On the other hand, this is a boy who told us the other day that he actually saved a spider from a fate worse than death when he rescued the little critter from the lake by taking it aboard his raft and transporting it safely to shore. I may have suggested that it was a water spider and he did nothing more than inconvenience it or, worse yet, deprive it of a regularly scheduled meal. It is important to understand that Evan is frightened of spiders so this act of his is that much more “generous.” Evan is not unkind and has always had a soft spot in his heart, or so it seems, for younger children. He is not a bully, or at least I don’t think he is. I would hope that he would come to their rescue as he did for the spider. Peer pressure being what it is, that would be a risky venture but not totally out of character for the Ev man. I have to be careful here not to imbue him with qualities that he doesn’t actually possess nor those that I would confer upon him as a parent who would do the same for his or her child. In other words, I have to be careful not to create a boy out of whole cloth that does not otherwise exist in nature. It would be far better to model him with some defects because Mother Nature would have done the same thing.

Nancy has such a terrific recipe for chicken enchilada’s and she promised to make it for the boys during our time on the lake. Problem is, when the time came to do just that, she didn’t have the recipe at all. She was short a little cumin and a couple of other ingredients that were critical to the meal’s success. Worse yet, she waited until we were expecting guests here at the camp; waited until I baked the chicken beneath the broiler; waited until she discovered specks on an unknown origin out of the fry pan in which she was preparing sauce and even then, until I helped her out by trying every strainer we could find until we just gave up. Finally, she defaulted to another recipe and that was the end of that. I was so looking forward to having that meal as were the boys. Rollie, Carli, and Terri will never know what they missed. I think they would have enjoyed it. Oh, well.

I did have a nice bike ride down Cleverdale road yesterday. The air was cool and my ride felt effortless in the early morning air. I felt good about doing something for me straight away than jumping in with both feet to take the boys skiing, tubing, or fishing. I was determined not to rush and to take my time if that was what my body was telling me to do. It gave freedom to smile at people I passed and what a friendly bunch they were. I passed parents walking their children in strollers, people running with their dogs, and drivers waiting at intersections until I passed safely. The least friendly person I encountered was the clerk at the store where I purchased the paper. She was much too young to be as unfriendly as she was and it was only when she dropped the change in the palm of my hand that I sensed that she was actually making every effort to avoid contact with me in that little act of self desperation.