Migration of Anas Flexibilis

   “Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s a bird!” “Well, actually, I guess it is kind of a bird…sort of…” “Yeah, I guess you could call it that…” “…y’mean those things can actually FLY??” “DUCK!” Wait, no, no, don’t worry.  I didn’t mean that. You can get up now.   While Olympians from around the world descend upon […]

Abraham Lincoln, River Rat

While kayaking the river late one recent summer afternoon, I took a break in the shade on a sand bar. Tired from traversing log jams and portaging shallow areas, I laid back and started to drift away. It was then that a tall bearded stranger wearing a straw hat approached. He was carrying a strange package that looked to be […]

Dirt is the Answer

  Along the entire 246 mile length of the Sangamon River there is but one dam. And even it was a bad idea. Construction was complete on the dam on the Sangamon River that forms Lake Decatur in 1922. And problems with this dam were already apparent as early as 1936. The solution to Lake Decatur’s problems, first proposed by […]

Life in the Slow Lane

  A test: Suppose you have two potential routes between Point A and Point B. The first route takes 15 minutes, the other route takes 4 hours. Which route do you choose? 99% of you picked the first route. But if you’re like me, you’re part of the 1% that picks life in the slow lane. Maybe it’s time to […]

I Spy

 I spy a white three legged plastic chair and a 55 gallon plastic barrel of blue.  I spy four cans of Miller light, three cans of Busch light, three Coke cans and a Pepsi Can, too. I spy a whiskey bottle, a wheelbarrow, big and plastic with two wheels. I spy a bottle of Bud Light, a quart Bud Light […]