It’s the little things

There's a bridge over the Truckee River just below the dam that holds back the waters of Lake Tahoe. There are giant fish that live in these waters. Giant cutthroat trouts and rainbow trouts and kokanee salmon swim in giant clusters. It's amazing to see. And because the best place to watch these giant fish dart to and fro is bent over the railing of the bridge that crosses the river, the powers that be went ahead and named the bridge Fanny Bridge — fannies are all you see when you drive by as everyone is craning their heads down toward the crystal clear water trying to see more of the giant fish. I know this because I stood on Fanny Bridge last week with my mom and my kid and my husband, all of us fannies upward as we hung our heads watching these giant fish. A man in Wranglers and a cowboy hat, a stranger, threw something into the water and those giant fish jumped at the little bits faster than I would have ever believed. The cowboy stranger heard us ooh and ahh over the fish. He told us just a few feet away was a vending machine with fish food. We fished around in our pockets and purses for quarters and walked over to the red, cast-iron machines that stood on a post. As we approached I noticed a small, rectangular box sitting on top. It was a box of store-brand sandwich bags, open and about half full. I took one of the bags and had Margaret put the fish-food pellets in it. The pellets were smelly and was glad that none of us had to hold them in our hands. I was thankful to whomever took the time to put a $2 box of sandwich bags on the vending machines so we didn't have to have smelly hands and to the person or persons who so aptly named the bridge and mostly to those giant fish for being so giant, so interesting.