Last night or early this morning, sometime between the second and fifth trip my son made into our bedroom, I dreamed that my bird dog could no longer smell quail. Ran right through coveys just as happy as could be. Pointed grouse, woodcock, chukar, pheasant, field mice and even children, but never once slowed down for a quail. For me dreams of thirty bird coveys are not uncommon. Dreams of them flying up all around me as the dog trots through them are.
What's a guy to make of this? If dreams reveal unconscious desires has something gone very, very wrong in my kitchen?
Is this avocation I've been so passionate about for years just a sham? Would I rather be pruning daisies or needlepointing pillows?
Or is it a harbinger of things to come? A few years ago I had a dream about an old friend I hadn't seen since high school, very vivid and there was a man in it named Crumb. Out of the blue the friend emailed me the next day. We got to talking, I told him about the dream and he said his daughter's bus driver was named Crumb. Kinda spooky. Worse still is the chance that my dream last night might be a look into the season ahead.
I've read in various places that dreams are just a dumping ground for your brain, a place where the mass of thoughts that accumulate during the day are purged to avoid overload. In the process they're combined in seemingly random patterns on their way down the chute. Given the choice I'd take this option over the others and discount the whole episode. Maybe I should stop by Sister Rosario's and have my palm read this afternoon...
I don't know what Freud would say about it, but as a dad to a three year-old, I have to say "you too, eh?"
ReplyDeleteSigned, Sleepless in Shasta
Erm... how about "Sometimes a dog not pointing quail is just a dog not pointing quail"? 8-)
ReplyDeleteYou'll be ok. Just hope your dog doesn't have the same dream!!
ReplyDeleteIt means the quail are gone. Your bird dog can't smell them because they are not there. The 30 bird coveys you see are an illusion as the quail have all been taken by a biblical drought, giant windmills, habitat loss and pesticides. Thank god that it is just a dream.
ReplyDeleteI like AM's zen interpretation and hope that, like Trey said, Wyatt's dreaming of something else. Whatever it is, it sure gets his feet and nose twitching.
ReplyDeleteBrdhntr, if I didn't see a thirty bird covey now and then I might think you were on to something.
TC, when the trout in your dreams start ignoring every single fly in your box, let me know. Maybe it's just a side-effect of sleep deprivation.
I don't know, but I'm still having nightmares over all the birds I missed last week during actual thirty bird covey rises. Time for glasses I think. We all have our own demons to confront.
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