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Saturday, January 26, 2002

Last night I had very strange dreams. I sometimes take Kava-Kava (an herbal OTC) for insomnia, and it always makes me have very vivid dreams.

I dreamed that DH and I were at my paternal grandparents old house, walking through the empty rooms, looking at what a wreck the place was. The house was rundown, and littered with debris; we even saw rats and spiders in the corners. Vaguely, I recall something about a hobo hiding in the closet, and this gave the dream a sense of danger too. But we were discussing buying the house, and renovating it, bringing it back to its former state. I felt creepy, and somehow didn't want to buy it though. Of course, my paternal grandparents' house was my one refuge as a child from my abusive homelife. Unfortunately, the house was utterly destroyed in a 1974 tornado, though my grandparents were in the storm cellar and survived.

I woke up, then went back to sleep. This time I dreamed that I was visiting a former neighbor's biological mother's home on a quaint island near one of the large cities in our region. There is no ocean or island in such a location, but it seemed very real in the dream. This former neighbor, Linda, was such an annoying person; she constantly came over, could not take a hint that I wanted nothing to do with her. Years later, after we moved from there, she and her teenage son/daughter, killed her husband for life insurance money. She is now in prison. At any rate, in this dream DH and I were visiting a beautiful little cottage on this island, and it was furnished with WWII-style furniture, some antiques and other odd stuff. There was an unknown woman with us, who lived there and was the caretaker; she was telling us how the house had been kept in the same condition as Linda's biological mother left it; that when Linda got free of prison, she would inherit this house. {Linda is adopted; and she had already inherited her adopted parents' home/property years ago.} As with all dreams, it was a bit confusing and convoluted...but left a good feeling when I woke, compared to the bad feeling after the first dream.

Now if I was superstitious, or believed in ESP or the supernatural, perhaps I would wonder if such dreams were premonitions or something. But in fact, right before DH and I went to sleep last night, he'd told me that he'd learned more about a house/property we'd been thinking of buying some time ago. The owner declared bankruptcy, and DH had been trying to learn more about it -- which he did. And we may go look at the place later today. So I'm sure that is where the dreams of 'houses' came from...and that my subconscious is trying to tell me I probably don't want to move, since I do like living in the city and the other place is in the county.

It's a beautiful day here, sunny and warm, near 60. I went for a long bike ride earlier, and enjoyed myself. A neighborhood cat was at the park, and as I rode by, it would act as if it were about to chase the bike. I finally stopped and petted it a little while. At least it DID have a collar/I.D. on it, and I know it belongs to a nearby home, since I've seen it on the porch. I wish ALL people would at least keep collar/I.Ds on their dogs/cats...

Here's an excerpt from an interesting article:

PATHBREAKING CBO STUDY SHOWS DRAMATIC INCREASES IN BOTH 1980s AND 1990s IN INCOME GAPS BETWEEN THE VERY WEALTHY AND OTHER AMERICANS

Study Also Shows Decline in Federal Tax Burdens for All Income Groups

A NEW PATHBREAKING Congressional Budget Office study, which includes the best data that any agency or institution has compiled on income and tax trends in recent decades, shows that the average after-tax income of the richest one percent of Americans grew by $414,000 between 1979 and 1997, after adjusting for inflation, while average after-tax income fell $100 for the poorest 20 percent of Americans and grew a modest $3,400 for those exactly in the middle of the income spectrum. In percentage terms, after-tax income grew an average of 157 percent over this period for the top one percent of the population, rose a modest 10 percent — about one-half of one percent per year — for the 20 percent of Americans in the middle of the income spectrum and was effectively unchanged for those in the bottom fifth.

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Yep, the rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer... What else is new? (sarcasm)

Here's a quote for the day: "We have to make myths of our lives. It is the only way to live without despair." --May Sarton

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