My folks live on the Pomme de Terre Lake in southwest Missouri. It's a small lake by Missouri standards, but it's large for California (go figure). Every year, my mom has a thing about being the first one in the lake. Well, this time she got it: no competition.

It was Easter. It was fairly warm outside. The sun was out, and there was no wind. The trees were bare, not having found the days long enough to leaf out. I learned a lot about working a canoe from my first wife. Her family could do amazing things (well, if you find canoes amazing) with canoes. Mom wanted to go for a canoe ride. We borrowed the neighbor's canoe, and got ready.

I told my mom to keep her center-of-gravity low... hunker down while you get in the canoe. I sat it the canoe and held the gunwales to keep it balanced. She put one leg in, and I balanced the craft. She put the other foot in and stood up. The canoe went over. We dumped into the freezing water. We stood up in two feet of water, laughing hysterically. Well, we were already wet, and there was no wind. So, we got in the canoe, and went paddeling around the cove. We dried off after our trip around the cove, and had a great adventure.

She still tries to blame me for dumping the canoe.

Different life... I'm dry now.