Some days, it’s the blog posts, not the official “news,” that make the strongest impression.

I had that dream again last night. The same one you’ve had.

The high school is institutional red-brick on the outside, yellow linoleum and fading white paint on the inside. Students throng the halls, laughing, joking, kicking soccer balls, oblivious to my panic. Where is the classroom? This place is huge, it has wings and outbuildings and I don’t know what any of it is, or what it’s for. I’m supposed to be meeting a special class in room 735. 735? There are seven floors in this school? Yes, but only in one of the annex buildings. Which one? It’s all the way on the other side of the campus. I’m late, very late, running through the hallways, barefoot, hauling a heavy backpack full of unfamiliar books. I may never find the class. I wake before I can find it. Haven’t you had this dream?

Jake Hull, of Momentary Prophets, wrote in his blog yesterday about the resonating power of song lyrics. “Sometimes (and this is the strangest things about lyrics) we extract the lyrics and they mature into mantras, ideas that transcend melody, rhythm, and timbre.” Like fever-dreams they stalk our drowsy minds, sending us messages via our unconscious, reminding us that our conscious mind is just a passenger on a ship piloted by the deep, wordless forces of our primitive brain, where metaphor rules supreme.

This is the song that inspired Jake:

White Sails

I was just a little boy swimming in the ocean
My past mistakes and future joys
I don’t think I can swim this on my own
Swim this on my own, Swim this on my own.

Destiny fall down
Wipe away my past mistakes
The sun ain’t shinin now

I don’t think I can make this place my home
Make this place my home, Make this place my home.

Send by me from your voice to my ears, to my ears
Send my me from your voice to me ears.

If I abide to your will
Shall I never have no pain
Will I never have no pain.

I’m tired but my body’s hungry
Lay me by the riverside so I can die.

Please be still, cause I’m complacent here
Lying by the riverside, lying by the riverside.

White Sails is more mysterious, and much less clichéd than the old “late for class” dream, but it pays to remember that even while we may believe we are rational, logical creatures, our minds operate at many levels, and a deep current runs beneath the surface. We are all little boys swimming in that ocean.

It's a TV, dummy. And it's HEAVY.

Cox will now take more of your money, thank you

416,000 subscribers to Cox’s cable TV service will be paying between 9% and 20% more for services, the second rate hike from Cox this year. This is, of course, because of the rising costs of fuel, which have made it ever more expensive for Cox’s fleet of trucks to deliver the heavy television shows to your house.

Cox has the right to raise their rates as often as they want, I suppose. They are a business, after all, and they must make a profit. What you need to decide is, is their product worth it. I mean really, is it? All those stations providing golf, NASCAR, canine agility, woodworking, wedding disasters, SlapChop infomercials, secret tips for better bass fishing. How could you live without all that? Well, you could cancel your cable TV service and get a digital antenna ($30) a Roku ($60) and a Netflix subscription ($10/month), and get all entertainment a person could want. Get your news from the Internet, where you don’t have to put up with the smug commentators. You’ll save money and be better informed.

Senators furious about safety on buses, can’t be bothered to protect bicyclists

There were multiple fatal crashes this year. Innocent people were killed because of negligent, reckless, and poorly trained drivers. The citizens of Hampton Roads will not be safe until this problem is corrected. Am I talking about Chinatown buses? No. I’m talking about cycling. Both have proven to be occasionally dangerous, but only one of these issues is getting serious attention from the government. Senators Warner and Webb have urged the transportation department to crack down on violations in the bus business in the wake of multiple fatal crashes this year.

On the other hand, after the second hit-and-run accident on Shore Drive in just a few months, where a car once again ran right over a cyclist who was obeying the laws and riding carefully, the government does not appear to be doing anything. The driver of the latest Chinatown bus that crashed, killing four people, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The driver who ran down and killed Daniel Hersh on Shore Drive in 2009, who was caught, was charged with nothing.

Just what is going on here? Why the dangerous double-standard? How many ghost bikes need to be raised before the same people who will fight for the rights of bus passengers, will stand up to protect cyclists?

Destiny fall down
Wipe away my past mistakes
The sun ain’t shinin now

Visit the Virginia Bicycling Federation site and read The Case for a Vulnerable Road User Law. There are those like Bruce Drees who are fighting to protect cyclists–there just need to be more people, and we need to be louder.

In the meantime, this young inspirational speaker would like to remind us all of the joys of learning to ride our bikes:

Remember, kids: You can get in trouble just by being there

The Pilot covers a Virginia anti-crime program called Virginia Rules, in which instructors visit schools to lecture on the finer points of “accomplice law.” That’s the law that says if you’re standing in the group that’s watching someone get beat up and robbed, you are an accomplice, and you can go to jail. According to the piece, it’s an eye-opener for teens who tend to think they won’t get in trouble as long as they didn’t do anything themselves.

Keep out of trouble kids. Keep your head above water. Keep fighting to make this place your home.