…so there I was soundly asleep in my bed when I was slowly dragged into consciousness by a beeping sound at 5:00am. I was less than impressed. The strange dream I was having was now quickly fading from reality; my mind struggling in vein to remain in its comfy place where no beeping could be heard. Sigh
The dream itself was rather unusual (back to the beeping in a minute). Lately, we discovered a television series on DVD called “Dead Like Me” at the local pick-a-flick. We instantly fell in love with the show and ended up watching the entire 2 seasons in as many weeks (back to that as well). In my dream, I was in a large building which looked like some sort of casino/mall combination - that is, lots of shops with any available open space used up with fake palm trees, artificial waterfalls and a parrot chirping from a perch with a guy dressed up like a pirate next to it.
I wandered around and came across an independently owned shop which rented music and DVD’s. I inquired into a few titles and ended up obtaining a membership. After a bit more browsing, I soon left the shop to meander about the casino/mall once again. At the opposite end of the building there was another shop, and much like the previous one it had stacks of CD’s and DVD’s only these were for sale rather than for rent. Upon entering the shop, I noticed that the prices were the same as they were at the other shop. I wondered ‘why rent when you can buy at these prices?’. I picked up a few titles and went to the till. “Is this all for you today?” said the man at the till. “Yes, thanks.” I said. “Do you have a membership?” He said. “Is this the same chain of stores as the other one in the mall?” I asked. “Yes it is.” He replied. “Yes I do” I said as I handed him my card. “I am sorry, but you cannot use that card here.” he said “In fact we do not allow those cards on the premises”. “What??” I exclaimed, “But you own both shops!”. “Nevertheless, I cannot allow that card in my shop. I am sorry” He said calmly as he escorted me to the door….
This is where my unconscious mind made the leap to the character “Mason” from “Dead Like Me“. You see, I wasn’t going to take this lying down. In fact, as ‘Mason’ this was just the opportunity to play childish antics and go as far as absolutely possible to defy this obnoxious rule and to purchase a DVD from this shop while having that membership card on my person! Those familiar with Mason’s character will undoubtedly have a clear picture of a thin, punkish Brit dancing around shouting obscenities at the obstinate shop owner while trying to scale the turnstile which now prevented him from re-entering the shop. LOL This is SO not me…but it was a lot of fun regardless.. 
That was before the beeping started….
It turned out to be our Carbon Monoxide detector giving up the ghost. How appropriate. We found this out of course after calling the gas company and after fully ventilated the house by opening up every available window. This is not normally done in January…in Winnipeg. Brrrrrr!
At the end of it all, I was up early. With no hope of going back to sleep, I decided to have a poke ’round the website for a bit. This is when I realised the “Contact” and “Submit Your Pics!” forms weren’t working. Arg! Why didn’t anyone write me to tell me they weren’t working?!
If you’ve tried to use either of these forms recently and found they weren’t working - please try again, even if it is to tell me about a strange dream you’ve had recently!
