one kid's river

It looks like Ernesto, be it hurricane, tropical storm, or other, will be doing its thing to the DC area tomorrow. The early rains already started, which was a treat, after several dry summer weeks.

It was such a delight to have cooler air, that I decided to haunt some childish stomping grounds. The photo above shows a wee bit of the Patuxent River, which winds through Laurel, Maryland. Seems like it was always just beyond the trees outside any of the several apartments we had, all over town. I'd come home with obscenely muddy shoes, after exploring all day...... what was I, eleven? Twelve years old? Thereabouts.

So the Patuxent still has that smell of careless childhood adventure about it. A melancholy thing to sniff nowadays, but nice. Even in the rain. The occasional dead Coors Light can would float by, keeping it real, but i still dig this tiny river as if it was mine by birthright.

Speaking of nature, we leave tomorrow for a week of tree-hugging splendor, somewhere in the top of Michigan... Not the Upper Penninsula; that would be the top-top. This is just the top. Or rather, the sub-top.

The under-top?

It's time for a break anyway. I'll have the camera. It'll be a blast. A nice, quiet, relaxing kind of blast. With obscenely muddy shoes at the end of each day's adventure... I hope.