Abundance

     Holey-moley, a second trip to the Boundary Waters this year might actually happen. This one'll be a fall trip and'll be with my nephew Brian once again. We spoke via e-mail and recalled a few things missed in my posting of last year's trip. Never did make mention of dumping him in the lake. Call it a brain lapse that spread to my arms and hands. Those things happen when you're a frequent visitor to the ozone. My mind can wander to the ends of time and place at the drop of a hat, even if I don't have a hat. One second I'm thinking of how good a slab of apple pie would go at the moment and how I might work that into a story about my days in Vietnam. Next second there's Brian in the bow of a half submerged canoe and me mumbling, "Now how in the hell did that happen?" Yeah, it's an embarrassment and doesn't involve riches. Those things aren't supposed to happen to a seasoned canoe man like me. Truth is, the more seasoning a man has under his belt, the more opportunity to have done something stupid.
     Then there was the moose. On the portage over we'd seen plenty of mud-dented tracks. Big ones near as long as my boot. A couple of days later, off in the woods we saw the reason. What Brian recalls is that his first thought was of it being a horse and how unlikely it was to see a horse in the Boundary Waters. Yup, the brain works in many and mysterious ways. Gets from point A to point B via some of the lesser letters. Guess Brian's was on H and not on M. Those things happen to a fertile and unfettered mind.
     At the moment the fall trip is a maybe. Brian is self-employed, a craftsman who builds, maintains and tunes church organs. You don't see that much in the twenty-first century. But he does it and does it well. Puts food on the table and keeps creativity floating through his brain. Sometimes that turns a moose into a horse but is, by and large, a good thing. My point being his customers tell him his work schedule, not the other way around. Should all work out we'll pay a second visit to Crocodile Lake and claim our rightful campsite. Maybe also eat a few fall fattened walleyes and perch.