Wherin I drive the speed of Light and I long to fish

It snowed here last night. Even though temperatures were above freezing, it snowed. Cold air aloft was the culprit I'm sure and the snowflakes we not even close to flake size...it was more like extra large curd cottage cheese size. It was wet. It was slippery...I know, I had to go out in it to pick middle daughter up from a cocoa and cram session at school (hot chocolate and exam study groups) I'm so thankful that God invented four wheel drive Jeeps...driving through the stuff in the dark, as it zipped towards the windshield reflecting the light from the headlights it looked like, and I imagined myself, in the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars engaging light speed:

(Except Princess Leia was not in the co-pilots seat of the Jeep and I was going much slower than light speed...about 30 mph as compared to 670,616,629.2 miles per hour or 983,571,056 feet per second, which is about 186,282.397 miles per second...at that rate of speed family trips for vacation would be a snap!)

When I got the Jeep I purchased myself a tow strap...every good Jeep owner should have one...after all, those Hummers do need to be pulled out of the ditch every so often. I was extremely gratified that I actually got the use the thing this past weekend. First time ever...it had been floating around in the Jeep for quite a while...A car had swerved to avoid some 4X4 lumber that came off some truck and the car ended up in the ditch...stuck. Now, I'm the type of person that believes in the "pay it forward" philosiphy...After un-stucking the vehicle they ended up needing a tire inflated so I shuttled them to the gas station and back again. On the way they wanted to know what they owed me...I said;" nothing, don't worry about it" After the tire was re-installed, I waved them on their merry way, rolled up my newly broken in tow strap and went to stow it away whereupon I found a hand scrawled note of "Thank You" with a $20.00 bill folded inside it laying on the back seat. It's not that I'm not grateful, they just covered the cost of my tow strap, but why do folks feel obligated, folks you don't even know, to reward you for the simple act of a good deed when you tell them not too? I feel funny about having it, being forced to accept it, but theres nothing I can do about it now.

Once again it's Tax Season. My wife, being a CPA, is busy...it is after all, Tax Season...her busiest time of year...which means I am again, in essence, kinda like a single Dad....trapped in a house full of women. It really begins in earnest next week. I have a set schedule that seems to work for me. Different tasks, like laundry, vacuuming, dusting on certain nights...certain meals on certain nights...with take out for the kids once a week just to give myself a break and chill a little. By the time April rolls around I'm sick of it..the busy-ness of it all. Thankfully I got Trout Camp and Michigan's annual ritual opening day of Trout Season to look forward to...It keeps me going!

I catch alot of grief from people for my fishing habits. I primarily, nearly exclusively, fish catch and release. That means I catch a fish, reel it in, unhook it and let it go. When I tell people this they look at me like I'm strange, on drugs ... meanwhile they're practically smacking their lips, eyes glazed over at the thought of fresh trout for dinner when they hear me talk about fly fishing and catching all those yummy trout then, in an instant, they aer ready to smack me up side the head for letting all those yummy fish go, free to live and be caught another day.

Fly fishing is a great sport but it's not so much about the catching. It's about the experience. The experience ain't so good though when something like this comes your way:

Man, what a racket. Loud, obnoxious...I've been hit by one of those stray, drunkard occupied canoes before...not a pleasant experience. Some canoer's just don't give a hoot. Still, not all of them are that way. There are the considerate ones who give the fly fisherman a wide berth and pass quietly by or the ones occupied by bikini clad beauties, the ones who ocassionaly flash the unsuspecting fisherman causing him to nearly lose his balance and fall in the stream, and those who, on a hot summer day, toss the fly fisherman a cold brew from the cooler as they pass by...Oh! we like them. We like them alot! They nearly make you forgive the whole lot of 'em for past transgressions disturbing the quietness and scaring the trout on the quiet section of stream you were fishing. Nearly...but not completely.