Dreaming of a Showering Ghost

Last night's dreams were a strange hodge-podge of me in a 6K run (yeah, not sure why six) and the one I am writing about.

I walked into my bathroom at night to hear the shower running. I turned on the light to see the transparent shower curtain pulling itself a closed a bit more. I could see the shower had no one in it that I could see. Having run into this sort of thing before, I took the opportunity to find out more about this apparent ghost.

"I am so sorry," I said, "I just walked in out of habit."

"It's okay," a voice said in a low tone. The voice was a woman's, low in tone.

"Ummm... will it bother you if I go to the bathroom?" I asked.

"No," she replied.

So I pulled down my PJ bottoms and sat down on the toilet next to the shower. Normally, I would never engage in talk like this with normal people in the real world. See what dreams will do.

"So what's your name?" I asked.

"Donna," she replied.

"When did you live here, Donna? Was it the 80's? The 90's?" I inquired.

"The 90's," she said. She said she was a student at Union. Union is a small college in Barbourville, KY, near my hometown. From the sound of her voice, I thought she was an African American woman in her former life.

"Ah, I miss the 90's. I miss having gas prices around a dollar a gallon," I said.

"That's a funny way to put that," Donna said, "I'll have to remember that."

A price tag sized piece of paper appeared from the the shower curtain opening, scooting along the side of tub towards me. I picked it up and read it. One of the lines read "CO EXTREME DANGER."

"Donna, is this for me?" I asked. It concerned me because "CO" is a common abbreviation for my job title. At this point, I woke up to a very chilly home.

Summer is apparently over. :)

Curse of the Telemarketers

I've tried to be more sympathetic when it comes to telemarketers of late. With the economy as it is, I'm sure there are people who took the plunge and accepted such a job. However, the timing of the calls, the nature of the calls, etc., have not changed and it's reached beyond the limits of patience.

Lately, I've been the victim of the robo-calls. Calls from Oregon, Washington, and Utah have come to home and cell phones, promising to lower my credit rates. The first time or two I hit #3 to remove myself from the list or tried to contact the operator, but I think all it did was verify that my number was legitimate. Both of my numbers are on the Do Not Call registry, which is apparently as useful as a birth control pill at an old folks home. I've registered complaints on the numbers I have and yet I'll get new ones weekly.

Tonight, I was called at 9 PM by my cable company for no good reason. She called to inform me of a merger with another cable company

"Are you aware of the merger?" she asked.

"No," I said flatly.

There was silence while she seemed to be waiting for more info from me. She then told me about great deals with their phone/internet service bundle.

"Who do you have your internet service with?" she asked.

"That's none of your damn business," I replied angrily, "and I don't appreciate being called at 9 PM just so your company can hand off a sales pitch! How do I get my number removed from your system so I don't have to suffer through this again??"

She told me that it would be removed and that the cable company takes the "Do Not Call" registry very seriously.

"Well, you must not take it too seriously, as this number is on the registry already and has been for years," I said, "Are you not checking the registry as you are required to by law??"

The lady stammered through the rest of her speech, talking so fast that words were starting to slur together. We eventually just hung up.

At least there is one less call that will be coming back, I hope.