Living in da swamp

 Thanks for the pics Beagles.  Just hearing you talk about the swamp and all the hard work and hard times it made me think of it as dismal.  But looking at it in these photos it was beautiful.

That sweep of white in the winter. The golden hue of spring with the Canada geese standing all majestic and no care in the world stance.  And then the bright green of the summertime and the living is easy.  

How big was it in miles?  Can I get your address again so I can google earth it?  

Yeah I guess you know enough about my life to tell that it is pretty biographical.  Things didn't happen like that but not that far off.  As I was writing it seemed kind of depressing, the guy was near the end of his rope and he had that grim attitude towards life.  But I have to recall it didn't seem that bad at the time.  At 40 I guess I still felt pretty young.  I couldn't get a job in Champaign but coming to Texas the boomtown with my recent certificate in the promising field of data processing, it was exciting Man.  

In retrospect sending my cat through that Emery thing seems kind of risky, but at the time it seemed like the reasonable thing to do and I never expected them not to take her off the damn plane in Austin.  I did have a neighbor named Mona who liked to be called Mona Lisa and we did eat popcorn and drink beer on the walkway outside her door, and maybe she wasn't that frisky but she did run off with the Rotel and the Hot Tomato bass man.  

And there was the woman who married and then was abandoned by the Laird, and I did have that moment when I thought oh hell, why don't I just fall in love, but when she looked back up at me I did think of a joke to tell and the subject never came up again.

I can't say that I ever had much of a plan for my life, just do whatever comes next.  But you knew from way back when you were in knee pants that you were gonna live in a swamp and hunt and fish and do all that outdoorsy stuff that you loved so much.  Here's to you Pal.