Lube the tomatoes, or else

b1-66er: 

https://youtu.be/ordThf9eDMA?si=wmO_3GvI2Z3QNPAy

b1-67er: Super odd. Tomato harvesting is  the hardest (and highest paid) work that I know of in California agriculture. Cannery tomatoes are harvested by machine exclusively. The value is absurdly low, when I was working on a tomato machine in 2013, the grower told me that the cannery guys get $80-$120  a ton!

66: Jesus•

67: So you have to plant it irrigate it, fertilize it, bug spray it, harvest it, and haul it about 30 miles to a packing plant for $100 a ton.

66: How about if you have slaves do it? [As the video implies.]

67: It seems like the last thing in the world the mob would be in.

Still cheaper to mechanically harvest I'd think. But it's a $400,000 machine.  It does the job of maybe 30 people with about 3.

There is just no money in it in the US.  Extremely low profits.

66: There must be somethin' else workin' here, then...

Pride?

Place?

Profits?

Name?

Reputation?

Italia uber alles?

67: In Italy I wonder if it's not some food/nationalism/pride thing.

Pirrissimo: The jerks do the same with olive oil

67: They actually cut the olive oil with other oils. Virtually none of the extra virgin olive oil from Italy is pure.

It's such a big problem that the USDA offers to test and certify your olive oil. Nobody does it.

P: Yep, I tell my daughter all the time, 'if you want real olive oil, buy Californian olive oil not Italian,' and it hurts my soul to have to tell her that. And it is so because of the fricken Mafia

D4rw1n: Wow so mysterious 

We have also been advised to get oil from California to make sure it's fresh and pure 

... Better get a bib ...

b1-66er: I had ½ a (huge) donut with my morning drugs, and the other ½ with my evening.

The odds of me being in a wheelchair, permanently, starting tomorrow, are about 82½%.

b1-67er: But that does leave a 17.5 percent chance of walking and a donut.

Wink

The Accomplice: Unedited views of the sphere...

{Pix © 2023 Big Fricken Ball Bearing Prods

All rights reserved

Used by permission}

Timing of the incisive and the incision

b1-66er:

09:45 

second sleep dream

no morning drugs, water, or electrolytes. Yet. This is my "ramp out" day (3rd day of eating, last before fasting -- although that won't be happening tomorrow as TA departs town).

... On with the show ...

<I'm eating some kind of holiday meal (T-day maybe?) in a house that's sort of a cross of Scorpion Manor with the house I grew up in. There are a few people I know scattered around the dining table. 

I've decided I need more food and go to the central buffet table...

 I'm THRILLED that a couple of the small custard pastry cups I like have been overlooked by the feeding swarm.¹

I take my booty back to the table. 

When I use my R hand to eat with a fork, my index and middle finger won't uncurl and appears to have developed a mild tan. {Think arthritis, after falling asleep on the beach.} Except I'm dream TANNED, like normal people, instead of PINK like I do.

Entirely I'm not really upset, just a little defeated feeling.

"That's new•" I say, holding my arm up like you would when you find a cool rock on a river bank.

DENT is sitting just around the table corner to my R.

"Let me see," he sez and grasps my hand to examine it.

I'm immediately offended. "Get your hands off me!"

He lets go and adds a mild apology.

{To settle my dismay, apparently} I go back to the buffet and get a piece of apple pie. 

<AS YOU WOULD IRL>

¹ to envision this, think: pastry peanut butter cup filled with a fairly good custard. These are not items in familiar with IRL  {at least not YET...AND YOU JUST KNOW you've gotta watch those things at a buffet...

That's nothing more than food poisoning swamp waiting to take you under.}

[EOD]

<Everything's pretty easy and obvious here... With some minor twists, this is essentially a replay of my mom's Memorial Meal...

...Except for the Snarling b1-66er part...

At least, I don't REMEMBER myself snarling.

L's been experimenting with some egg substitute concoctions. That's part of what's going on here.

There's also some anticipation of tonight...

LV Mary and the Robot family are getting together with us to watch the last Aviators fireworks display of the season in downtown Summerlin. We're eating at Lazy Dog [big rectangular wooden tables, not unlike my dream]. Ice cream afterward.

-fin-

>

DENT: I feel honored to have made at least cameo in your dream. 

👍👍 

b1: get your hands off me.

I've been holding off on sending dreams to you (and The Reaper) because I have trouble seeing how MY brain filtration process is going to make YOUR life better (including possibly injuring someone's throat I DON'T EVEN KNOW)...

... But it's TRULY remarkable how good/exacting dream recall is.

The detail. The subtlety.

And REALLY weird when something's MOSTLY right, but some things are very much not.

D: I usually hold off reading your dreams until I put down the scalpel, because, well you know, I get twitchy. . . 

b1: THAT'S funny.

(Although it's always embarrassing to be laughing at my phone when TA is in a bad mood.)

Attorney approved dream behavior

b1-66er: 02:00

first sleep.

{Unusual amount of sugar yesterday (cinnamon roll pancake) and as an indirect result, quite a bit of water (restaurant OUT OF ICE TEA AT 13:00!?)...

... Which in turn meant salt/electrolytes to balance that situation out... 

First dream was so vivid, I thought there was no way I'd forget it...

But it actually took me a second after recalling my second dream this AM.}

On with the show...

<I'm riding with D4rw1n in suburban DC. We're in a new SUV of his in fairly deep snow.

He's yammering on about how how this should be a really good snow car...

... and summarily gets stuck in a drift...

... Oh! That's bad timing because we're just in front of a couple of presidential vehicles...

... A loud speaker (it's not clear if it's from the SUV or an overhead helicopter) tells us we have to move IMMEDIATELY and their SUV bumps us from behind...

...D4rw1n starts losing his mind a little bit. I'm having a hard time seeing how this is going to get better so I ...

...exit the vehicle•...

<...I can't imagine how this move is going to help things in any Land, Dream or otherwise...>

I walk backward, keeping my eyes on the unfolding situation.

As I do the Presidential [escort?] SUV deploys a 'pushing device.' Looks kinda like a trash dumpster on reinforced scissor supports that can be deployed QUICKLY.

It's clear to me that the impact has probably hurt Scott.

Showing my true dream colors of solidarity [apparently a shade of yellow], I continue to get the hell out of there walking backward.

{The snow is very fine, like extremely low density, large crystal, sugar. It's not very cold and my ability to move through it is good [again, not like RL where I'd be full-on Frozen Tin Woodman here]

But the road has either ended or turned slightly to the L and I'm not on it anymore...

... and the snow is getting considerably deeper ...

... I'm starting to sink in.

[EOD]

Several things here...

D4 has a new dog AND car. 

& TA has been lookin' for a vehicle.

I've been readin' about Mr Biden's new Energy Conservation Core.

Also ...

There's a really good compendium of 20th century poetry I'm reading with several references to the various seasons.

My first recurring dream as a kid was being in a car getting stuck in quicksand due to my dad's inattention to the road ...  as my brother fled our vehicle.

Lots more I COULD say, but those're the bouillon cube elementals.

-fin-

08:00

2nd sleep

<My 2 day headache is gone!>

...On with the show...

I'm in a hilly area, probably in the Rocky Mountains. <That's the way the terrain broadly feels.>

I need to get some money and <dream> remember that Karpov knows how to handle this. I give him a call.

<Oh COME ON. Is this something like a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride nightmare? How can Kπ possibly be the right answer?>

Through a very bad connection, and about ½ attention on his part <THAT BIT IS REAL AS HELL>, I learn there are feral ATMs run by Garry Kasparov in a thing known as

The Crabbe Network

Sure as hell, I find one...

An ATM... 

...disguised to look like a boulder...

... above timberline... Recommended by sketchy, in all ways, Kπ

Am I REALLY gonna use this thing?

[EOD]

Things: 

I've been X-ferring money back & forth and watching the markets pretty close. That's one.

I've been looking at National Park stuff on Reddit. 

That's another.

 (now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't had praying mantis, walking stick, scorpion or horseshoe crab dreams).

-fin-

D4rw1n: That DC one is a great dream and a very rational IRL decision to back away inconspicuously from any confrontation between anybody and federal law enforcement 

Welp, they nabbed my pal but at least I'm not Guantanamo-bound and I'll live to fight another day 

Feral ATMs is my new band name 

b1: I'm glad you feel that way...

...I was RL disappointed in myself. 

1. It's a dream.

2. D4rw1n's hurt.

STAND AND FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT, YOU COWARD•

Feral ATMs is a GREAT band name. 

Until further notice, I am the keyboardist...

My stage name?

Crypto Current

D4rw1n: Crypto Current = primo stage name

b1-67er: I like the idea of feral ATMs.  They always feel a little feral to me anyway.

Spin the wheel(s)

b1-66er: <ad>

Uhhh...

b1-67er: I guess that lawyer is for when you want a lawyer whose own bad judgement matches your own.

Angle of View

b1-66er:

08:45

2½ sleep

{choppy night of sleep. After going to bed @23:00, I woke up wide awake @01:00 &  then again @03:00, I wasn't sure I would be able to go back to sleep either time. [& had to pull advanced Sleep Fu Trix to do so.]

On with the show...

I'm at Costco LV's optical department getting a new pair of bifocals. 

<It all seems pretty 'RL normal,' although the echo/sonics of the store aren't as booming. There's no one I recognize working the counter and there's no wait. <That's how you know it's a fricken dream.>

"I need a new pair of bifocals, but want a little color in the lens. For the frames, use something similar to my last pair of sunglasses."

I hand my glasses over.

<Oh what, b1-66er ... Do you just want them to read your mind as well? Maybe feed you by spoon ... guessing what food you want? 

WHEN did I become the Dream Just Do Everything for ME Guy?>

The service guy <nearly everyone I deal with at C.O. are women> comes back immediately. <still in a dream, i see> and hands me a pair of glasses that would have been something similar to 'Photograys' in the early 80s. The lenses are light grey with a small white <sensing?> dot in the upper left eyepiece.

But that's not what's 'interesting.' The frames (which're similar to my RL sunglasses, but thicker and lighter in color), mildly glow from the inside.

"How do you like them?"

"Well, they'll take some getting used to," I say.

He hands me a bill.

Frames $295

Lenses $395

$700 for a pair of glasses.

[No no no, I'm not having a money dream. Everything's ending RIGHT NOW.]

<Okay.

This is an amalgamation of a bunch of recent, 'uninteresting,' stuff.

3 and I drove back from CO in GLARING sun a couple ×. 

Before going on that trip, I wanted to get my sunglasses (which I managed to destroy during COVID) repaired. 

That didn't happen. 

In fact, they're sitting, in pieces, on the entryway to the living room even now. I see 'em everyday.

I've got an appointment with my neuro-optho coming up. Saw it on my calendar last night. That's a yearly deal. 

... But maybe the weirdest thing is if you add my sunglasses up since I started using them ... the total bill  would be right in that $ total. (Mom often threw in money against them as my Xmas present.)

-fin-

D4rw1n: I like how your dream told you it was a dream by having good customer service

That's actually excellent customer service in itself from b1 brain to b1.  "Customer service warning: do NOT expect this level of treatment IRL"