Hi everyone! It’s spring. Kind of early spring, but still, it’s spring. And I have that feeling. Happens every spring. After a long winter I want to do something. Like start on a woodworking project. I do need to make one more piece to my reading nook. At least the plans call for that. I could leave it the way it is, but knowing it should have one more piece makes it look unfinished to me. Others wouldn’t know. But I do. And I don’t like when something is not finished. This would be something safe to do. More or less. With me I don’t know if anything is completely safe. Another thing in spring is a spring hike. Going somewhere different. Explore new territory. See new things. Get new pics. This one would not be quite so safe, so better to stay with walking to the river. It’s spring. It’s that feeling to do something new.

Like one year dad and I decided on a spring hike. We drove to this one spot, it was quite high there and we could see a long distance. It was beautiful really. Dad parked the car, we got our backpacks and off we went. Down this big hill. It was steep at first but not too hard walking. Until one spot. “Need to jump down a little here,” I said. “Go ahead,” said dad. So I jumped. Then it was dad’s turn. “That’s a small jump?” he inquired. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” I said. So he jumped safely. Dad looked back up. “We’ll need to find a different way up,” he said. That’s not going to be easy on this hill, I thought to myself. On we went and came to a rather narrow steep spot, but there was a small dead tree right there to hold onto. I checked and it was good and solid. I held onto it and made it down that spot easily.

“Just hold onto that dead tree,” I called back to dad. He looked, then held the tree and started down. The tree broke and dad started to run. Wow, did his eyes get big! And he ran, fast, right past me and kept right on going all the way to the bottom, without falling. That was quite amazing. Also amazing how fast he can run when he wants to. At the bottom he ran into some bushes and I heard him scream. Thought maybe they were wild rose bushes, they can be prickly. But it was just some alder bushes. “You sure flattened them,” I said laughing, ” and the look on your face as you ran!” “Ha and ha”, said dad. It was just a short distance and we had to cross a small creek.

“No way across but to jump”, I said. I took a run at it and jumped, making it across easily. Then dad tried. He ran and jumped and made it across, almost. He did clear the creek, just a little, but he lost his balance and sat down, with a huge splash right in the creek. “I’m soaked,” he said. “You shouldn’t have sat down,” I said laughing uncontrollably this time. “Good thing it’s a warm day, you’ll dry fast,” I said, still laughing. “You laugh a lot,” said dad. “You do a lot of funny things,” I said. We made it to a rocky hill overlooking the railway tracks. “Good place for lunch, I hope you brought it this time,” said dad. “Yours is in your backpack”, I said. We sat down, fairly close, since there was only the two rocks to sit on.

I spotted some glass and went over to look, sure enough, it was a nice green insulator. “Good shape too,” I said, “and there’s another one.” “Toss me that one,” said dad. So I did, a nice easy toss. Dad had set his coffee on the ground so he could catch the insulator. He missed and it hit him on the knee and bounced into his cup of coffee, knocking it over. I come back, dad is still walking around. “You have a lot of energy today,” I said. “Bonehead”, was all dad said and he poured another cup of coffee. Very strange. “Look at this one,” and I brushed some of the dirt off. “Oh, sorry, guess some dirt fell in your coffee,” I said.

Dad just looked. “That was my second cup,” he said and poured himself another. “Now where is that other insulator?”, he asked. “Right here,” and I handed it to him. It wasn’t my fault he was holding his cup of coffee in that hand. Our hands hit and he dropped his cup. He just looked. “Three cups of coffee and I never got even one sip,” he said. “You really should be more careful,” I said. Poor dad, he did have his problems. It’s spring. And I have that feeling. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.