I had that dream again last night. . .

You know, that dream. No, no, no. Not that dream, but THAT dream. The model soldier dream, silly!

So, I'm in a hobby shop somewhere and stumble upon a shelf full of mid-18th century plastic soldiers in boxed sets, much like the Revell SYW sets, but somehow different. Must be in subconscious anticipation of that Zvezda Prussian grenadiers set later this summer.

Anyway, the Grand Duchess is standing behind me, just to my left, in the dream as I'm pulling all of these different boxes from the shelf and handing them to her, saying things like, "Wow, I can't believe the prices on these!" and "Those have been out of production for years!" At which point I woke up, realized it was all just a dream, and, deeply, sleepily resigned, put my head back on the pillow and returned to slumber.

I always have mixed feelings about occasional dreams like this. On the one hand, they are lots of fun when you remember them. But on the other hand, they are a tiny bit frustrating too. Oh sure, I feel very fortunate to have the time and some money, or the occasional gift, to indulge in an eccentric hobby like collecting/painting toy soldiers and playing games with them. And as I mentioned to someone a couple of weeks ago (maybe here?), I certainly feel like I have more than enough plastic and metal soldiers to keep me busy for the next couple of years as we lurch toward completing the Grand Duchy of Stollen project. But I think a dream like this must be indicative of at least a few things.

First, we all crave the thrill that inevitably comes from stumbling onto an, as yet, undiscovered cache of model soldiers in our favorite period and at unrealistically low prices. Am I right? Next, obviously our hobby keeps us interested even when we aren't able to spend as much time with it as we might like, for instance when work and real life periodically intrude, or during hours of sleep. And finally, I'd venture that many of us, or at least those of us who manage to acquire sizable mountains of unpainted plastic/metal figures, have this strange need to possess "stuff", even if it's going to be some time before we actually get to painting it. I've actually joked with the Grand Duchess about this last point in reference to her large collection of bicycle repair tools, some of which are only rarely used. And let me tell you, she's a real whiz with a pedal wrench in one hand and her new Cannondale roadbike up on her Park bike mechanic's stand!

Gee, it strikes me that this like some kind of bizarre conversation between a patient and his analyst! Hmmm. . . I wonder what that suggests about me? Ok, maybe you shouldn't answer that! Let's change the subject, shall we?

On an entirely different note, my part-time, old school rock and roll/rockabilly group -- The Indras -- now has a MySpace page when you can learn a bit more about the band and hear a few of the songs in our setlist. And if the mood strikes you, and you already have a MySpace account, please feel free to become a friend of The Indras too. Look for and click on the link at the right-hand side of this page. . . "Listen to The Indras" (right below the Koenig und Kaiser link).

Yes, that's yours truly singing on most of the tracks. Not exactly Pavoratti or anything, but it works pretty well for the kind of music we play. I like Lucille and Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey in particular. We have a couple of early live dates coming up in the next three weeks and are all excited about that as you might imagine. A couple of non-paying benefits, but they help to get the name out there and give us some live experience, which is important in lining up additional work.

Ok, another photo or two this evening of that latest batch of RSM fusiliers in white and mid-blue. Now, it's back to real life and some translation work this morning. Charge!