The person was obviously chasing me with intent to do me harm. After a long run, I ended up in a vast desolate landscape with shrubs and a few scattered trees hinting at denser forest on the horizon. The feeling it evokes in me is almost sadness coupled with awe. I soon came to a deep and wide chasm (the bottom was not visible). The only way across was a 10-story vertical slim “pillar” make of huge blocks stacked one on top of another and loosely held together by mortar. The was connected to a similar vertical pillar on the other side with a strip of land probably the same length across as the pillars were tall and about 4 feet wide. It looked really old and I got the impression that the surrounding land must have been at that level until something happened and everything fell away leaving only the “bridge” at that level.
I scrambled up the sides. At the top, there was a tractor balanced precariously and exactly the width of the thin strip of land that linked both sides together. It was so tight there was no way to get on top of the strip and I had to make my way across hand over hand hanging over the chasm. The strip began to unravel and as it came down, I swung to the pillar on the other side amidst the debris of the collapsing walkway. I then made my way down. I continued to run and from a distance I could see that he was able to make it across the chasm by jumping over the rubble from the bridge. I kept running and soon came to a settlement. I asked a group of people sitting down under some shade how I could get to my home town (strange) and an old man got up and asked me to follow him. He took me through a fence unto a windy tarmac road with clay-red earth on its shoulder. He said I should be able to get transportation from there. I thanked him and for some strange reason discovered I knew the place where I now was, and how to get to my home town. Then I woke up. I am sure I have seen that same setting in a dream many years ago when I was much younger – go figure.

(original draft on May 30, 2008)

The sentence below is from “The vanishing hitchhiker” (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/vanish.asp) . The last part “before things went to hell in a handbasket” just tickles my fancy for want of a better way to put it. It’s something I can re-read like 10 times and still want to read again. Certain novel combination of words (yes, I know it’s not new) just moves me that way.

Quote: “This form of the legend often surfaces in the wake of a natural disaster, with the encounter said to have happened maybe al of a week before things went to hell in a handbasket.”
You may want to visit the site itself – it’s about urban legends.

Went to the Dome Cinema owned by The Charlotte Observer today to watch “Sea Monsters” on their iMAX screen. It was incredible. I am in the “field” so I shouldn’t be so awed, but it was something. I wanted to watch some other film on the one in London, but the night I went there with my brother, they didn’t have anything I thought was worth the experience. Though now that I think back on it, it seems the same “Sea Monsters” was one of the 2 or so films they had on that night. We started watching the “Dinosaurs” documentary after that, but they had focusing issues and returned the tickets for a full refund or come back another day to watch any of the films they had playing (not in Nigeria). Took the light rail (intercity train) to and fro. Clean and big and fast.
Ok, 2 nights before I left Reston, I decided to do my washing. Put all my clothes in the washer (26 minutes) then the dryer (60 minutes). I think that was a mistake letting it sit in the dryer for 60 minutes. I noticed that some of my T-shirts had become jumpers afterwards. And the only pair of jeans I brought with me makes me look like some music star from the wacko jacko era (think Cameo or Cool and the gang). I think I need to put the jeans in a stretcher of some sort otherwise I need to “frequently adjust it’s settings”
Left out Juan of Honduras from my previous post. I met him at the Greyhound Springfield bust station. He spoke a little English and we managed to communicate while waiting for the bus. He had a 10-year VISA to the states (2000 – 2010) and seems he’s been around for about 6 years. He said he’s fed up working and working and paying bills and rent and that he’s going back to Honduras next year. I think what he does must be somewhat manual as when he was trying to describe his job, he made moves as if he was driving a bike (possibly some sort of lawn/grass cutting). I found it strange that he could barely speak English, possibly he didn’t mix much and maybe his work didn’t require talking to English-speaking folks, but 6-years here and no English

(original draft in June 2008)

Social Commentary 3 (15/June/2008):

I sat in the “Wireless Internet” zone in the airport in Armsterdam (flight switch on my way to USA). But since the cheapskates at RIM only put bluetooth and no wi-fi in the BlacbBerry 8300 I couldn’t browse. I turned on the bluetooth and discovered the following devices:

SNAFU, Phone, Jes onty Ismael

Social Commentary 4:

Met “Juan from Honduras” at Springfield Greyhound bus station.

His work VISA (which he showed me in his International Passport) read 2000 to 2010.

He said he was going back to Honduras next year, that money was worth a lot more in Honduras,

but here (in the US), it just work, work, work and pay bills, bills, bills.

He doesnt have to pay rent in Honduras. He is been around for quite a while and could barely speak

English.I suspect he must be doing “physical” work and possibly doesn’t come in contact much

with English-only speaking people? If I could speak Spanish or if he had been able to speak

English we could have had a long interesting conversation while we both waited for our buses to

arrive. He was really going cross country –  not sure now, but possibly from California to Los Angeles.

“Hard Times Cafe & Cue” (on his T-shirt?)

Seems he has spent 6 years and probably does gardening of some sort – not sure as he made as if he was operating some sort of bike when trying to explan hisline of work to me. Spent about 2hours in Richmond instead of 40mins. Lots of people complaining abotu GreyHound’s service at the

various terminuses I visited on my cross-contry trips through 3 states in America. It seems they have delays galore and with very little or no

competition on the long-haul trips, they don’t seem willing to improve. In fact, on my way from North Carolina to Ohio, we had to stop about

an hour into the 13hour or so journey because we had “lost” some lugnuts on one of the wheels of the bus. We then had to wait for about 7 hours

while another bus was sent up from North Carolina. At some point even the driver suggested that as many people could, should write their head office

and complain about the service, that though he couldn’t guarantee it, but it’s possible they may get refunds or rebaits on future trips.

If none of those, at least it would let the management know that the customers are disatisfied!