Finally. Now I can get back to a more reasonable life. Working on the house getting it ready to sell certainly has taken its toll, but it is essentially ready to sell, and I’m ready to move. Time will tell if it was worth it. Though you’d not expect it, alot was sacrificed, maybe you can relate.

With no time to cook, too much fast food. You gain weight and feel sluggish. Tired all the time. Circles under the eyes, and needed a haircut. Bills were late. Not enough attention for relatives, relationships, friends, and Drake. Some understand, some didn’t, but there is still nothing I could have done. Sometimes life presents you with situations you wouldn’t wish on yourself, but there you are. Maybe someday I’ll look back on this and wish I hadn’t done it, but if you live your life that way you’ll never do anything, take no risk, get no reward.

Anyway, I’m fishing again with good friends and it’s good for the soul. Like a long distance runner that gets to stop, catch their breath, and take a long cool drink, standing in a river casting a flyrod with no particular place to go is just like that.

Even fishing with clients, though work, is a break. Last Wednesday I had a retired doctor as out in kayaks fishing on the river. He was a fine gentleman in his 70’s, and wanted to find out what this kayak fishing was all about. I admired that, and hoped I had his desire for adventure when I reached that age. He reminded me of my Dad, he even swam for the U of M in college like my Dad did. A little on the feeble side, it was my honor to help him in and out of the kayak at times, and I was thankful he accepted my offers with grace and dignity instead of pride and stubborness. I knew that had to be hard, and I respected him for that.

We caught fish, sure we did. 10, 15, maybe 20, and a combination of rock bass and smallmouth bass. Ultralight spinning, circle hooks, and small soft plastics were in order, and were very effective. He admired the Stinger, which I took as a real compliment.

All in all, it was a good day. I loaded up the kayaks, thankful for the cool air that had accompanied sunset.

It’s great to be back on the water. It’s great to have some free time again. Time to think about putting things back together that can be put back together, re-establish some friendships, make new friends, and move on from the regret of broken things caused by the fallout of a hectic time in life. You know, at the end of the day, most of us do the best we can.

“I can’t hardly walk sometimes”, my friend Ed said as we talked in the store the other day. “My knees, man, they’re killing me”. Ed’s a big guy, rides his bike to keep in shape, does what he can to cope with a long term ailment of the knees. We kept trying to put together a fishing outing wading in the river, but it was going to be tough.

A few days later he came bouncing through the door shouting “liquid gold, baby, liquid gold”! Apparently his doctor had given him a couple of cortisone shots, and he felt like he was on top of the world. “Let’s go fishing”, he said. Ok.

We got to our local park, got geared up, waded in and positioned ourselves upstream of a pool we thought would get active when the Hex flies started. We caught some fish here and there, certainly enough to keep things interesting. Ed caught what seemed like a half dozen rock bass from the same exact square foot of river at the end of a log. Rocky Racoons, we called them. We had a great laugh about that one.

We caught a few smallmouth, but it was a light night. Not many risers even though it was a good hex hatch. I love those little things. It’s fun just to watch them dance up and down and fly full out up and down the river in a steady stream. “This is like being in Disneyworld or something”, I said to Ed. He agreed.

Well before dark we decided to head back to the car where a tailgate, some cold beverages, and some friendly talk awaited. I looked forward to that part of fishing just as much as the fishing itself. It would be a great distraction and a re-focus on what’s important in life, as the personal life still had it’s persistent pain. You’d agree we’ve all been through it if you knew what it was. I talk about it because it’s part of life, and life has it’s twists, turns, starts…and stops. Seems like it’s never smooth, settled, sure, or predictable. When will I ever understand that? Maybe life is more like fishing (or a box of chocolates) than I’d like to believe. Oh well.

“How’s your knees?”, I asked Ed. “Fine”, he replied. “I told you man, liquid gold.” The wonders of modern medicine. Here was a guy who couldn’t fish, and now was. It made me respect my Father, a world renown orthopedic surgeon, even more, as I’m sure he’s improved lives like this on a daily basis. I sure didn’t respect him enough then, or tell him how much I respect him even now.

Back at the car the friendly jabbing back and forth, that had been a big part of the evening, continued. Who caught the smallest fish, who caught more, who tangled more, caught more trees, etc. Plenty of kidding with absolutely no risk of hurt feelings. Man I love it when you’re with people like that. A few other guys came up from the river and joined right in. How cool is that. How cool is it that they had a couch in the back of their truck they found on the road. It was in good shape, and they asked if I wanted it. I did need one, but nah, thanks anyway.

“Here”, Ed said. I looked around and there he was holding a cigar. “These were soaked in Bourbon and Bitters”.
In my simple world, one of the nicest things a guy can do is hand me a cigar. I like them, I’m not crazy about them, but they are good, especially in a setting like that. I lit it up and savored the unique flavor. Ed went into the details of where he got them, how they were made, and so on.

Well, the park closes at 10:00, and it was 9:58. Time to leave, or the Ranger would lock the gate and we’d have to sleep out under the stars until the next morning. Hmmm.