Magic Fish. Nov. 24.

9:55 a.m.

The joys of weatherstripping. No, not going naked in winter. Stopping cold breezes from coming in around the doors and windows.

I can't believe I dealt with shrink plastic and double sided tape all these years.

Dream:

A house in Maine, on a lake. Somehow this was a family house, maybe my Dad owned it. No one seemed to be around the whole time though, except my sister, for a bit. I'd come to visit and was wishing I could move up there, retire there, live out my days by woods and water. There were two gas pumps in front of the house; it was a business as well as a home.

Rose had been staying there but I was to take her place, and she was showing me where the canned salmon was that she had been eating. (Canned Alaskan salmon is part of my dietary program now, for the Omega-3 oils.) There was some question about where I would keep this and whether there was room in the pantry with everything else that was there, belonging to the rest of the family. Rose showed me how she fished with a stick for a pole, and a string, tying some kind of bait to the string. She left, I walked out to the dock (shore?) and found her stick, cast the string in... a couple of tugs, a yank, and I had a fish! A nice dark fish that I could have for dinner. I was so pleased. Walking back, I looked at it and saw a few speckles. "A speckled trout, I think," I said. "I've caught myself a speckled trout!"

(There is an old song recorded by Richie Havens called "Wandering Angus" about an enchanted fish, a speckled trout that turns into a glimmering girl and disappears. I remembered this in the dream and, while I didn't expect it to turn into anything, I was very happy to have gotten this special fish.)

A man walked up as I went back to the house. He looked like maybe he needed directions or something, but I wasn't sure I could trust him. I was a single woman alone with a fish, after all. I asked if I could help. "What kind of place is this? Who lives here?" he asked, gesturing to the house/gas station. "A family," I said, unwilling to give more information. I thought if he knew there were others, he wouldn't try anything, in case that was his intention.

He seemed to go away and the dream faded. I wonder how it was that I belonged there, was obviously intending to stay a while, but sad that it wasn't mine and I couldn't live out my days there. Tucked into the woods, by a peaceful dirt road and a lake with magic fish.