Well, here it is. The big day has come and gone. What was it? My birthday. June 23rd. It rained. Quite a bit. But it did dry up a bit in the afternoon. So I went outside and sat on the steps with peanuts in hand, well, okay, they were in a cup. And I waited. And waited. Hmm, no chipmunks. No squirrels. Dull day. But finally Skamper showed up. He is one of the chipmunks, the smallest of the group. Poor little critter, gets chased by all the other chipmunks. And squirrels. But he doesn’t give up and he is definitely the bravest of the group.

He was rustling around in the cup looking for the right peanuts, I was talking to him as usual and said it was my birthday. He stopped looking through the peanuts, looked up at me, then crawled up my shirt and touched his little nose on my chin, then back down to the peanuts, quickly grabbed two of them and he was off once again. Amazing little critters. Sometimes I think they understand what I say. Okay, I know they don’t. But it’s interesting anyway. Was it just a coincidence? Perhaps. But I doubt it.

Sometimes big blessings come in small packages. But we usually ignore the small packages, so we miss the big blessings. Speaking of big. I think Sir George is getting bigger. There are now 4 friends that come with Sir George. But he is definitely the biggest of the 5. And he gets first pick at the food. He is waiting on the roof when I go out to feed him normally between 4:30 and 5AM. But, alas, the days are now getting shorter. The countdown to that terribly long and cold season of the year has begun.

I try not to think about it though. Right now it’s nice and hot. And sunny. My kind of weather. It was a day like this that Dad and I decided to go do some fishing. There was this nice lake, easy to get to but we had never tried fishing there before. So off we went. Nice and early, the sun was shining, no wind, just perfect. We got the boat into the water, which was easy, all downhill. Coming back wasn’t quite so easy. Anyway, we started off.

“Did you bring our lunch?” asked Dad. “Naturally,” said I. “I don’t see it,” said Dad. “Oh, oops, left it by the car,” I said. “BONEHEAD!” Glad Dad is enjoying himself already. We hadn’t gone far so headed back and I climbed the hill, retrieved our lunch and came back. Off we went. “Hey, where’s my tackle box?” asked Dad. “You said you would look after that,” said I. “Great, still in the car,” he mumbled. Back we went. I climbed the hill back to the car. Even though Dad forgot his tackle box, he figured I should be the one to go get it. Sigh.

Back down the hill and into the boat. “We have everything now,” said I. “Good,” said Dad. Off we went. “Hey, where’s my rod?” asked Dad. Not again. “You set it down while we launched the boat,” said I, “guess you left it lying on the rock.” “BONEHEAD!” Hey, it wasn’t my fault. Really. Back up the hill, which Dad decided I should climb since I was now experienced at it. Right. Okay, let’s check everything. All here. Finally we are off again.

“Let’s try this spot,” said Dad. “Sounds good to me,” I answered, “looks deep here.” I then looked over the side of the boat. “Don’t do that!” yelled Dad. That startled me and I sat up quickly which for some reason really rocked the boat. Poor dad. He never did like rocking boats. He gets dizzy so easily. “BONEHEAD!” Guess he’s okay this time, since he is enjoying himself. I made a nice cast. Well, it would have been nice, but the hook got caught on dad’s shirt. “AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!,” yelled Dad. “Just got your shirt,” I said, “you ruined my cast.” “Could have gotten stuck in my arm,” he said.

“At least it only ripped the shirt a little,” said I. Dad was looking at this hole in his shirt. “That’s small?” he asked, “I can practically put my hand through the hole.” Dad did like to exaggerate at times. “Hey, look at that,” I said, pointing to a spot on shore. “Well, well,” said Dad, “might have to do some exploring around there.” On shore was a nice log cabin, somewhat fallen into disrepair, but still standing nonetheless. Dad was standing at this point so I decided to stand also, to get a better look at things.

Now this was not a large boat, just a small aluminum type, and I sort of lost my balance. Didn’t fall overboard, or any such thing, but, poor dad. That rocking boat while he was standing didn’t go well with him. Thought he was going to jump into the water. “Be careful,” I said, “this is not the place to go swimming.” Dad sat down and looked at me. “BONEHEAD,” he said. Good, he’s okay. “We’ll fish for a while first and then come back and explore that place,” said Dad. “Sigh, okay, but how am I supposed to concentrate on fishing,” I said, “with an old place waiting to be explored?” Oh well. It is such a beautiful day. Squirrels are arguing outside. Guess that means they want peanuts. Sir George should be here soon for his supper too.

This is a repost from the year 2018, right after my birthday. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and God bless! Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.