This AM I had yet another dream that took place in the building I
used to work in when I worked for the travel agency in Newport
Beach in 1993-1996.

I worked on the 8th floor in this 9 story building.

A recurring theme in my dreams is to be sneaking around this 9th
floor, as if it is some top-secret executive meeting place or
something.

This morning the dream began on the roof of the building, there
were lots of people there. I disappeared down a staircase, and
ended up in the foyer area of this elusive 9th floor.

This time, Apple had taken up shop in the top spot. Their door
was this huge stuffed leather door with a 3ft tall illuminated
white apple logo in the center.

I tried to push it open, but just as my hand touched, I noticed a
security guard on the opposite side of the area.

I nonchalantly made my way to the elevator, which dropped like a
rock to the ground floor. I was dressed in a suit coat, tie
loosely hung around my neck, tee shirt, and shorts. I was
sincerely hoping that nobody from the top-secret Apple exec team
was waiting to get into their special elevator at the first floor.

Then I woke up.

I’ve had many dreams in this location, always going to the secret
9th floor, always narrowly escaping trouble.

Other common locations:

• beach town
• green hills
• the danky concrete toilet megaplex (I have this
  phobia with public restrooms)

• hmmm … i know there are others

I like me.

Fire damage in Mission Trails, right next to my house.

Sweetcheeks wrote:

“In midweek events in Washington and Oregon, Kerry will emphasize how high gas prices are straining the economy and squeezing the budgets of families and communities.”

Wasn’t Gore in favor of a gas tax to persuade people to conserve? Now that the market’s invisible hand is raising gas prices, all the democrats are running around like chicken little. If the price of gas is high, it’s high and it doesn’t matter how it got there, right?

Pay me wrote:

That hand is hardly invisible, or as economist Joe Stiglitz of Columbia wrote last year, the reason it’s called an “invisible hand” is because it truly doesn’t exist…

…especially when it comes to oil pricing, which is wraught with moral hazards and manipulation. Oil prices are rising due to the dollar’s drop and to wild speculation at the NY mercatile exchange, not just the increased demand from China or issues over
domestic refineries. There is a precarious currency issue at the core that is reflective over overseas restlessness with our budget deficit, general federal indebtedness and foreign policy shenanigans.

The Drique writes:

I still believe that OPEC is just coming to terms with the fact that there fuel is still fairly inelastic at today’s pricing. I agree more with James. The U.S. the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of mankind could have the most advanced public transportation system in the world, in all of its cities.

Market demand has not pushed it in this direction, in my opinion, because gas prices are still within the American budget. Asseninely ginormouse SUV’s don’t just spawn, they are driven my market demand.