I was biking to work, and it started off sunny and easy. Abruptly, the weather changed to a deep, dark winter's night with thick snow all over the ground, which appeared to be vast expanses of fields. I could feel myself slow down, especially when I was forced off the road by cars and onto the grass. Then I could feel myself work really hard to slog through, and I even thought to myself what a great workout it was.

As I rounded the bend that led into town, I could see the border was marked off by a large row of trees perpendicular to the road, so that the only gap was for the road. Once I crossed over, the town itself was snow-free, but still dark. I couldn't decide in my head whether I was biking to work in Boston or in Madison, so I lost my way. I found myself in Roxbury, which is a more run-down town just outside of Boston. As I tried to get back on the main road, I found myself going full-speed through an empty children's playground, directly at the brick wall of the school. Instead of stopping and turning fully, I let myself bounce off the wall at an angle and correct myself off the bounce. It felt pretty cool. But then I was stuck at a dead end railing. Fortunately, there was a gap under the railing, and I slid my bike through, then myself, and resumed.

When I got back on the big road, it was sunny again. I was once more run off the road by cars and had to stick to the lefthand sidewalk. A truck suddenly smashed into the wall right in front of me, putting me hard on the brakes. I looked to see if the driver was okay. He appeared to be drunk, but in full command of the truck (which was painted a sickly green and blue, and appeared to be assembled in irregular chunks). He backed up and smashed again into the wall, a few feet closer to me. I quickly backed away and found that the traffic had died down. Instead, a bike race came through, straight down the middle. In the lead were several race organizers, all but one on foot. The one on the bike had a traffic cone which he used to mark off the actual race leader. I couldn't figure out why the organizers were faster than the racers, but I guess they could have been waiting ahead and only just started running (and the racers looked tired by this point). In any case, I followed them slowly and drowsily before waking up.

posted by Larry at 9:13 AM