My best “April Fools’
Day Joke” of all time came at my Mom’s expense.
God bless her. We had a
Dishmaster faucet on our kitchen sink.
It was one of those brands that had a scrub brush wand attached to a
hose that you could activate by pulling up on a little knob. When it was not in use, the wand laid
across the top of the faucet.
I was
around 14 or 15 years old when I had the great idea to prop up the knob with a
toothpick broken off at just the right height.
I almost didn’t live a day longer when that afternoon of April 1st
my Mom came into the kitchen and turned on the water. Instead of water coming out of the spigot, it
sprayed her directly from the carefully positioned end of the scrub brush. I of course had been waiting and could hardly
contain myself. I laughed so hard I gave
away my innocence. She caught me halfway
up the stairs and beat me with a dish towel.
We both were laughing by then. My
Mom was a good sport; and pretty darn quick too!
That’s not where the story ends
though. Fast forward 33 years into the
future. I told the story of fooling my
Mom to my kids, as we were gathered around the dinner table. Soon after, my son Todd snuck in and set up
the sprayer that we have on our sink. We
should have known. Actually we did. Actually it didn’t matter, because Todd
forgot about it; rookie mistake. He came
waltzing into the kitchen that evening and turned on the water and immediately
got doused. It was hilarious. He couldn’t believe he had gotten fooled by
his own joke. In fact, in his sheepish
frustration he jumped up and down; not a good idea on a wet tile floor. He slipped and went down like a sack of wet
potatoes. We all laughed so hard we had
tears running down our faces. Somewhere we have a picture of Todd laying there soaked through and through,
gasping for breath, and laughing. You
reap what you sow I guess; funny, real funny!
Today (4-1-17) my friend Justin and I had planned a cross country excursion that involved
hiking through backwater swamps from a point A to a point B. It was going to be tough even on a good day
due to multiple creek and river crossings. In addition, we had to skirt a few sections of
private property where we had been warned that they shoot first and ask
questions later. That is perhaps a bit
extreme, but it makes for a good story, and the idea of trying to outrun
buckshot would definitely be adventurous.
So, we needed to stay clear of that land obviously. Unfortunately Mother Nature had different
ideas this Spring Break. It rained a
lot, and other than one afternoon, the sun never showed its face; funny Mother
Nature, real funny. The idea of swollen
waterways and low lands under water literally put a damper on what we wanted to
do. We decided to use our God given
brain and revamped our plan so we didn’t risk jeopardizing ourselves for future
outings. Crossing moving or stagnant
water was still inevitable, but we opted for a simpler hike in and cook out. Mother Nature had a few jokes still up her
sleeve, because today was absolutely
beautiful. When we first started, some
of the puddles had a thin layer of ice on them.
The skies, however, were baby blue which allowed the round spherical
thing in the sky to warm the Earth and our souls. The high temperature by our adventure’s end
was 65 degrees. Apparently the Midwest was
not to be outdone on this day! Spring
Break indeed; take that all of you coming back from some southern beach far,
far way.
Justin
and I trudged fields and muck and made it down to the main river. When we tried to hike along its bank though,
we were stopped and turned away time and time again due to oxbows, drainage
ditches, creeks, and marshes coming off the main river. Identifying the main river was difficult
because the currents that were coming off from it, and into the woods, was
almost as strong. We rerouted ourselves
so many times; continually backtracking around fingers of water that extended
off into the woods, that it was downright confusing. We had to laugh aloud at our seemingly aimless
wandering; funny, real funny.
By
late midmorning we realized we were not going to see the main river again. We had been cut off. We made several log bridges, but even those
wouldn’t have worked for some of the areas that technically would have required
a Huck-Finn raft or flat out swimming.
We decided to find an area void of poison ivy suckers that were sticking
up all around us and make our fire. We were
getting hungry. While working with a bundle
of tinder, and the spark off the steel, ignition happened so fast I singed my
eye lashes a bit; funny, real funny.
Around
the fire we talked and cooked our meal.
Our day camp was water-side on what amounted to a large pond, fed from
the series of canals and channels we had spent several hours walking
around. Our conversation was different
today, but good. It was personal, but
helpful. It allowed us to gain a
perspective on each other’s thoughts and views of life. It was nonthreatening and gave each of us the
opportunity to understand where the other was coming from. Life can be funny, but it can be tough,
unfair, and confusing too. Good conversation can help iron life out and make sense of it.
By
the end I think I was probably jabbering.
I was getting tired. After being
dropped off by Justin, I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. Fortunately that took the edge off. I wanted to make use of the weather. Driving over to school with my dogs, I
quickly varnished a project I’ve been working on. Once back, I went to work on a small garden
area of gooseberry bushes that I have in our backyard. The dry ground gave me the chance to get out
and use some of the rocks that I’ve collected.
I built a small retaining wall using chunks of limestone to hold back
the sod and soil. It felt good to get my
hands into the earth and feel the warmth in the air.
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| Before |
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| After |
It
was a good Saturday today; a good April Fools’ Day as days go. Rain is again in the forecast throughout this
next week. But for today, this one day,
Mother Nature was nobody’s fool and instead gave us a sneak peak at what it can
once again feel like to have the sun on our face.
See
you along The Way…
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