The Hurricane Dream

As most of you know (since most of you are kin to me or Army-kin to me), I spent Hurricane Katrina in south Mississippi. Since then, periodically, I have hurricane dreams. Some involve walking through rotten water and sludge, but most of them actually are not bad dreams. Most are just part of "Hey! I'm back in Mississippi! Woo-hoo!" dreams.

Anyway, last night I had the weirdest hurricane dream yet!

I dreamed a big hurricane came to Sackets Harbor. It was over Lake Ontario (which is about four blocks from our house). I was in the bank building, and when the hurricane hit, I went into a kind of closet in the basement, and I wasn't even scared because I knew it wouldn't get me there. Sure enough, it didn't. When it was over, eye and all, I came out of the bank, and everyone was walking through debris toward the lake. I went with them.

When we got to the boat dock, however, instead of the lake we found a sand beach and the St. Lawrence River! Also, the hurricane had wiped out winter, so it was now warm. Everyone was so happy and said the St. Lawrence would be much better for business than Lake Ontario had been. People were putting out lawn chairs and turning on radios on the beach, and the ice cream shack opened up and put its benches back out. Everyone started putting out awnings (downtown wasn't debris; just the houses) and generally setting up to have a good time.

The gazebo on the shore was wrecked by the hurricane, but I set my beach towel up right by it (like everyone else, I was suddenly in a swimsuit and had a beach towel). I was waiting for Joe to come with my ice cream (suddenly, I knew that's where he was), watching the St. Lawrence go by. He brought my ice cream, and I was eating it, realizing I was no longer lactose intolerant (another effect of the hurricane), and we were talking to our neighbors about how great it was that the river had been re-routed by the hurricane.

The river wasn't huge like it is in real life, so we could see across it. We watched about eight deer come by along the shore. One was a huge buck with giant antlers, and there were some babies and some does. But one doe was weird. She had deformed legs that were too close together and a hump like a camel on her back. But weirdest of all, she had a gigantic head that was facing us, like a child would draw a deer. Her eyes were huge black circles, again like a child's drawing. I was telling Joe that I thought deer wouldn't raise a deformed baby, and wasn't it nice that this one had survived and was part of her group...

Then I woke up.

It was a nice dream, but in reality, I love Lake Ontario and wouldn't trade it for the St. Lawrence River, even though I love that too. This morning the lake has a thin, cracked layer of ice on it. There is snow in Watertown, but not here. Maybe we will get some tonight. Anyway, we most likely won't get a hurricane, but if we do, I hope we also get the weird deer.