Dream a little Dream

So last night I dreamt about a black bear. He was wandering around where he wasn’t supposed to be (the road I grew up on and had to walk on everyday to and from the school bus. It was about a mile long and no, I wasn’t barefoot) the golfers (yes golfers) were staring at the bear fascinated as we drove by him in our Jeep. (I’ll explain the golfers in a bit) Of course the hubby wasn’t looking in the direction of the bear and I kept saying, “Look, Look”! Then just as everyone (suddenly the whole family was now in the Jeep) started to look , the bear disappeared into the woods but a tiny bear cub was following him and of course no one in the car saw that either. So frustrating!

This would be my nightmare!

I know where this stems from though.

For one thing I came home from work last night with the worst chills ever. I proceeded to sleep on the couch from 7pm until midnight, and then had a fitful sleep in bed. Freezing cold one minute, boiling hot the next. Between arguing with myself about going to work and worrying about wild animals, it was a long night. I am the worst sick person ever. I panic about having to miss work. I hate the break in the routine. I hate to leave people hanging. I hate playing catch-up and I hate disappointing people. But then when other people call off for silly reasons, I am just bitter. It’s a sickness, I know.

While lying on the couch last night I watched three episodes of My Life as a Zoo. If you haven’t seen this reality show based on a couple in the U.P. who run a family Zoo yet, you need to check it out. Nat Geo Wild runs it. The dynamic between the couple is so interesting. He is in his 60’s and I am guessing she is not yet 30? After the weirdness feeling goes away you will love them as much as they love all the animals they have taken in, rescued and cared for down to the chickens. So as I was feverish and watching a show about wild animals of course I had to dream about them too.

The other part of this is that I tend to have recurring dreams about Lions, Deer (yes, I am afraid of Deer) and bears. It’s always me at the house I grew up in and I am either trapped in the house looking outside at the animals staring back at me, or I am walking down that long road and there are wild animals around me.

The road: My Dad had a dream. He decided to move us to the middle of nowhere and build a house with the help of the Amish. While we lived in temporary housing (a cockroach ridden apartment) he built that house in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, it was a small town. He found a dirt road that he used to snowmobile on and cleared the land which was on the back side of the 13th hole of a private golf course. While it was remote, we did have a nice golf course to look at. The bus refused to drive down our road to get us because it was treacherous and in our heavy winters it would never have made it. So I walked up and down that road every darn day cursing whoever I could. Rain or shine, snow and sleet I walked that long lonely dirty road. My shoes were always ruined. I used to imagine every which way to get me from the top of that road to the bottom. I even thought that by the time I grew up surely there would be flying cars. I wanted one of the bucket rides the length of my road. I even though it would be really cool if I could drive a golf cart and somehow lock it in a storage shed at the top for my ride home. Trust me there was a lot of time to think.

Bears: We had a huge black dog named Bear. He was a Newfoundland. He looked like a bear. We had two, but Bear was the crazy one. He would sit in the ditch and wait for cars to come flying down our road (there was no speed limit, so often young guys dared each other to see how fast they could maneuver it’s narrow bridges and potholes) Bear would fly out of the ditch and slam his body into their cars. You never saw such freaked out guys before. They didn’t even complain about the dents in their cars they were so scared. Between Bear and my Dad waiting at the end of the driveway with a big bucket of water he would throw at them, they rarely came back.

First time golfers would see Bear who loved golf balls and could easily fit several in his mouth, would avoid the hole altogether. Some even went running yelling “BEAR”. He would then go bounding after them thinking “Oh, they know my name – they must want to play!” He was a huge teddy BEAR, but a bear of a dog nonetheless.

Combine all of these things together, my fever and a reality show and bring on the recurring wild animal dream. Someday I will tell you about the robbery after my long walk home from school.