I Just Want To Be On The River

Last summer, when Lafe, Mike and I started working with the youth group at our church, we wanted to start off with a bang.  We wanted to take the kids on a canoe trip on the Wisconsin River.  Nothing huge.  Just one day.  It ended up not working out, and we had a great Fall Fest instead.  But ever since then, I’ve been excited to take the kids out there.  It wasn’t supposed to be a difficult activity to plan.  We need 2 vans, a couple of adults, and a cooler for lunches.  That’s it.  Oh, was I wrong.

The easy decision was which section of the river to paddle.  I’ve done a couple of sections of the river, but the best part, hands down, is around Sauk City.  This is the prime area of the river for eagles and other wildlife, and has towering bluffs on both sides of the river.  My brother and I wanted to be sure we paddled a section of the river by Ferry Bluff, so we could hike the trail to the top, and have our devotional at this great lookout point.  We had to wait a while before making a reservation because of all the flooding in that area.  We didn’t want to go whitewater canoeing and we would prefer a couple of sandbars to play on, plus you know, there’s the whole death factor involved in flooded rivers.  The water levels came down, so we reserved 5 canoes (we had a pretty small group going).  This past Monday, I was wondering how long the hike was to the top and if my crocs would be ok.  So I did what any ocd freak would do – google it.  That’s when I found THE PROBLEM. 

For years, I had heard rumors of a “naturalist” beach on the Wisconsin River.  Some people said it existed, some said it didn’t.  Most said they had never seen it.  After calling the owner of the canoe livery, I discovered that the location of the VERY REAL beach is within eye shot of the livery.  Yeah, THAT’S what you want to see with a bunch of teens.  That was where it started to spiral out of control.  We had to find a new livery, get them to call me back, ask them where their take-out point was, how many miles it was from the beach and if it was visible.  Then, I had to email my pastor every step of the way, reassure him that the beach isn’t in eyeshot of the bluff where our new route ends, reassure parents that the river wasn’t flooded, reassure “contributors of opinion” that we knew we needed bug spray, sunscreen and water, AND try to get a hold of 2 guys that work 2^nd and 3^rd shift and make sure they were ok with the new plan before we confirmed anything.  It was ok.  We worked it out and everybody calmed down.

My heart rate had almost returned to normal, when a new email popped up at work.  Someone wanted to bring a guest.  ARGGHHH!  I knew the story behind the extra person, and I knew that this was going to be a great ministry opportunity, but I still had to work through the logistics.  Can we bring a 6^th grader that will be in youth group in 6 weeks anyway?  Can we bring a kayak for the odd person?  Can we rent a kayak out there?  Oh, they want the sponsors to be IN the canoes.  Ok.  We need to find another person.  Who can we find within 3 days that is willing to get up at 6 in the morning and spend their ENTIRE day on a mosquito infested river with teenagers.  It took a couple more emails and frantic phone calls, but I got it done.

There have been a couple of emails since then, but they were just questions that I already had the answers to.  I’m done with problems.  I’m done with floods.  I’m done with naked people.  I just want to skip every minute between right now, and 9:30 tomorrow morning when we launch our canoes.

Please, please pray for no surprises tomorrow.  I might cry.

It’s all about balance.

In the interest of being healthy and all that jazz, I bought a bike on Friday.  This may not sound like a big deal, but I haven’t owned a bike since I was in high school, and I think I’ve only ridden a bike once since then.  My gear-gurus (Lafe & Jonathan), had recommended a lower end Trek last summer, so I went to my supposedly magical local bike shop to find a bike.  I found a bike that I absolutely fell in love with, and of course, it wasn’t the lower end Trek.  I researched like crazy for a few days – online reviews, articles, comparisons and called around to some other bike shops – none of which sell Trek at lower than full retail.  I tried one other bike shop that I hadn’t called yet – Emery’s in Menomonee Falls.  I lucked out and had the owner helping me on the floor.  We found the bike I loved, he told me that the other bike shop fitted be wrong, and got me on the right size bike, AND he cut a deal on the price!  I picked up the newly built bike Friday night, and got right up to West Bend to try it out on the Eisenbahn Trail (very sweet rails to trails bike trail).  We did about 5 miles on Friday, and another 5 on Saturday.  My poor sit bones gave way before my legs did, but we’ll get there…

So here’s where balance comes into play.  After riding on Saturday, I had to pick up some groceries.  I was doing really well, picking healthy foods – whole grains, lean meats, fruit, veggies and yogurt and decided to get one treat for the week.  I love, love, love the Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, so I was looking in that freezer when I saw (WAAAAAHH! {that’s the noise you hear when the gates of heaven open}) Mexican ice cream bars.  If you’ve never had a mexican ice cream bar, the best place to go is the south side of Milwaukee and look for a street vendor.  I don’t even know how to explain them.  The fruit bars are more juice-based than cream-based, so they’re super refreshing.  They mix flavors, too – a few summers ago I had a mango-chili pepper bar.  The bars I found in the store are pretty close to authentic – I bought a coconut bar that’s really creamy, but the street vendors actually use some coconut milk in the ice cream.  Lafe got a box of cucumber-chili pepper bars that he loves.  I had one bar and buried the rest of the box in the back of the freezer – I’m going to ride another 15 before I have another one.

Rottweilers are good dogs…

…when they have good owners.  This story from jsonline.com today made me smile:

TUESDAY, June 3, 2008, 10:44 a.m.
By Nick Halter

Teen fleeing Rottweiler fractures skull

A 17-year-old boy fractured his skull Monday night after he ran into a tree while fleeing a Rottweiler that broke its chain.

Milwaukee Police said the dog, which had been chained to a tree in the 4200 block of N. 40th St., broke loose after the teen began running away from the dog. With the dog in pursuit, police said, the boy ran into a tree, fell to the ground and hit his head, fracturing his skull.

The boy suffered bleeding in his brain, police said, and was in stable condition this morning at a hospital.

The dog never attacked the victim, and in fact licked him while he was down, police said.

The dog’s owner received a citation because the dog was not kept behind a fence, police said.

I love this!

My linguistics professor in college stressed that language is always changing.  Nouns can become verbs – our language rules allow it, even if it drives grammar freaks crazy.  In fact, as of the 2006 publishing of the Oxford English Dictionary, “google” is a verb.  So there.