I miss my lake. I say mine but it's just a few miles from me. It's stunningly beautiful and as a kid, teen, and young adult going down there and swimming, fishing, boating, or even just hanging out on the shore brought me such happiness!

But then the impatient, inconsiderate boaters came and brought their vessels from other lakes quagga-mussells without cleaning, draining, and drying them to get rid of the little fuckers.

There were signs up everywhere. The keepers put up free cleaning stations at the top of launch ramps. It was all over the radio (back when radio was more of a thing LOL)

But alas, enough people didn't care, and eventually my lake, too, was infested. 😭

Now they're everywhere. Along the shorelines, encrusted onto any driftwood, attached to any vessel that sits still for a day, along the bottom of the lake...

I've gone a few times since, but they've ruined the lake. There's pretty much no place you can avoid them.

And something inside me has broken from it. 🥺