Not a moment too soon, it's off tomorrow for the annual Fall Fish & Puke trip, a weekend of guys tent camping at Fish Creek Ponds off Upper Saranac Lake. The Spring and Fall F&P trips are eagerly anticipated all year by all members of our hardcore Saranac Lake gang. Two generations are represented: the 50s age grumpy old bastards such as myself, and the mid 30s group of sons, sons in law, and friends. Days are spent out on Upper Saranac in various bass boats, evenings sitting around a big fire talking, joking and loudly and uproariously quoting entire scenes from old movies. Nothing out of line, just a great weekend in the woods with like minded friends.

In a world where even innocent Amish 6 year olds in a bucolic one-room schoolhouse are not safe from the savages, you gotta get away once in awhile. On that subject, you can hardly believe what happened and what almost happened in that town this week. Watching the news and seeing the amazing capacity for forgiveness on the part of the Amish families suffering these losses, I hardly know what to think. On the one hand I want to admire their forgiveness, but I just can't. Sometimes fury is necessary. Not everything is forgivable, nor should it be. It seems that no matter what you do anymore, you can stand up in court or before a camera and call it a "mistake", and credence automatically attaches.

But despite our best efforts to destroy it sometimes, we still have a beautiful world here, and a great way to touch that is with a group of good friends off on a quiet mountain lake on a sunny Fall weekend. Good for the soul.