phenomena.

It's also apparent that I support decent ethics in the face of scientific discovery, so that's cool.

Auguries

If you see a giant spinning flower coming at you, RUN. It could melt your face.

Ignoring NASA

Dream

My immediate family and I all work for NASA and my mother and sister are about to leave on a mission. They will be travelling around at relativistic speeds, so for an observer on Earth they won’t be back for at least 100 years. We are discussing the mission with some random crew member as the ship is being loaded, but the conversation somehow pertains to a book about our current actions. I haven’t read this far in the book yet so I’m trying to follow along. They inform me that I’m going to stow away on the ship against the wishes of NASA. The crew will be in stasis for most of the trip so my presence won’t cause a supply problem (I got worried about this mid-dream). I also have my own stasis chamber that I personally built. We learn that NASA is threatening further missions if I join this one. They will delay the next mission for five years and will institute even harsher punishments for future stowaways. We don’t really care and now my dad has decided to join the mission as well. NASA threatens to take away the electron from our family crest (pictured below) if we proceed with the plan, and we all think that they are being completely unreasonable about trying to split up our family.

Analysis

I’ve always wanted to work for NASA, but I hope they aren’t such jerks in real life. All their threats were pretty hollow though, since it’s hard to punish someone who won’t be around for the next 100 years.

The part where my own future was being told to me from a book was pretty bizarre. I was being informed of decisions like I had already made them and I just followed along. I guess this is somewhat similar to many of my dealings with my family. When we gets together I’m just informed of it and go along. I don’t make any real decision to participate and just do what's expected of me. I’m not saying that I don’t like seeing my family, but it does bother me a little how passive I am about it.

Auguries

NASA threatened to take away our electron, which is something that represents negativity. My family or I might lose something negative, possibly through science.