Abner Serd

Author | Humorist | Storyteller

Day 54: Brillion to Appleton, WI

Today was a day of peaks and valleys.

Well, sort of. I mean, the peaks weren’t all that high, and tell you true, the valleys weren’t all that low (notwithstanding the fact they felt pretty subterranean at the time). It started when we heard the birds singing, and we knew we had to get up.

That was the first valley, on account of we knew the mozzies were out there, just waiting to descend on us the moment we threw off the sleeping bag. And they did. We got out of that swampy patch of woods as quickly and efficiently as we could, but our legs itched and burned for hours from all the mosquito bites.

Then it was the dogs. We haven’t had much trouble with canines this trip, thank Blue. But today we might have been bitten several times over, if we had let our guard down.

I am not at my best when threatened by a dog coming at me with teeth bared and hackles raised. I lose a little bit of my humanity. In that moment, as far as I’m concerned, that dog is a wild animal, and in the Wild, you sometimes need to show an attacking animal that you’re bigger and meaner by attacking back. Dog owners sometimes don’t understand this. After all, Fifi is like family, and nobody likes to see a stranger in shorts and Tevas trying to kick their family member into next week. Never mind that Fifi came within a whisker of bringing home a new ankle bone to gnaw on (and let’s not dwell on the ridiculousness of trying to kick anything with bared teeth while wearing Tevas).

Anyway, I lose all kinds of nice guy points on mornings like this. I just know telephones are ringing up and down the lane, and it’s possible some Neighborhood Watch-type is getting in his truck right now to come and teach me a lesson, and all of that puts me in a grumpy mood.

But then, somebody goes and scrawls the word SMILE in big huge letters across the side of a building, and slowly I begin to climb out of the valley …

Tomorrow I have a storytelling event at The Book Store here in Appleton, so we’ll close out this vlog with a short teaser for the live performance.

One response to “Day 54: Brillion to Appleton, WI”

  1. Jocelyn Avatar
    Jocelyn

    You should probably have a few dog treats with you just in case you need to make canine friends?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *