A 37-year-old Austin man jumped off a Blanco River dam and drowned yesterday. That's horrible. I've been unexpectedly caught in undertow below a low water dam on the Comal, and it sucked bad. I'm not ever going to go back there to try to conquer that part of the river or to show off to my friends.

What's worse is that this man's wife and two kids live in Mexico. And he lived in Austin, and was diving off of perilous dams in the Hill Country rivers like any 17-year-old river rat, and now his kids will never see him again. So the first twelve times they do that, for fun or to show off, who's going to beat them senseless and threaten them with no dessert? They have no father.

I'm gonna go see my dad for Father's Day. And thank him for scaring me into being a good kid, who grew up into a productive member of society, by doing that freaky eye thing when he spoke intensely.

And while I could totally see my dad, when he was 20 or so, jumping off of low water dams in dubious sections of river, I would not imagine him doing so at age 37, with a family relying on him.

Some people don't see past their noses.