Nemo and His Daughter

This morning's half hour dream - taking place, in its entirety, from 5:30am to 6:00am - was full of steampunkity goodness in the form of an invading navy of somewhat improbable wooden submersible battleships and ironclad submarines.

I really can't recall the lead-in to the dream, but I remember Nemo was showing me around at some of his Miracles of Science, which included a fluid-controlled computer, and more. While we were looking over everything and Nemo was telling me how great things were going, life was looking up, and so forth, my daughter and his daughter were playing.

Suddenly I was looking over someone else's shoulder - they were on a fast boat, further out in the harbor, so they saw the vast naval fleet of the Enemy approaching, before they dipped under the waves. Some of the ships had the classic WWII battleship look, but they were made of wood. By the time I saw them, the superstructures were just dipping below the waves, heading towards Nemo's palace on the river.

The pilot of the boat had to get the message to Nemo so he could get his family to safety. Amazingly enough, as we zipped across the harbor and up the river, we were not noticed by the naval vessels crowding into the waterway - this was a vast fleet, hundreds of ships. In the river, as the battleships had dipped under, it made complete sense that the conning towers - and sometimes more - of the subs were above water.

The submarines were large - significantly larger than the WWII era subs I've seen, possibly the size of a modern nuclear sub which I haven't seen in person - and made of some wood and mostly steel.

The launch just made it to the Palace, literally ten or fifteen steps ahead of the soldiers streaming from the ships. Now I was back at my original POV - which was, by the way, that of a gentleman of some means, and obviously considered highly by the ruler of this land, as we were not dressed formally, our suit jackets long since hung up, and sleeves rolled up as we investigated this new computational machinery Nemo had invented.

Now, I found myself diving and tackling my daughter and the princess, and gesturing for the scout and my former POV person to lie on the ground as round bullets shattered the decorative Palace wall of ornate glass doors. Although whatever land I came from knew of the Gun, it was clear that Nemo and his society had never witnessed one; and these weapons were far and beyond what even I was familiar with. Enemy sailors and soldiers stood above us, their bullets shattering Nemo's beautiful machinery. One, right above me and the girls, held a rapid-firing machine gun, with its overlarge water filled cylinder cooling down the smaller barrel which pelted out thousands of 3/4" lead balls.

~ ~ ~

I don't know - but I highly suspect - that, aside from the Enemy, which was nearly unopposed, Nemo was the only one still breathing the next day. I expect he mourned the loss of his family - and perhaps his friend, my primary POV character, and countrymen - before gathering whatever he could, building the Nautilus, and, like his attacking force had done, disappearing beneath the waves.

But you can read about that part of the story in one of Jules Verne's dreams.

When Ma Nature Says "Hurry Up!" You Hurry Up

After supper I started putting the spring blend of fertilizer on the front yard. Halfway through the second pass (having been joined by Justin towards the end of the first pass) the sky darkened and lightning started showing up in the distance. We did our best to use up the rest - almost all of it - running in circles after we finished the second pass. A few droplets showed up, but the fertilizer remained dry. Just as Justin closed the garage door, the rain came, finishing up the job by soaking the fertilizer into the ground.

I had hoped to set one of the six stones in the back yard, but that just didn't happen.

As soon as the weather allows, we'll spread fertilizer on the back yard and get to those stones.

Oh - I have to wait a bit before going to bed. Had to jump in an emergency shower. Justin was holding Brandon and reading Least I Could Do over my shoulder while Deb was talking to patrixa on the phone. Apparently eating lots of crackers and then jumping around like a two and a half year old is wont to do is not a Good Thing. I caught some collatoral damage in my hair. Yick.

All better now, though. Brandon enjoyed listening to my new song and then Michael Hedge's Ursa Major, and after playing to a smiling kid cuddled up in bed, I popped in the second disc of the Yesyears boxed set.