A Day of Kayaking and It’s Always An Adventure with Carl

Carl’s phone—its applications run the entire house—is out of order. We went kayaking the other day. A perfect day with just enough breeze to keep off the deer flies. A curvaceous, water path through wetlands. As we were returning, I paddled ahead with our friends Nancy and Alix, leaving Carl and our friend Beth to investigate something about a dead fish. As we paddled around a curve, leaving Carl and Beth behind, I heard Beth say, “Be careful, Carl. The kayak is tipping.” I figured Beth has taken on my role of worrier and continued my conversation with Alix, though in the back of my mind a passing thought…That did come true. Beth said that she had resisted grabbing her camera as the kayak went down—something, I will note, that I would possibly not have resisted because…—She regrets the lack of photos just a smidge because Carl looked so cute in the water, clutching the side of his kayak, looking over its side like a five year old as he, in a wee voice, said, “My phooooone…”

He dove and searched for it until Beth suggested he look in his pocket which he did do and there it was. And it worked! And Carl was absolutely fine, quite cheerful really as the water was quite cool after all that paddling. I think he used diving for the phone as an excuse to get good and soaked.

Evil thought and payback is a bitch. His phone took a turn for the worse a couple of days later and so Carl is using mine at his out-of-town gig as I type this out. My old cell phone is my backup phone. Too bad it just turned itself off and refuses resuscitation.