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Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, May 15th, 2013,
and today's topic is "Recurring Realities."
It started with a pretty cool web comic called "Freefall" by Mark Stanley,
and for 18 years he's been pushing forward a story arch that only covers about three months.
But the punchline from this weekend has been:
"I have a recurring nightmare that I'm never going to get a good night's sleep...
and then I wake up to find it's a recurring reality."
Now for me, that hit pretty close to home,
because I've been having daily panic attacks, ever since the Cincinnati riots of 2001.
It's actually routine for me to wake up at some random hour of the morning,
with some unexplained surge of adrenaline.
For two years after the riots, I *still* didn't know what a panic attack was,
and I was struggling to keep a job.
I was prescribed some SSRIs, which taught me two things:
ONE is that you can find yourself in the seventeen percent of people
who will become more suicidal by these drugs,
and the SECOND is that they can give you some pretty interesting recurring nightmares.
[dreamy voice:] "I was in the old west, on horseback."
"I was a cowboy, riding into a canyon."
"There were these... callers. They're gunning for me."
"I don't know who. I don't know where. I don't know when they'll strike..."
"All I know is that I am their target."
"Then suddenly, the shot rings out, and I'm struck in the chest with hot lead."
"and I'm falling, off the back of may horse... falling toward the ground..."
"but I'm landing onto the back... ...of another horse!"
"It's my technical skills and courtesy there to catch me"
"and carry me wounded to the end of the canyon,"
"into an identical canyon, another ambush canyon...."
"fifty - times - a - day !"
If I were a smoker, the picture would end with me taking long drag off of a cigarette,
expelling smoke from hundreds of bullet holes all over my chest.
But I don't smoke.
So the picture ends as I sit down for the night,
pull off my boots, and pour out twenty pounds of buckshot onto the floor.
Ten years later, the panic attacks still happen every day,
but the recurring nightmares pale to the recurring realities.
The 93 year old mother-in-law gets up at any hour of the night to use the bathroom,
and spends more time inside there than outside.
I mean, she's 93 years old, and the only thing she does fast is to use up paper products.
Of course, that can't be helped... but I hope you have better things
to do for an hour, while her walker blocks the bathroom, the hallway,
the kitchen, and your bedroom door!
[voice of Gandalf the gray wizard:] "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!"
Then, there is Mr. Bilbo Boogims,
who must have belonged to Erwin Schrödinger some time,
because no matter what time it is, day or night, he wants to be
both inside and outside at the same time.
While the adrenaline still exhausts me, it's easier to copy with, once I know what is behind it.
So let me ask you, "What are YOUR recurring nightmares and recurring realities?"
I hope to see and hear from you by next week.
But in the meantime, this is Joel "TwistyNye," wishing you
"Happy Trails," and "Pleasant Dreams."