Strange dreams and missing keys

Last night (actually it was early this morning) I had a really weird dream, one that combined facets of my long ago past and current times. I was living in an apartment, not unlike the one I had in California a couple of decades ago. But it was located on a street that was almost identical to the one where I grew up. Where my house would have stood was the three or four story apartment block, and across the street were my old neighbors’ houses. In the dream I lived on the second floor, as I did in my real apartment. However, I had somehow gotten locked out as I had misplaced my keys, and I was trying to find a way to get back in. But that wasn’t the only thing that was going on… The street was full of construction vehicles of all sorts, dump trucks, bucket lifts, work trucks and other equipment, and there were at least a dozen or more workers milling about. I looked up at my balcony, and I knew if I could get up there I could go in that way, as I usually left that door unlocked. But I had no way to reach it. I cut thru the construction zone, trying to avoid getting in the way, and went to a neighbor’s house. But they were not home, so I couldn’t call the apartment manager to let me in (in my California days I did not have a cell phone). So I wandered back around the construction site, unsure of what to do now. One of the workers asked me if I needed help with something, and I said yes and told him about my predicament. He said that once they got some equipment moved, he could give me a ride up to my balcony in a bucket lift. I also asked him what it was that they were working on and why they were just getting started at sundown.

Then I found myself back in my apartment, although I don’t remember the previous part of the dream. Perhaps the worker did give me a ride up to my balcony…or I found the apartment manager.  I was still searching around for my keys, and it was almost dark outside. I walked over to my balcony door and looked out on the construction site. Activity had picked up, and I could hear the rumbling of heavy equipment even though the door and windows were shut. I was dismayed that they were doing this at night, as I wondered how on earth I would be able to sleep, especially since my bedroom was on the street side. They said that it was so they wouldn’t disrupt traffic anymore than necessary, though not that there was hardly much traffic on my childhood street. But on the other hand, I was quite excited about what they were working on. They were using my street as a staging area for the rebuilding of the Key Bridge! Which, in the dream, was quite close to my apartment. I couldn’t wait to see the new bridge slowly come together and loom high on the horizon right outside my window! That was pretty much the end of the dream, with me worrying about being able to sleep and being excited about the new bridge.

In reality, my childhood home wasn’t much closer to the Key Bridge than where I am living now. There was of course no way I could have seen the old (or new) bridge from my house. But, there are some neighborhoods on the east side of the Key Bridge site that are fairly close to it. It was near enough that people could see it from their windows, and they heard the deafening noise the night it was destroyed. And, last night I was thumbing thru this book I just bought about bridges that showed a picture of this huge concrete railroad viaduct towering over some homes, so no doubt that inspired part of the dream. That, and I am missing a set of car and house keys, which I have yet to find. Also interesting is the “missing keys” and the “Key Bridge” play on words. Perhaps if I’m lucky maybe I’ll find my keys today.