I had at least two legit reasons it might not be a good idea for me to go out in the kayak with my teenage son. I asked myself if I might regret a missed opportunity more than I would regret the orthopedic consequences. Then I put on sun screen and ditched my shoes. We went up the Siletz Bay, under the 101 bridge, and turned back downstream at the house where Sometimes a Great Notion was filmed. I thought we would then be going down stream, but we quickly discovered incoming tide trumps river current. The sky was clear, but a physical and emotional cloud drifted over the "against the tide" return trip.

The bottom line is that I made the right decision.