August 18 — Some Plans Are Better on Paper

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Today at work, Cori and I were putting primer on pipes.

Sun. Heat. Mosquitoes.

There is something about working outside in Florida that makes you appreciate the invention of walls, air conditioning, and screens on windows. 😄

But the mosquitoes reminded me of a story from a very long time ago.

It must have been around 1985.

A friend and I decided to go fishing on his parents' property outside the city. It was about 30 minutes by electric train, and then another two miles on foot to reach the property.

We left the city late on purpose.

The plan was simple:

Walk to the property.

Build a campfire.

Spend the night under the stars.

Listen to the fire crackle.

Wake up in the morning and go fishing.

It sounded wonderful.

Then we got off the train.

And discovered that the mosquitoes had been waiting for us.

Not a few mosquitoes.

A cloud of mosquitoes.

The kind that doesn't politely fly around your head.

The kind that makes you question every decision that brought you to that particular location.

We started running.

Two miles.

Trying to cover every piece of exposed skin while being chased by a flying army.

When we finally reached the property, there was no building. No shelter. Nothing.

Just us, the darkness, and the mosquitoes.

So we started a fire as quickly as possible.

Once we finally got it going, we discovered the only effective strategy was to stand over the fire and let the smoke protect us.

So that's what we did.

Two grown idiots standing around a campfire, covered in smoke, waving our arms and occasionally dancing whenever the mosquitoes found a way through.

If someone had been filming us, it probably would have been hilarious.

But this was 1985.

No phone cameras.

No video.

No social media.

Just two exhausted fishermen discovering that nature doesn't always cooperate with your plans.

When morning came, we didn't go fishing.

We ran the two miles back to the train station to catch the first train into the city.

Back to our apartments.

Back to civilization.

We never tried that particular adventure again.

I don't know if there is a great moral to the story.

Maybe it's simply this:

Some adventures are much better in your imagination.

And sometimes the best part of a story is that you survived it long enough to tell it.

Meanwhile, my drawings continue to create their own adventures.

Here's another picture from yesterday's story...

And another one from a completely different story.

The characters may be fictional.

The mosquitoes definitely weren't. 😄

Every drawing has a story.

Sometimes I draw the story.

Sometimes life does the drawing for me.