I forgot to tell you about the dream I had last night. (Actually, about 6AM this morning.)

I dreamt the Red Chinese got fed up with the protests and resistance they were getting from their semi-autonomous enclave, the former UK Crown colony of Hong Kong. So the PRC declared martial law, clamped down hard on the place and moved in a couple of divisions of troops. The population moved out, en masse, and came to the USA as political refugees. The entire population (there must be several million of them) were resettled in East Tennessee, in the ridge and valley district between the Smokies and Knoxville, and around Oak Ridge. The heavily forested ridges and hollers are now covered with dense human settlements, office buildings and apartment blocks and the TVA lakes are crawling with ocean-going shipping and Chinese junks.

In my dream, the Disney Corporation has taken the whole goddam place over and turned it into a theme park. They are providing financial support until the new immigrants can bootstrap a new economy. In my dream, I am sailing down one of the dammed TVA rivers in a “Viking Cruise”-type river tour boat, living the life of Reilly, knocking down a steady stream of highballs, while pretty lady guides in tight thigh-high slit silk dresses with high collars point out the sights to me.

Then to top it all off, this was my first truly lucid dream! I’ve heard of these, but never experienced one myself until now. I woke up, took a leak and went back to bed, wide awake, but the dream continued, except now I was able to control it, like a daydream. I could make things happen, initiate conversations with people in the dream, and so on. This went on for a few more minutes until I was wide awake and fully alert, and completely refreshed, and I got out of bed.

I swear to god I am not making this up.