The spring run-off has begun so it's time to break out the canoe or kayak or whatever floats you down the river. Did you know that the Machias River has a "cult" following among canoeists, or at least so says a guidebook I read some years back. For all you city folk out there, that is NOT the Machias River pictured above, just some snowmelt in Marshfield. I had my one true near-death experience on the Machias River--which has some class V rapids this time of year--but it owns my heart. Maybe actually that's partly why, since I made a deal with the Lord that day. Oh, and to think I'm the same person who asked the priest who married me and Cara not to mention God.

People change. Matter of fact I know a guy who used to be an anarchist and now he has a wine cellar. That's the American Dream, baby, pure and simple.

Happy birthday to my mother Edith, who may or may not read her son's blog. I know I have a new follower (even dozen now) because she left me a comment that almost brought me to tears. Thank you so much Camille.

I've known Camille since she was an infant, known her since she was kicking around in her mother's belly. And now she's a student at Columbia; that's right, the Ivy League. Yeah, ol' Birch Wisdom is moving up in the world.

Anyone else interested in leaving a comment please know that I will donate a dollar in your name to the Richard E. Cirillo Fund for Grandfathers Without Jobs.

And Jake--you true Rottersman, you--if you deign to read the words of this madman, give your daddy a call, I've got a lot of new crazy stock market ideas (uh oh, he's thinking, there goes the inheritance). You see, originally this blog was going to be called Tao/Dow--or something like that--and I was going to reflect on the battle between my spiritual and money-grubbing sides. But, in the end, what's the point? Like Janis Joplin used to say--well, actually I'd rather not say what she used to say.