Walks Like A Duck - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

Last night's cold snap shifted the usual paddling exercise to a walkabout....Perfect for this gutsy song I've had stuck in my head for a few days - "Walking on Water" by Need to Breathe.
  And speaking of ducks, here's a little silly something to brighten this overcast day:

“...He takes a kitchen chair and sits in the yard and all the ducks come around. He holds up the cheese curls in one hand and caramel popcorn in the other and his audience looks up and he tells them a joke. 

He says: So one day a duck come into this bar and ordered a whiskey and a bump and the bartender was pretty surprised, he says, "You know we don't get many of you ducks in here." The duck says, "At these prices I'm not surprised.* 

And he tosses out the popcorn and they laugh. 'Wak wak wak wak wak...""

― Garrison Keillor, Truckstop and Other Lake Wobegon Stories

Concentric Circling - Missoula, Montana

"I talk in subjects and verbs, 

and sort of wind around 
in concentric circles 

until I get far enough away from 
the beginning so that I can 
call it the end, 

and it ends."

- Garrison Keillor

Celery And Snoring - Missoula, Montana

"Your mother complains about my snoring,
Father said, but she forgets to mention
the times I was awakened in the middle
of the night by the sound celery makes
when you bite into it. At first I thought it was a tree falling
on the house...
but when I saw her munching on celery
I knew I was safe...
My snoring is a form of self-defense—
it drowns out the other noises."

- from “The Sound of a Tree Falling” by Hal Sirowitz from Father Said.

Treat yourself to the entire poem as read by Garrison Keillor by clicking here and then jumping ahead in the audio track to 3:18.

Rain-dappled - Missoula, Montana

"Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough. Thank you for the rain. And for the chance to wake up in three hours and go fishing: I thank you for that now, because I won't feel so thankful then." - Garrison Keillor