Dream 20080318, The Yahoo Bees
I woke from this dream with a start. It concerns two things that are problems in real life: I’m drowning in STUFF, and the house and barn have been neglected.
There was stuff happening before this, but I don’t remember what. Chris and I walk out of the house (it is a sort of odd combination of indoors /outdoors) – and Chris shows me all this stuff he got at a garage sale- it is like one of those “reveal” moments when somebody has you close your eyes, and then open to see the new stuff. He explains that revisited a garage sale just around the corner, and bought all this stuff for only $90.
There are like two houses full worth of stuff, piled all around this area that goes from being indoors to being outdoors, back and forth, as we walk through it. My parents are hereat some points, but not consistency – there are also somerandom strangers here at some points. I remember looking at these huge piles of stuff – there are something like four or five mattress sets, stacked up; there is a row of old sewing machines, ranging from one that looked like a very early treadle machine to several old electric models; there are stacks of boxes, old tools,just lots of stuff. There are a lot of religious artifacts, like somebody had purchased the inventory of an old church – there are decorative metalwork pieces, and bits of religious art. We walk around, inspecting the stuff for a little while. Some things have prices on them, most things are a nickel or a dime – stuff like washing machines and sewing machines and tables. I’m laughing, because even though they’re amazing deals, I know that we don’t need all of this – and can’t use it all.
Then, we’re walking around the back yard. The fence to the back alleys more like the inside edge of a barn – I can look out into the alley through a number of doors, and it seems like there’s a roof above us. I see a cat that I don’t recognize, and I know that it’s a cat from the alley. I chuck a small rock at it, and it runs off. There are couple more as well; I realize that one of the gates has been left open, and the wild neighborhood cats are getting in. I find the open gate, and close it. There’s some woman with me, and we’re walking around the barn (not the fence one, but the storage shed barn in the backyard) and it’s made of these little wooden tiles which have shrunk and look like they’re about ready to flake off. I explain the history of the house, how the Mormons had originally built the barn to house their food stores, and now it is just storage.
We walk around the yard, and she’s doing something about halfway between real-estate consultancy and Feng Shuei; she points to a cut-off stump, and says that there used to be a tree there, and it really ought to be there. Why was it gone? We’re walking around the house, and see that it needs repairs as well; it’s not in as bad of shape as the barn, but it needs work.
We look out at the barn, and see that it’s covered with red-orange bees which is probably combining the red carpenter ants that swarmed from one wall (this weekend), with memories of a news broadcast about a tractor-trailer with a load of bees turning over on a highway – and someone points out that they’re Yahoo bees. I look, and some of them are these huge (like small-dog-sized) plush toy bees with logos on them.Someone asks if we paid to advertise it on Yahoo. I realize that I have honey on my fingers, and try to wipe them off; it’s sticky.
A strong wind comes up, and blows down a different red-brown barn (not the storage building, but one that doesn’t really exist, on the other side of the lot). It just collapses into a heap, wrinkling from one end to the other almost like a silkworm’s skin being shed off. I’m amazed,but not really surprised – I knew it was in delicate condition. We open the front door to the house, and inside it looks like an old barn that has been un-tended in a wet climate, like the Pacific Northwest, for dozens of years – the walls are falling in, the floor has big holes, and everything is covered with green moss. The wood looks punky and like it would crumble if stepped on. I scream, and wake up.
oh, whew.
i wish i were your personal organizerlady. will send resume.
it will just be photos of *my* chaos. i won’t get the job.
heee!
don’t throw rocks at cats.
🙂
love
jane
Oh, I so need to get organizered. There is much chaos – most of it is a sort of grew-out-of-that-phase, didn’t-discard-the-crap-of-it type stuff. Old clothes still in the closet. Stuff in the drawers of the dresser in the soap room, that I never use – so that the stuff I DO use, is in boxes in front of the dresser.
I didn’t peg the cat with a rock – just chucked it at the ground to make the cat run away. I have 2 – 4 (depends on the day) “yard cats” who live outdoors – they come in through a gap in the fence, and I put food out for them. Other people have bird feeders, I have a cat feeder.
🙂
i know your kind heart.
the problem with having space is that we fill it!
your desire for order will win.
as i’m a renter, i’ve moved several times in the last decade. with each move, less stuff.
i’m almost content now.
almost.
I haven’t moved since 1994. With each year of sitting on my arse, more stuff. 🙂
Great dream sequence – even if it does stem from your stress at being overwhelmed.
I live in the PNW – my roof, from lack of getting off my ass to deal with it, is COVERED will moss! If I sit around a little longer, maybe it will just go ahead and take over the house.
And the bees? Crashed very near where I grew up. They’d been off in California pollinating orchards and were on their way home. Poor bees.
Given the low price tags on the stuff, sounds like you really don’t value a lot of what you’re keeping.
Yahoo bees.. I love it! I want a plush bee now.
It’s not just a question of value – we’ve gotten some things that are like “Oh, my GAWD, it’s only five bucks! We have to GET THAT!”… and it’s stuff we don’t need. Or three of something we need one of. Need to do a bunch of purging, have a huge garage sale.