Dear Dr. Freud...

It's a good thing I had vacation time around the wedding, because since I went back to work in July, Nora and I have spent more nights apart than together.  And that's likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

But last night was the first night we were together in two weeks.  And we both slept the sleep of the dead.  No middle-of-the-night wakefulness, no churning.  It was terrific.

We did, however, both dream.  Nora and I both have very entangled dreams, and often wake up remembering them in some detail.

My dream segment:  I was coming into a very tough, shabby business street of some town, foggy and lit like a film noir.  I parked the car at the curb—I remember that I was parked on the right side of the street—and hadn't yet gotten out when I realized that I was being approached from both sides by toughs.  Not just random street thugs, but people who wanted to bring harm to me specifically.  I decided that the best course of action was to not represent a threat, so I put my head back on the headrest and pretended to be asleep.  I could hear the head guy tapping with his fingernails on the passenger-side window.  I did everything I could not to move my head toward the sound, but I knew that my eyes were moving that way every time I was surprised, and I hoped they couldn't see the eye motion below my eyelids.  The tapping got faster, like typewriter keys as my nemesis clattered his fingernails against the window.

I awoke, to hear Nora snoring.  Snhk-nhk-nhk-nhk-nhk-nhk.  And thus the mystery of the clattering fingernails was solved.  I returned to peaceful sleep almost immediately.

Nora's dream segment:  We were in Boston, and I was at the BAC.  Nora called me, on her way in to work, and said, "I hope you're not going to be mad at me."

"Why?"  Apparently, I was already prepared to be mad at her.

"I went to Bloomingdales, and I bought two Tibetan Mastiffs," Nora said.  "They're short-haired and grey."

I guess I wasn't too mad.  "You could go to that store called The Pattern and get collars and leashes.  And we could name them No and Can't."

Nora was struck by the fact that the two dogs slept spooned together, when they weren't racing around the apartment at a substantial rate.

This is NOT what a Tibetan Mastiff looks like, but it's the dog in Nora's dream...

Any dream interpreters out there?  Let us know what we're really thinking about.

And can someone help coach Nora out of her monster-dog fixation?  We both want a dog, as soon as we're living together in one spot, but all of the dog breeds that Nora wants seem to have been featured on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.  HUGE dogs, dogs who need to have a sunroof in the car so they can sit up straight.  Mastiffs and Danes and Wolfhounds and Great Pyrenees and Kuvasz.

The Kuvasz can cost up to ten thousand dollars a day to feed.  When YOU have unexpected expenses, turn to Mutual of Omaha.

The "better half" weighs in...
No!!!! Can't!!!
Not a Kuvasz!
Actually the dreamer was confused...it was a Neapolitan Mastiff I was thinking of but it looked like the Dane above.)
Newfoundland or Landseer - Good dog!!
Leonberger - Very good dog!!!
Coonhound - Yes! Yes!

Maremmas - Yes! Along with our sheep and goats and Alpacas and Llamas...
St Bernard - oh be still my heart!
Therapy needed?