after waking.

Wednesday morning. Not as much sleep as I’d like to have had, but dreams were pleasant.

Sitting in my brother’s house, at the extension of the kitchen counter where chairs have been set up. I don’t know why, but when I am over here, this is my favorite place to sit while working on my laptop. I’m guessing it’s because of semi-comfortable chairs, decent lighting, view of the rest of the kitchen and eating area. And, when my niece is home and baking, I can talk with her while I sit at the computer.

Snowball the cat now sits on the chair next to mine. Normally I don’t see her when I am over here, unless it is late in the evening and my brother and his wife’s two younger children have gone to bed. But when I am staying here while the family is gone, when I am looking after the house and the animals, Snowball likes to be around.

Chase, the big goofy dog, a Golden-Doodle (that’s half standard poodle, half golden retriever), who did not turn out golden but salt and pepper black, is laying down in the entryway.

Not much sound. Someone down the block mowing his lawn, the clock behind me ticks, a few songbirds in the distance. The chickens in the yard are silent. No roosters here, but a few of the hens were definitely not silent at 6:49 this morning. I was up ’til close to 3 am, like usual. I do not like chicken noises so early. But, I was able to go back to sleep.

I’ve, these past few days, been thinking about churches. I dreamed of a church back in the town where I’m from in California. A church across from a city park. A fairly small church but pleasant.

That church is not really there. And the park I was dreaming of looks different from how it did in my dream. Across from the park is not a church, but a small plaza with a grocery store, Mexican restaurant, yogurt shop, jewelry store and gift shop. It’s a nice shopping plaza, but I like how, in my dream, there was a church across from the park.

I visited another church in my dream too. I don’t remember it as well. In the church across the park, I sat alone, and did not know anyone, but in this one, I found myself sitting next to a woman I know in waking life, but who I am not close to. I’ve only seen her rarely and have had few conversations with her.

In my dreams, I almost never encounter people I know in this waking life. Those I do meet, I do not know well. It has happened that, during a dream, a person will walk through a room, just as an extra in a film would. It would be someone I had not seen in over twenty years, and someone I barely knew at all.

This woman I at least know a little, but not much. I find it interesting that people I know better do not show up in my dreams, except very rarely.

I woke up partly because I heard the door to the house being opened. I figured it would be my mom. She has a key. The dog sleeps in the laundry room, and mom sometimes comes over when I am house-siting, to let the dog out. This is because, in the past, I’ve been able to sleep in later.

Mom likes to help with animals, and doesn’t want the dog to be left in the laundry room ’til 11 am or after, when I’ve gotten out of bed. Besides letting Chase out, mom fed the chickens.

It’s a good thing to have her come over, except that once I wake up, and then return to sleep, I tend to sleep lightly. I heard the door being opened, thought it was quite likely mom, but then thought.. what if it isn’t? I don’t want anyone stealing anything. I knew this thought was silly, but still.

I went down, talked briefly with mom, told her that when I came to the house last night, Chase was sitting on the front porch. He’d gotten out of the yard. She said she’d just been to look at the falling down fence in the yard, and propped up some boards.

I didn’t know the fence was in such bad shape. Large gaps in the fence. After mom left, I went into the side yard, put up many more boards. I then went into the garage to get cracked corn for the chickens, which is different from the pellets they mainly eat. The cracked corn is a dessert of sorts for them. I went into the backyard again, and scattered the corn. The chickens were quite pleased.

It is 10:39 am now. I am still tired, but not unpleasantly so. It is overcast, and the temperature is a little lower than yesterday. That is good. I do not know exactly what I will do with the day. I’ll figure that out as I go along, just like the man in the poem in the previous post.. learn by going where I have to go.