Choosing, Choices, Deciding

Frost, the poet, wrote about coming to a fork in the road and, having chosen one way, the walker had to give up all other choices. He concluded by saying how that choice had made all the difference in the walker's life. But things don't always work that way.

 We  often have to make choices and, having made them, have to live with them...at least for a while. See, the great thought behind it all just isn't true. We pick a pair of clogs to wear and, having done so, we are not (in fact) stuck with them for ever. We can go back to the store and get another pair, another size or another color. So it is (you had to know this was coming) with kayaks. We find the "perfect" boat, choose it, and immediately begin looking for the next perfect kayak. And so, dear reader, I confess to wanting to go back to the candy store for another choice. I pause only to blame Kelly Blades for all my angst.

Many of you know that I own a Cetus which, over a period of about one year, I have come to love dearly. My stroke has improved, and I can make the boat dance or dash. It is as stable as a sofa out in the rough stuff. Still, at the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium last summer, Kelly introduced me to the Cetus MV. He let me transport it to Grand Marais where there was another symposium one week later. That gave me a week of camping and paddling the MV...and that has made all the difference. I immediately became restless.

It was just like my big boy Cetus with narrow hips. One inch narrower (behind the cockpit...it is Swede form) and a bit smaller in the cockpit, it fit like a glove and rolled like my Romany. Good going Kelly. My big boy Cetus cringed and wondered if it was headed for the heap. I was faced with many choices.

Money isn't so plentiful that I can go off buying kayaks everytime I see a new flavor. On the other hand, I ain't gettting younger. What am I saving it for? Well, if I jumped, what color? That black is sharp, but it shows scractches. Besides, robin blue is easier to spot. So what do I want, something that will get me rescued or something really cool that pleases my eyes? Wait a minute, here. I first need to decide what to do. And, if I should order a MV, it wouldn't get here until spring. What do I do with the Cetus? Put it up for sale now? And what would Lady Linda say when she discovered another boat in the Garage?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. So, I decided.

Paddle safe...
DS