The Summer I Didn't

Warning--whining of a merely personal nature ahead.

This seems to be going down as the summer I didn't do some-thing-or-other-I-meant-to.

For starters, I haven't fished this little during a summer in years. This summer's rains have something to do with that. I cancelled a hex outing a couple weeks back due to forecasts of heavy rain, and locally, the Huron has been too high for comfortable wading for much of the summer. It is now, actually, and I'd figured to get out a few nights this week. Kristine and I are taking a weekend trip to Grayling in a couple weeks, and I should squeeze in a couple mornings on the water then. Otherwise...I might not chase trout again until September. That puts a bit of a crimp on a fishing-oriented blog.

When I do get out, I often forget my camera, or don't bother to take pictures if I do. Also not good for the blog.

I meant to write a killer application letter for a renewed job search later this year. I've done some background research, but no real sketching of the letter.

I have rarely even gone outside except to work in the yard.

What have I done? Mostly, I've sat behind the computer, or in libraries, plotting out some courses I'm developing for fall. And progressing slower than I'd ever have imagined. So much for getting "summer off." Last spring, my chair proffered these teaching opportunities with some gravity and circumspection--maybe she had a better idea than I did of the effort I'd need to invest getting those together. All I'd thought of was the chance to do more work with my environmental interests , but as the poet says, In dreams begin responsibilities.

I'm going to Kalamazoo this weekend for a niece's wedding, and that's starting to sound like a dream trip.

I'll close with something from a time this summer when I DID--did go fishing and did take my camera along. This shot of the Tippy Dam backwaters is probably one of the better photos I've snapped this year. I took it from my campsite during my June trip to Manistee.



Disappointing as that trip was, at the moment I'd take another like it in a heartbeat.