DIG

When Gary and Dennis aren't giggin' they are calibrating metronomes around their sense of time...


John Scofield -Jazz Funk band

Couldn't Even Catch A Cold

I wish that were true.
I am so friggin sick of being sick.
I came down with a horrible head cold virus thing just before I went away for my recert in early March and it has been with me ever since. I shot pretty well considering. I qualified on my first attempt no thx to the Agency.
Fuck them.
They sure make it hard on a person and my trip wasn't without the usual bullshit drama. Fucking place makes me exhausted.
At least it is behind me...til next year.
The stress and the fact that everyone around me is sick is a bad combination.
The clan just can't seem to shake this mess that has taken hold of us all here at the Norland house.
The midnights don't help one bit.
I absolutely hate midnights.
I feel tired all the time and I don't eat well. It is easy to get run down and I think that is what has happened.
I was just about through with the last bug but went into a tailspin on my last shift in.


Both Ella and I are in the same shitty boat.
Chicken soup and Kleenex.
Awesome.
Oh well..


We both started to perk up a bit so Kim and I bought Ella her first Bike today and it really seemed to cheer her up....
Actually it cheered everybody up.
I even decided on the spur of the moment to go fishing.
:oO


It had been a few months and I was concerned that I had forgotten how.
The water under the bridge looked great but I didn't even get a single pull....it did feel good to shake off the dust...runny nose and all.
Very peaceful down there this time of year.
Owen tagged along and we had a good time together. Daddy and his float watching and Owen with his Harry Potter make believe. I think he was being chased by the Dementors...lol.
I turned him loose with the camera and his pictures turned out pretty good.
I even saw a few guys heading out downrigging.
Won't be long now.


The schedule I am on right now should loosen up in a couple of weeks and it is a good thing because I could can really use the R&R fish or no fish..
Til then I guess I will just keep chasing bad guys. It looks like the stuff is starting to move again and with any luck we'll get another pinch our way.
I hope the family gets some sleep tonight.

#1...sigh

Man I miss the fall.
Morin is trying to ramp me up for the spring fishery but I might be a lost cause.
I keep waiting for those spring fever moments to pry me out of this malaise....it is March isn't it?
:o/


Fuck..
Fuckity fuck fuck...
Owen and I went to the beach yesterday. He is turning into a tough little monkey and he loves it outside...frigid temps be damned.


I took a few pics of Mike Weir beach which is currently an ice cube.
Owen has discovered Harry Potter


and these trips to the park...or to the "forbidden forest" are all about Voldemorte and Whomping Willows...lol

I had to search a bit for my number one shots. I had put all of my 2006 shots onto a jump drive and it became buried in the furnace room as a result of my basement reno project.
BTW...my new carpet that I put down has been soaked from seepage due to the Biblical rainfall this year.
NICE..
We are here 4 years and never had even a sign of water...until I finish the basement.
My Wife cried...but me?...I am used to that shit.
That is life....consistantly ...and I will not let it bother me.
Luckily it wasn't sewage.
Some people this year have had to pump out their basements. I may have to re-kick the carpet and steam clean it...whatever..
These little curve-balls can be tempered by great memories...

Number one is from 2006...the Steelhead year to end all years.
It was the first fish on a morning that had started very slow but ended with us catching so many fish that we were exhausted by the end of the day. Maybe that is bragging but I don't mean it to be...
I have been free enough to share the many days where I have been kicked rather viciously in the nuts by the river... I think I can with a clear conscience allow this brief moment of vanity.
Besides...all I did was lift up on the float and hold on for dear life.
The water was high and this fish was ultra hot. At one point it wrapped me around a rock so tight that I could'nt feel the fish on the other end.
I tried to lift my mainline over the rock to free it but I could'nt get it clear. I had already seen the fish and knew that it was a beauty and my heart was sinking.
...All the fish had to do to beat us at that point was make a hard run downstream but instead she came upstream...and freed herself.
Maybe like a lot of beautiful girls she wanted her picture taken?
I chased it downstream like a fumbling fool into the rapids and finally pulled it into the tall grass testing the gear to the max.


I think Morin had given up hope and he had to run downstream to snap a few pics.
I love the expression on my face. It just about sums up Steelheading for me...shock..disbelief...with a healthy dose of joy!!!
That ...after some consideration...was my greatest fish.



It is the fishy moment that I come back to the most and at the risk of sounding even more like a homo than usual I am glad that POS Morin was there for it.
I have never seen a more perfect fish anywhere

...and probably never will again.

....seepage be damned.

With memories like this ...nothing can reach me.

KNOCK ON WOOD