Fantasy lives

I've always been something of a daydreamer. My mind will wander off to great places once in a while. If you ever come across me with a blank expression on my face, just ask where I am.
This can lead to some interesting conversations with my wife. We can be sitting quietly in the car, and all of a sudden, I'll start talking about houses, pets or jobs I'd love to have. She never knows just exactly what to expect when I open my mouth. It has to be the conversational equivalent of being on one of those quiz shows on television.
"For the car, the dishwasher and the cash, what topic am I discussing now?"
I think the ability to drift off into fantasy begins as a defence mechanism. When the mind simply rejects what is happening in the so-called real world, it just makes things up on its own. I was kind of a loner as a child, so a fantasy world was an essential. Books were a launching point, and then my very fertile imagination would take over.
These days, a lot of my daydreams aren't working as well as they used to. Reality has a tendency to come crashing in. As an example, a wife and two cats have no place in the life of a freighter captain on the high sea. A man with an inability to climb stairs has no right being a cop.
You might say that daydreams are childish, and that maybe my subconscious is just telling me to grow up. Maybe, but I prefer to think that it's just that my imagination is having a harder time getting around that stumbling block of reality. Which isn't to say that I don't let it try once in a while. I've heard it said that some good literature has been produced that way.
When you do fantasize, do you ever dream up a whole back story to whatever it is you are thinking about? Sometimes, I have to come up with a whole cast of characters, both major and supporting. I don't even necessarily have to be a part of my own story. It's like a book I'm writing in my head.
At this point, you are probably telling me to get a life. I do have one, and it is a perfectly fine life, but sometimes we all want a little break from the world we live in. Most especially after watching the evening news.
I guess that's why reading will never loose its appeal for me.