April 26, 2008 - As Ellie and I were packing up the canoe to go out to the park to hunt for discs, I got a call from Jeff of Bird Street Players. He needed me for a gig tonight over in Apollo Beach at The Docks. Those two events pretty much took up the whole day. This was Ellie's first trip out on the water in our canoe. Most people probably think of canoeing as a recreational activity where you might do a lot of paddling up/down a river, or maybe a nice trip through the mangroves looking at nature, or a chance to get out on the water with a cooler of beers and a fishing pole. For me, the canoe is a means to recovering lost frisbee golf discs. I have probably purchased or been given as presents over a hundred discs so far in my life. I currently have about 5 of those in my possession. The remainder have been lost in trees, bushes, tall grass, and water. So I take the canoe out and find discs that other people have thrown in the water. It's working pretty well so far. Since I bought the canoe I haven't had to buy any more discs, and I've found about 15. At a price of around $13 a disc, and a price of $350 for the canoe, I'm more than halfway towards paying off the canoe...and I haven't even had it for more than half a year yet. Plus, any time I want to use the canoe for recreational activity, there it is. So we headed back home after finding two discs, and I got ready for the gig. We had some time before I had to leave so we went to dinner at an Italian place down the street. The weather was great, so we sat outside, but the mosquitos were awful. I ended up getting bitten 5 or 6 times. I must have something in my blood that they like. I got to the gig at 8:20. We played from 9 til 1, and then I had to tear down, drop Brian off at his place on my way home, and got in around 2:30. It's amazing what I'll do for some money...buy a canoe so that I don't have to buy any more discs...drive an hour to play a 4 hour gig that pays $100.