I’ve long been intrigued with the idea that we all have dreams – nightmares, really – involving our jobs. When I was in news, for example, I had a dream that the sounder had gone off (that tune they played when it was time to listen to a newscast), and I got into the booth with just a handful of entertainment stories. No news, just fluff. Of course, that’s one of about a dozen that I’d have as my job evolved. But in every case, I was completely helpless.
 
I know other people have job-related nightmares and have wondered if it might make a fascinating podcast or even a book. What does Commander Chris Hadfield dream he can’t do when he needs to? What does a surgeon dream of not being able to do when the situation is dire? My own dad, a commercial and armed forces pilot, would dream that just as he was coming in for a night time landing, the lights on the runway would be turned off. Seems as if we all have them.
 
So what do we have panic dreams about now? Funnily enough, Rob and I found ourselves discussing this yesterday when he got home from a morning hockey game (he’s back to playing three times a week now). I told him that while he was gone, I dreamed that he was playing goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I had texted Ian and Gord from the CHFI Morning Show to be sure to watch, as he’d be in goal that night. 
 

 
So Rob asked me, “Did you also dream that I had a problem with my equipment?” 
 
Rob thought it was funny I had the same dream he’s had for years, but every time he dreams that he’s called up by the Leafs, he can’t get dressed fast enough or he can’t find his equipment and the game starts without him. 
 
I had to laugh. We both remember back to the early 1990s when Rob actually did get a call from the Leafs: Bill Watters was assistant GM of the team and Rob knew him because Bill had been co-host of “Talking of Sports” with Bob McCown and Rob was the show’s producer. Bill knew Rob played goal and there came a day when, to the best of our recollection, the team’s regular goalie was missing practice and the backup goalie had to skip because of a family emergency.
 
We came home from wherever we’d been and checked our trusty Radio Shack answering machine and there it was, something almost every Canadian kid dreams of: a call to take the ice with the team you’ve loved since you could walk, never mind skate. 
 
And we weren’t home to take the call.
 
But that’s okay. We’ve gotten nearly as much pleasure from remembering that day and the one that got away as if Rob had actually been able to let the team use him for target practice; that is, if they could have stopped laughing at his old leather pads (which he later gave to Ian’s kids when he lucked into Felix Potvin’s used equipment).
 
Oh, by the way, Rob says his dream ending to that whole scenario is that he plays with the team that day, they say, “Holy cow, where have you been?” and sign him to a contract. Then the Leafs go on to win the Stanley Cup. Because, as he says, that’s how the fantasy goes. And it’s so much better than the one about not finding your equipment.