Dear Kathleen,
In my next NASC newsletter I am including shell-oriented dreams. Yours is so
unsusual I would like your permission to use it. Thanks in advance.
Glen Deuel
 
Kathleen Mccabe wrote:
 
> Well I don't know about all of you, but I had cone nightmares last night after
> reading all your E mails about how to handle them.  I was on Fiji all ready for
> my cone collecting adventure.  I had dressed properly to collect them in 4-inch
> thick diving skins, 6-foot long tongs with micro-camera attached for cone
> identification, hiking boots, steel-lined gloves, and vintage Saturday Night
> Live conehead helmet (for a little camoflouge).  Couldn't move real well and the
> Fijians all came out in numbers to gawk but I wasn't gonna let those big bad
> cones get me!  Had 3 milk jugs stacked inside each other with X slots all neatly
> done.  Figured no harpoon could get through that.  Had a banner day shelling.
> Wrapped all the cones in toilet paper, triple zip locked bags, chux wash rags,
> and everything else all of you had recommended and put the cones into the jugs.
> Best of all, they were all very clean specimens, so I knew I wouldn't have to
> worry about acids and bleaches and oils and dental picks, and toilet bowl
> cleaner etc etc when I got home.  I put the milk jug in our hotel room for
> safekeeping but forgot:  Cones are nocturnal creatures!!  We went to bed and
> they woke up!  They got loose and were running amok across the floor and
> climbing up the bed clothes proboscis outstretched looking for their captors.
> They were sliming their way across our bodies stinging away to their hearts
> content.  I couldn't move--couldn't breathe--and as each 5 minutes passed by I
> was becoming more and more paralyzed.  And I knew I was going to be the next
> statistic on Dr. Livett's home page about fatal cone stings.  I wanted to scream
> but my vocal chords were not working!  Finally I woke up in a cold sweat and
> grabbed for my arms, my legs, my head--Yes!  They were really there and I could
> feel them!  Whew!  Boy, was really glad to wake up alive!   Hope my real
> experience will be better than my dream!