Dreams

[TheCableVine]

I'm sure everyone here has dreamt about locating. I've done it before, but last nights dream was the worst.

I dreamed that I had 5 tickets for a certain area where they were going to be digging with a backhoe. For some reason I didn't do the tickets and thought I would do them later when it was more convenient. Well, they started digging on the tickets the same day they were due (after the due time of course) and I get a call from my boss.

"steve, they hit a cable tv line over on such and such street... go see what happened."

When I get there the backhoe had dug through a huge cable tv line. Bigger than I had ever seen before. I didn't mark it. I felt sick. The cable guy said that the backhoe pulled it out stretching the line so they had to replace the whole length of it... about 1000'.

about a half hour later I get another call that they hit another cable tv line on one of the other tickets. They ended up hitting a line on all 5 of the tickets. I didn't even wait to be fired, I just quit my job.

It was soooo real. When I woke up I just laid there and let it all soak in that it was all just a dream.

[Goldenboy]

I rarely ever dream about locating but when I due it is when we are behind on start times.

[USIC1]

Cmon!!!!!!

Get hold of yourself man!!!!!

Reality is the real concern at hand-

Crisis spurs spike in 'suburban survivalists'
Recession prompts fear of economic collapse, spurs breed of 'suburban survivalists'
Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer
On Monday May 25, 2009, 12:03 pm EDT
Buzz up! Print.SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Six months ago, Jim Wiseman didn't even have a spare nutrition bar in his kitchen cabinet.

Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego suburb of La Jolla.

Wiseman isn't alone. Emergency supply retailers and military surplus stores nationwide have seen business boom in the past few months as an increasing number of Americans spooked by the economy rush to stock up on gear that was once the domain of hardcore survivalists.

These people snapping up everything from water purification tablets to thermal blankets shatter the survivalist stereotype: they are mostly urban professionals with mortgages, SUVs, solid jobs and a twinge of embarrassment about their newfound hobby.

From teachers to real estate agents, these budding emergency gurus say the dismal economy has made them prepare for financial collapse as if it were an oncoming Category 5 hurricane. They worry about rampant inflation, runs on banks, bare grocery shelves and widespread power failures that could make taps run dry.

For Wiseman, a fire protection contractor, that's meant spending roughly $20,000 since September on survival gear -- and trying to persuade others to do the same.

"The UPS guy drops things off and he sees my 4-by-8-by-6-foot pile of food and I say 'What are you doing to prepare, buddy?'" he said. "Because there won't be a thing left on any shelf of any supermarket in the country if people's confidence wavers."

The surge in interest in emergency stockpiling has been a bonanza for camping supply companies and military surplus vendors, some of whom report sales spikes of up to 50 percent. These companies usually cater to people preparing for earthquakes or hurricanes, but informal customer surveys now indicate the bump is from first-time shoppers who cite financial, not natural, disaster as their primary concern, they say.

Top sellers include 55-gallon water jugs, waterproof containers, freeze-dried foods, water filters, water purification tablets, glow sticks, lamp oil, thermal blankets, dust masks, first-aid kits and inexpensive tents.

Joe Branin, owner of the online emergency supply store Living Fresh, said he's seen a 700 percent increase in orders for water purification tablets in the past month and a similar increase in orders for sterile water pouches.

He is shipping meals ready to eat and food bars by the case to residential addresses nationwide.

"You're hearing from the people you will always hear from, who will build their own bunkers and stuff," he said. "But then you're hearing from people who usually wouldn't think about this, but now it's in their heads: 'What if something comes to the worst?'"

Online interest in survivalism has increased too. The niche Web site SurvivalBlog.com has seen its page views triple in the past 14 months to nearly 137,000 unique visitors a week. Jim Rawles, a self-described survivalist who runs the site, calls the newcomers "11th hour believers." He charges $100 an hour for phone consulting on emergency preparedness and says that business also has tripled.

"There's so many people who are concerned about the economy that there's a huge interest in preparedness, and it pretty much crosses all lines, social, economic, political and religious," he said. "There's a steep learning curve going on right now."

Art Markman, a cognitive psychologist, said he's not surprised by the reaction to the nation's financial woes -- even though it may seem irrational. In an increasingly global and automated society, most people are dependent on strangers and systems they don't understand -- and the human brain isn't programmed to work that way.

"We have no real causal understanding of the way our world works at all," said Markman, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. "When times are good, you trust that things are working, but when times are bad you realize you don't have a clue what you would do if the supermarket didn't have goods on the shelves and that if the banks disappear, you have no idea where your money is."

Those preparing for the worst echo those thoughts and say learning to be self sufficient makes them feel more in control amid mounting uncertainty -- even if it seems crazy to their friends and families.

Chris Macera, a 29-year-old IT systems administrator, said he started buying extra food to take advantage of sales after he lost his job and he was rehired elsewhere for $30,000 less.

But Macera, who works in suburban Orange County, said that over several months his mentality began to shift from saving money to preparing for possible financial mayhem. He is motivated, too, by memories of the government paralysis that followed Hurricane Katrina.

He now buys 15 pounds of meat at a time and freezes it, and buys wheat in 50-pound bags, mills it into flour and uses it to bake bread. He checks survivalist Web sites for advice at least once a day and listens to survival podcasts.

"You kind of have to sift through the people with their hats on a little bit too tight," said Macera, who said his colleagues tease him about the grain mill. "But I see a lot of things (on the Web) and they're real common sense-type things."

"I don't want to be a slave to anybody," he said. "The more systems you're dependent on, the more likely things are going to go bad for you."

That's a philosophy shared by Vincent Springer, a newcomer to emergency preparedness from the Chicago area.

Springer, a high school social studies teacher, says he's most worried about energy shortages and an economic breakdown that could paralyze the just-in-time supply chain that grocery stores rely on.

In the past few months, Springer has stockpiled enough freeze-dried food for three months and bought 72-hour emergency supply kits for himself, his wife and two young children. The 39-year-old is also teaching himself to can food.

"I'm not looking for a retreat in northern Idaho or any of that stuff, but I think there's more people like me out there and I think those numbers are growing," he said.

[TheCableVine]

When I wake up from a dream like that it only means one thing. Things could be worse.

[ifinditunderground]

That posting from the Dick is pretty similar to a long conversation from the chat room......RD, BH, sound familiar?

[beyond help]

Why, yes I do. Man I had to undo the ignore there for a moment. Now I wish I didn't.

[yahoo]

i have had the dreams..can 't remember any ......but i 've never had an explanation like usic1 gave ... hang in there Steve!!!

[underground quester]

Reminds me of a real incident from years ago.

Part of my job when I worked for the railway was cleaning up and recovering customers product at railway derailments.

I had worked a full 12 hour day gone home tired ate and got ready for bed. Then, the g**damned cell rang. It was a derailment in British Columbia about a 8 hour drive from here.

I was DEAD, fall down tired, but had to drive. Got just out of a tourist trap called Jasper Alberta and just absolutely could not stay awake.
You have to know the roads are mountain terrain, narrow with little shoulder and windy.

I kept nodding off, hitting the shoulder then joolting awake. I figured this was a receipe for serious danger, so I looked for a spot to pull over. When I finally found one I pulled in, reclined the seat and tried to fall asleep.

However, the visual I had in my mind was telling me I was still driving. It was soooo freeking real, I couldn't figure out if I was seeing things, or, was still driving. But, I just knew I had puled over.

After an eternity (probably a minute or two), I was able to pull myself awake, look around and assure myself I HAD INDEED pulled over and stopped, then collapsed into a deep sleep.

Seems odd now when I reflect, BUT IT WAS SOOOO REAL at the time and I was soooo dead tired, I could not differentiate between reality and this dream/highway hypnosis...whatever the heck it was.

Scary stuff, I have never forgotten it.

[TheCableVine]

That's wierd. Not the dream part. I used to have a room-mate, a fellow locator, who before he located investigated train accidents. He was a big guy named Sean F.

[RD_Wrangler]

That posting from the Dick is pretty similar to a long conversation from the chat room......RD, BH, sound familiar?

*looks up from servicing his weapons*..."Yup, that reminds me...I need to see if my ammo guy has more 44 mags in yet..."

[underground quester]

That's wierd. Not the dream part. I used to have a room-mate, a fellow locator, who before he located investigated train accidents. He was a big guy named Sean F.

You know some times Steve, the world is a very small place.

Several years ago I took a four month sabattical from work at the railway and backpacked through the south pacific. In the very southern reaches of the south island of New Zealand, we met a man from Toronto, Canada. His neighbour was the only railway guy in Toronto I knew at the time.

Think about the astronomical odds of that occuring!

[Wingfoot]

I'm sure everyone here has dreamt about locating.

I dream of locating quite often.

I was on one of my NASCAR race trips to the California Speedway. In my sleep, I was locating the 4" steel gas main that ran thru my 2nd-floor hotel bedroom in Ontario, California. I tried every piece of equipment I have ever used in my career, but that gas main would not tone by direct connection, induction, power mode or VooDoo witching. My Pipehorn would only induce the support beam underneath the floor 6 to 8 feet away from where I knew that gas main should be. I'd work on the locate, give up and return later to try again........... all night long.

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[Mke]

Along with the dreams I can't get that damn sound of the 810 out of my head.

mke

[GPGrasshopper]

Beeeeeeeeeep, Beep Beep Beep, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep, Beep Beep Beep.
My wife has told me that I locate in my sleep sometimes and talk about it.

[USIC1]

Beeeeeeeeeep, Beep Beep Beep, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep, Beep Beep Beep.
My wife has told me that I locate in my sleep sometimes and talk about it.

You still have a wife???