11/20/03
The Cable Guy

This dream is from yesterday (actually the 18th, as I'm nocturnal). I remember it more in general rather than details.

The day before this in real life we had gotten the cable bill, and bills always worry me as we have a tendency to have to pay late. Our cable company is especially a source of annoyance, as there is no competition in the area except satellite, and our cable provider's service is often less than desirable. In my dream, I was at home in the afternoon--it was later, but still light outside--and the cable guy showed up to shut off our cable for nonpayment.

I actually went to meet him at the door, which is something I wouldn't do in real life. I believe he had a mustache and sandy blond hair and may have been wearing a light blue uniform and cap. I told him that we could pay the bill but only when my mom returned from work. She wasn't home right now; could he wait, or come back later? He was quite friendly and agreed to return later, saying, "I should be back here around six or seven." I THINK that was the time he gave, even though later in the dream it seemed to shift to between six and eight or seven and eight. These are unusually late hours for cable installers to still be on duty.

He left and I went back inside to call Ma at work. I think it was after five PM, or nearly six, so maybe he said seven or eight to begin with? I'm very hazy on the time; I just know it was late in the evening. I think that I had gone online earlier, but now I had to disconnect if I wanted to call Ma; annoying. I did so and dialed her work number--which I believe was the same as it is in real life. This was INCREDIBLY odd as usually I cannot dial a phone correctly on the first try in a dream! I think I can recall all of two times I have successfully dialed 911 in a dream, for example. Anyway, I called Ma and told her that the cable guy would be coming back in a while so she had to be here to pay him. I believe she was getting off work soon, but she is quite stubborn about her job and tends to put EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, on hold when she's working. Once in real life our ELECTRICITY was shut off for nonpayment and I was left sitting at home with no power. I kept calling her to have her call the power company (she needed to give them some info that I didn't have), but every time I called her she snapped that she was STILL busy--this went on for over an HOUR! She literally would not take a moment to step away from her work (which is just silkscreening and embroidery, nothing lifeshattering) to call to have the power turned back on for me. >:/

ANYway...she was behaving the same way in this dream, I believe. I think she agreed to come home but I hung up and time just kept passing. And passing. And passing. I kept looking at the clock. Six o'clock approached--no Ma. I called her again. Still working, she would be back soon. I believe seven o'clock started to approach and I was getting very upset and frustrated. What was more was that I was having all sorts of trouble just calling her up now. I kept getting all these different problems! For example, sometimes the line was busy and I could not get through. I think the cable connection was somehow connected to our phone line, which of course is connected to the Internet, so the three were all tied together somehow and that made calling hard, too. And at least one time when I dialed out, the line was completely dead--no dialtone or anything. I was getting SO frustrated! I think it was like a quarter to seven or eight and she STILL was not home! And this phone just insisted on acting up. But it was still strange because I kept dialing her work number every time, and I never remember having trouble with the numbers themselves--very odd, considering you can't read the same thing twice in a dream.

Well, I think she might have finally come home, and at some later point the cable guy may have shown up again, but I'm not sure how this went. All I know is I was NOW confused about how exactly we were to pay him. Were we supposed to wait for him to come here? Were we supposed to go down to the cable office in town (in real life there isn't a local office anymore, it's an hour's drive away) and pay them there? (I remember suggesting this to Ma specifically, only to then wonder what would happen if she and the cable guy missed each other along the way.) Were we supposed to meet halfway or something? I was very perplexed. All I knew was that we had maybe ten or fifteen minutes before the guy was supposed to disconnect us, and I had no clue what we were meant to do to prevent it. Very irritating!

Despite the unpleasantness, and how badly I know something like this would affect me in real life, I never really flew off the handle--I was more peeved and frustrated than anything. Another odd thing is that it was light outside throughout the entire dream, even into late evening, when in real life at this time of year it gets dark around or before six PM.



2003 Dreams
HOME