1st Life/Birthday/colons/Carabbas/Peter Lawford dream

Yesterday's birthday: 39
Phone call at work: (from Dad, who's 66)
Dad's about to be taken to Emergency Room via ambulance (blood while going #2)
After work there is a hospital mini-rendezvous involving me and Dad and brother and also my best friend, Bill.
Crisis averted. Nothing (so far as we can tell) that's "acute." Dad will stay in a couple days for more tests.
In the meantime, my job is to take out Smoochie (his pet dog)
Also in the meantime, there was a birthday dinner for me. (Dad can't make it.) (Paid for by my brother.)
At Carrabba's
Thinking about my colon as I eat Chicken Cannelloni.
My friend Bill is also in attendance. He's been my best friend for 13 years. My (very) nice brother pays for his meal too.
Sleep is restful and uneventful except for this peculiar dream...

DREAM:
A dream right before I woke up involving Peter Lawford (!) :
I'm offered a small parcel of scrub-brush real estate in Arizona for $100. Seems like a fair deal. Then the dream shifts to my real-life manager, Rob, showing me how to insert these stick-like devices (plastic rose stems?) into tubs that are filled with a squishy substance like Jello. We are in a parking garage in Arizona, not far from the parcel I just bought, and these sticks are apparently for display. Each stick requires that it first be broken near the top and then sort of twisted as it's inserted into the tub so that it remains standing. Peter Lawford is helping me do this "chore" after Rob leaves, and I am very frustrated that my sticks don't remain standing. Instead, they disappear into the goo. Peter Lawford is preaching patience.
Peter Lawford is an expert at making these sticks stay afloat. He tells me that I am not twisting them properly. I wake up.

1st Life/Stuck on roof

We were putting up a banner when our ladder toppled over. Good thing we were already on roof!
We looked at each other like: Now what?
Both of us had our cell phones. We could call someone...
"Good morning. Good Sunday morning. Could you do us a BIG favor and rescue us by picking up our ladder off the ground...?"
It was only two stories up, but still.
We saw a lady walking her dog. As she got closer, I asked Bill "Should we?"
Yes.
"Ma'am, good morning! How are you? Beautiful day, isn't it? Listen, we're in a jam. Our ladder fell over. Yes, that one. Would you mind...?"
She mercifully upended our ladder while her poodle watched.
"Thank you! Thank you!" we both said.
I wadded up nine dollars and tossed it down to her. She smiled and left.
Bill and I looked at each other and thanked the heavens for strolling dogs.

2nd Life/ New Year's, SL style

I spent time today working on my new water tower with my rl friend, Bill, who's much more adept at putting stuff together than I am.

The water tower sort of looks like this.

(The tower is another reference to BF42 [which has plenty of water tanks and guard towers, so this is my attempt to blend them together]. This water tower has a swinging bachelor pad, though.)

Onward...

I thought it would be interesting to see how the people on SL celebrate New Year's. At Badgirls Club all the East Coasters cheered (with quite a number of wolf howls) at midnight; then we did it all again an hour later when the Central Timers had their midnight. I asked the Central Timers if I, as an East Coaster, could join in on their celebration--and they said no problem. More howls and hooting (and hollering) were heard when it became midnight Central, as everyone at the club used every conceivable sound device to get the point across. And it was the same way an hour later when the Mountain Timers had their fun. By the time the Pacific Timers had their midnight I was already in bed--my computer worn out because of all the lag. (I imagine their experience was fun too.)

In short, it was a surreal experience welcoming in the New Year in both the virtual and real worlds.

Great, great fun.