January 19, 2006

I had an interesting dream last night. I was on a plane returning from my stay in Louisiana. There was a lot of turbulence-complete with a rapidly executed barrel roll. (did I mention I don't like to fly very much?) Before touching down the pilot announces that there has been another major disaster. After we land, instead of catching my connection home, I find myself in the VIP lounge arranging to set up a shelter somewhere else, without any resources to work with. The dream was full of franticly garbled phone calls and frustrations. Lots of stress. That's when I woke up.

Dale Austin 2006

March 10, 2006
Well, except for the plane ride, I found myself in exactly that position just last week. There was a middle of the night fire at a senior apartment complex, and I was diverted to the Chapter house while making my morning commute in order to set up a canteen operation at each of three hotels the residents had been evacuated to. Thus began four days with my phone welded to the side of my head. I had described this dream to another volunteer, whose response was; "Oh, yeah, the phone dream. The plane was a nice touch."