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Dragonflies, Cheese Puffs

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Those of us who live in unglaciated southern Ohio are nuts for water. We're on a deprivation diet. The nearest large expanse of water is the Ohio River, which is a huge, muddy highway for barges. I make a point of driving by the riverside as much as possible whenever I go to town, just to feast my eyes on it. There's always something interesting out on the water, be it a gull, a barge, or a sternwheeler.
Because BOTB is a Pisces, there's almost always water in our vacation plans. On Saturday, we took our one-man canoes out on a weedy lake. There were dragonflies EVERYWHERE. And all of them were getting it on. These looked like yellow-legged meadowhawks, Sympetrum vicinum. Properly identified, they immediately used me as a trysting platform. Bad haircut warning! At least somebody stayed at the park long enough to get lucky.

I had this vision of taking Chet Baker for a nice long paddle in the canoe. I lifted him in, and he lifted himself right back out. And, having refused a ride, he was not pleased to see me paddle off in a canoe for the first time. He dithered on the boat launch for a moment, then launched himself into the water. A brachycephalic dog swimming is not a pretty sight. Bulging eyes, snorgling nose, frantic expression: I had to ask Phoebe to hold him until I went around the bend.
When I got back, Baker was happily burying something in the wet, muddy bank. I watched him from a distance; like any good pirate, he doesn't like to be observed when he's burying treasure. Sure enough, he came back to the bag of cheese puffs that Phoebe and Aveen had been raiding, as it lay unattended on the dock. He extracted a puff and buried it some distance from the first one, in wet mud. Sure, that'll be there when you come back, Baker. You're never coming back! Spreading allergens, endangering the health, safety and comfort of other parkgoers, Chet Baker wreaks destruction wherever he goes. Hey, is he smoking crack???

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