Third Daze

If you do something stupid and no one is watching, is it still stupid?

I set the canoe at the water's edge expecting to load up quickly and be off on the rising tide.  But then, J the local fishing guide comes walking up from the far side of the peninsula and we start talking.  He caught no fish, but scored a half dozen mylar balloons from the water.  We both quickly agree that the damned things should be illegal. 
Then he say, "Your boat's gone."
Sure enough, my canoe is in the middle of the river, being lifted off the shore by a tide that was rising faster than I thought.
I say a few choice words, the most important of which is, "Looks like I'm going swimming."
Fortunately, the valet has taken the canoe straight across the river and parked it up against the spartina.  I fasten my PFD (life vest), clip my throw bag (a weighted throwable stuff sack with about 50 ft of floating line), and grab a paddle and start the 100 yard swim, which is especially fun with a canoe paddle in one hand. 
When I paddle back over, J steals my prepared joke, "I guess you don't need to worry about getting rained on."

Doth the heathen protest

Three days in a row, the third daze.  I learned from some solo trips to be patient for the third day.  The first two days of any solo trip are ones of feeling out of sorts as you not only leave the ordinary worries of modern life, but also the therapeutic chatter of friends and family.  The third day is when I am comfortable in my skin no matter where I am.  It's when I go natural. Today's trip is less a trip and more a meditation. 

The day is peaceful, the water still and reflective, the sky overcast, the air humid.  Even the Willets are less noisy than normal, except when I swam up to my canoe...they did not like that.  Up in the forest the water is especially glassy with focused reflections of the trees on the surface.  It is the reflection of a dirty mirror though with a thin film of silt and pollen on the water.

I return through the Sneak with little to note other than it seems to be the start of the one week long biting gnat season.