Disappearance

Friday night

My family, including my wife, my brothers and sisters-in-law, and my friend Gordon and his brothers, were sitting in a theater, waiting to watch a documentary. We were in the center section, about 3/4 of the way toward the screen. Suddenly several people opened up their laptop computers, blocking our view. Someone said, "What are they doing?" I replied, "They're going to copy the film." I got up and moved over to the unobstructed seats on the left, and soon the rest of our group followed. Gordy was reluctant to get up; he was settled with his popcorn, and liked his seat just fine, but he moved, as well. Not long after that, the lights went down, and the film started. On the screen we saw a very nice public park, with beautiful lush grass, big trees and a lake in the background. I was shown at the park, and my brother Jimmie and his wife, Dawn, were there, too. They were enjoying themselves, swimming not far from shore. A park ranger got ready to make an educational presentation, so a crowd (including many children) gathered 'round a picnic table where he set up his gear. He had a round contraption with him that looked like a plastic hat box, or maybe a cake saver. It was neither of those -- it was a bug trapper. One of his duties was to periodically monitor insect life in the park. He said, "I've been doing this for three years, but I've never gotten these results before." He opened the box and revealed the contents to the crowd: it was empty. He continued: "Something is killing the ladybugs. Do you know what it is?" Ever the comedian, I turned toward toward the kids and said, "I think it's WILDIBEEST!" It wasn't. The culprits turned out to be raccoons.

*****

One of the reasons I keep logging these dreams is that every so often my subconscious comes up with very strange stuff that my conscious mind would never conjure. The "wildibeest" line is another prime example.

I was flipping the channels between PBS and C-SPAN the other night, and came across Jeff Foxworthy's TV show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? This was celebrity week, so the current Miss America was taking part; she wasn't doing very well, and used up her "lifelines," or whatever they call it, pretty quickly. One of the questions they asked her was, "Are all ladybugs female?" I thing she got that one right.