The Toad's "Dream"

22 Aug 2010
Posted by jim

So last night was more-or-less the last night that I'll be staying at my parents house for a while.  As it happens, they were visiting relatives and traveling in Germany, France, Poland and Ireland (Poland, they said, was very appreciated).

Anyway, they were gone for about 5 weeks, which left me head caretaker of the Bjorklun household.  I gradually set up a live jam room in the basement (in a nice "open" area just south of the laundry machines).

It's also the exact spot where we often practiced with my first "real" band, the Shaken Bozeman (someday I'll probably offer the only cassette "album" as a free download at Mazus). And so it definitely felt good and *real* to be there.  So with practice space available, I promptly scheduled a live show ....

And before, during and after the show, I was in this basement with my (newly-acquired) Zoom H4N, recording it all (more or less)...  Incidentally, after I finished recording a version of "Mother Nature's Son" in the (late) morning, I then proceeded to vacuum the floor ....

Anyway, after that I brushed away the cobwebs and re-set myself at the lake, where I currently/normally live.... On my first full night back, I was brushing my teeth and browsing the floor.  And then - there, just in front of the door, was a toad!

I immediately left the room and finished brushing, considering what to do next. I settled on a plan of getting it to walk/hop into a paper bag. So I sauntered over there, and placed the bag horizontally on the floor.  Then, with a little (vocal) encouragement, it hopped right in. (Big up the doorway here too, yo!)

So I went right outside the door, and (gently) nudged this toad out of that bag. And the last I saw it, he/she was sitting squat on the sidewalk, not moving a centimeter.  Now, since it's hard to tell with frogs, I'm not sure....

But I think the whole experience was like suddenly encountering a slightly exciting yet fairly uncomfortable dream, and then having it quickly removed.  Perhaps it was like a sort of a waking dream....  In any case, I like the idea, and I'm glad to have seen this particular light brown toad today :)