Failed Fishing at the Family Hunting Cabin

I’ve never seen an animated character so impressed with my shoes before.

With the Texas outdoor temperatures finally dropping out of Fahrenheit ranges typically only used to melt industrial steel, I decided to get back to nature by spending the weekend with my brother out at our old family hunting cabin situated in the Texas Hill Country near the Pedernales* River.

Despite being an old hunting cabin it boasts many modern conveniences such as a 43-year-old microwave and a 60-year-old refrigerator that had been given to my grandparents as a wedding present sometime during the Mesozoic period and has, this is true, only ever broken down once. You don’t find that level of reliability in household appliances these days. These days, many household appliances collapse into a heap of screws and grommets the moment you plug them in.

That 1950’s refrigerator is both younger and more productive than many US senators.

One convenience the cabin doesn’t have, however, is running water or plumbing, which of course means there is no toilet. Instead of a toilet, the cabin has a hole in the ground. This is why our wives refuse to spend any time out at the cabin. Our wives are what you might call “high maintenance” in that they are averse to the idea of pooping in a hole in the ground, never mind the fact that the hole is in an outhouse well outside…