Good day , health wise . Chilly day , weather wise . I didn't do much today , but I plan to put some applications in tomorrow . My wife put an Italian beef roast in the crockpot this morning , and for supper I toasted the rolls to serve it on . Our youngest came in this morning from Utah , so we'll be making different meals for a few days , he eats out almost exclusively when he's on the road . I love eating out but there's nothing better than home cooked . Tomorrow I think it's pork loin , which is always very good .
  Kampsville was a quiet little village , most of the residents knew one another . Even though we were only there a few years , I knew many of the people . It was here that I first learned the true finality of death , and the fragility of life . We hadn't been there long when our dog , who had come with us in our travels from West Union , disappeared . I found her a couple days later on the creek bank , a small bullet hole in her side . One boy , a little younger than me , sledded out in front of a car and was killed . Another , a sixth grader in my class , shot himself while climbing down from a deer stand where he hunted with his father . Our class made a field trip to the church for his funeral . And then there were the car accidents that were so commonly fatal in those days when cars were not built with safety in mind . One , when I was in grade 8 , was driving his father home from the bar in Pearl , where both had been drinking . He might have been 14 , and they were in a 1959 Chevrolet . On the way home they ran off the road at high speed and flipped into a marsh . Both were ejected and killed . Another died when his older cousin lost control and broadsided a tree , while street racing .
  My friend and I would sometimes take a .22 rifle into the woods south of town . On the river's edge was a concrete monolith that I have always wondered the purpose of . I assumed it must have been something to do with river navigation , but I really just don't know . I seem to remember a similar installation on the east side of the river but I'm not positive . I can't find anything on either side on google's satellite map images , maybe someone who knows could comment .
  I kind of doubted my ability to produce much story tonight , but once I began it got easy . Yesterday I posted here for the 60th time , and I've barely started the autobiography stuff . And rest assured , come election season I will be stirred up over liars , cheats and thieves on the campaign trail . So if you enjoyed reading my mid-life whine so far , please encourage others you know to click us up , the Porous Canoe is intended to stay semi afloat for some time to come . So , do something for your fellow humans , pay it forward , help someone in need , be excellent to each other . Good night and God bless , one and all .