I knew I made a mistake when I sent the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever do that? Write a text or email, hit send and then think to yourself, \u201cWait a minute! What the heck did I just unleash!?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was to my brother. The text read: \u201cSo what are you all doing this weekend? Amelie is wondering if a canoe expedition might be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reply was immediate: \u201cIt is. Would you be rockin\u2019 The Sea Eagle or did you grab an aluminum canoe?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mind you, I don\u2019t have any flotation devices. \u201cThe Sea Eagle\u201d is his inflatable kayak that is pretty easy to haul around, sturdy and can be blown up on short notice. But in my brother\u2019s parlance, the name is less a brand or product, and more like Mel Gibson yelling, \u201cFREEDOM!\u201d in \u201cBraveheart.\u201d He talks about \u201cThe Sea Eagle\u201d like it\u2019s another family member \u2013 like they hangout and share a beer while discussing politics and manly things; like they peered into each other\u2019s souls and formed a union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter had been asking about doing this for a while. Trying to get us all together. Trying to get me to buy a canoe. Trying to get us to go on one of these expeditions that my brother cooks up with his 6-year-old son, Striker. She\u2019s gone on a couple as they traipse through the woods looking for old, forgotten railroad lines or \u201cartifacts\u201d along the Intracoastal that could be ancient Native American pottery, or maybe petrified poop. It\u2019s kind of a hit-or-miss thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wanting to get out of the house, out into the wilds and spend a little (socially-distanced) time with family made this high on her list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently, my brother\u2019s, too. The texts started flying fast and free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYep, lemme just think which is the best place for The Sea Eagle. Deep Creek might be a bit pointy. Pellicer should be good. Need to reconnoiter the launch spot. Thinking Moultrie Creek, putting in at U.S. 1, or possibly braving Deep Creek. You guys can swim, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was going swell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We met up early on Saturday morning with my brother, his wife, their kid, their canoe and The Sea Eagle, all on the side of the road. I like my nephew, partly because he reminds me of my brother at that age. The kind of kid whose first words out of his mouth are never a greeting, but usually something more profound like, \u201cLook at this rock I found. It\u2019s a rock!\u201d or \u201cI walked in on my dad while he was using the bathroom \u2026 again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good stuff, and lots of actionable information. He is a bouncy kid. The type who never has two feet on the ground at the same time, and is constantly moving around as if he couldn\u2019t decide whether he should dance, run like a cheetah or show you some Native American pottery that might actually be poop. Instead, he does all three at exactly the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned out to be a good outing. Beautiful weather. Lazy stroll down the creek to a railroad bridge, where we all got out to sample the mud on the shore and poke around for rocks and artifacts and rusty, tetanus-y things that had fallen off the tracks. To my brother and nephew, this seemed like treasure. Not to me. Mud and tetanus-y junk is not my thing. But my daughter got a kick out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We joked around, ate snacks and for a while forgot there was a world around us inundated with dread and fear and uncertainty, all thanks to a virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we piled back into the vessels and paddled into the oncoming tide. The lazy stroll somehow devolved into a manic race. That\u2019s the thing about my family: Can\u2019t just enjoy a moment. Take a moment. Stay lazy. Always have to pepper on a little hardship and pain for good measure. Let a couple of little kids rule the day when they start screaming, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s beat them!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the 6-year-old \u2026 I get that. But I thought 14-year-olds were supposed to be totally distant, hate talking to their dads and spend all their time messing around on their phones. That they wouldn\u2019t be caught dead yelling: \u201cROW, DAD!!! We\u2019re gaining on them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI AM rowing, thank you,\u201d I replied, straining and out-of-breath. \u201cBesides, we\u2019re gonna\u2019 make that little kid cry if we pass them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah?\u201d she said. \u201cWell, I\u2019M gonna\u2019 cry if we don\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt weird strains and pains. I had obviously done something wrong with \u201cThe Sea Eagle\u2019s\u201d inflatable seat because I was now lying down flat in the boat like a recliner while I trying to row. My stomach muscles twitched and my brother worried I was having a stroke. \u201cGO SEA EAGLE!!!\u201d I screamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a couple days later now and much of my body still hurts. I think the dehydration has finally subsided, but the tetanus has not. Stupid railway junk!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But my daughter is still talking about it. Still asking when we can \u201crock The Sea Eagle\u201d again. When we can get back out on the water to search for artifacts and give a hearty cry of, \u201cFREEDOM!\u201d while paddling down the lazy creek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I knew I made a mistake when I sent the text. <\/p>\n
Ever do that? Write a text or email, hit send and then think to yourself, \u201cWait a minute! What the heck did I just unleash!?!\u201d <\/p>\n
It was to my brother. The text read: \u201cSo what are you all doing this weekend? Amelie is wondering if a canoe expedition might be possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
The reply was immediate: \u201cIt is. Would you be rockin\u2019 The Sea Eagle or did you grab an aluminum canoe?\u201d <\/p>\n
Mind you, I don\u2019t have any flotation devices. \u201cThe Sea Eagle\u201d is his inflatable kayak that is pretty easy to haul around, sturdy and can be blown up on short notice. But in my brother\u2019s parlance, the name is less a brand or product, and more like Mel Gibson yelling, \u201cFREEDOM!\u201d in \u201cBraveheart.\u201d He talks about \u201cThe Sea Eagle\u201d like it\u2019s another family member \u2013 like they hangout and share a beer while discussing politics and manly things; like they peered into each other\u2019s souls and formed a union. <\/p>\n
My daughter had been asking about doing this for a while. Trying to get us all together. Trying to get me to buy a canoe. Trying to get us to go on one of these expeditions that my brother cooks up with his 6-year-old son, Striker. She\u2019s gone on a couple as they traipse through the woods looking for old, forgotten railroad lines or \u201cartifacts\u201d along the Intracoastal that could be ancient Native American pottery, or maybe petrified poop. It\u2019s kind of a hit-or-miss thing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,562,577,561,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-nutshells","category-childhood","category-coronavirus","category-family","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}