last night I dreamed the forest was a database

I was walking a stand of old-growth pines, only each trunk had a barcode tattooed on the bark, and my increment borer was pulling out little strips of perforated paper instead of cores. Kept trying to read them in the grey light, but they kept curling into dead leaves before I could tally anything. Woke up with the smell of pine sap in my nose and my hands doing caliper motions at nothing. Just another Thursday.