19 September 2007

Boot 'N Paddle - September 21, 2007

Remember last year when I held the contest for a chance to write Boot ‘N Paddle for a week? Contestants had to write a Boot ‘N Paddle about one of three topics: 1) “Welcome back to school”, 2) “The great outdoors” and 3) “You know you’re sick when….” Tons of people entered! The editors and I had a real ball reading through some of the entries! It was so hard to pick a winner…that we didn’t! In the end we decided to enter snippets from some of our favorites….

-This past weekend was simply divine. I have this memory, and it is one that will stick with me for ages, I swear it! There was this moment, a moment so delightful that I had to believe I had conjured up the splendor in some undisturbed summer slumber.
I had just returned from a stroll down an old logging road with my Springer spaniel, Helios. Nearing my rusty gate, my faithful companion stirred a grouse from beside a giant of a maple tree. Just as Helios barked, the grouse fled (This went on for a long time until…) a moment of pure, uncontaminated, autumnal bliss.
- …and yet snowshoeing can be a positive experience, too! I can’t deny that I have felt very happy on a pair of snowshoes.
- Dog is not man’s best friend! My cat is my best friend!... (This was a very heartwarming story that was just way too long for print. Thanks anyway Jeremy!)
- So there I am, in the middle of woods on my fifth day of not having eaten anything except my jeans, so my legs are freezing!
-You guys, I think it is really neat that school is underway! We cast off the lines, and pushed away from the summertime docks to set to sea heading for academia. Well, here we are gang and I must say we have arrived at a very strange new land!
- What is the great outdoors? Is it a myth… some conjured idea stemming from frontiersmen too drunk on whiskey and wine to know their own surname. Well I did some research and the term actually stems (as most things do) from Greek mythology. No, I will not bore you with tales of Zeus taking Athena out his head to bring the world knowledge, nor will I tell you of Artemis’s hunts or Aries’s wars. For it is actually a small fawn named Pan from which our story starts.

Wow guys! Thank you so much for submitting! If I’m not careful, I might lose my job! HAHAHAHAHA!!! (It’s not a job)

1 comment:

Maxwell Eaton III said...

any updates I should know about?