chuck and i are on the downswing of our yearly haitus down at the camp in grand isle. by the end of the week another pilgrimmage will be history. i usually blog during my time down, but this year i just didn't "feel" like it. i have in the back of my mind alllll those papers i'm going to have to write for that english 101 course that will begin in a couple weeks. oh yes, you who have all those years of college under your belt, you can laugh at the tiddly winks that lie ahead of me this semester. i'm sure that's what it seems to you considering the humongous writing assignments you have in your not too distant past. but for this old bug, it's gonna be epic.
our first day out fishing, just cap'n crunch and i, was kinda rough. it was a h.o.t. one....no breeze, we didn't get out til 7am, which is late. i just couldn't get it together, was not as sure footed as i normally am in the boat, and just generally wiped out by the heat and the glare after only a couple hours out. it was kinda scary that my body was reacting in that way. which brought to mind the (working) title for this blog which was at its inception "why i fish". well, the inspiration that i so intensly felt at the time escapes me now, but here i go anyway.
when chuck and i first started fishing here on the island, we would go out for HOURS. we would move from spot to spot to spot. that meant pulling up the anchor time and time and time again. guess who was the anchor master in those days??? because i was in that fiesty time of life, there was many a time that i got p.i.s.s.e.d., can i tell ya? it was hot. the fish were obviously not biting today. why can't we just go in for pete's sake???? oh yea, this lil fireball of a fisherwoman got plenty hot in those days at his relentless pursuit of THE LIMIT! oh how i hated that 5am wakeup call! but then, it was just me and him. him and me. and so together the two companions forged on in relentless pursuit of THE LIMIT.
fast forward to the child bearing years. i had babies to tend to, slather up with sunscreen, spend hours on the beach building sand drizzle castles with, haul back in and clean up for lunch and naptime. and so he learned to continue on in the relentless pursuit alone. those were the days before cell phones. there were more than a few that i sat in that old ramshakle camp, babies at my feet or snoozing in the bed waiting for him anxiously when he'd been gone just a tad too long in my estimation.
and then they were old enough to tag along. in those days the whole bunch of us would take to the bay. those days were fun and always a bit dramatic. because we were always in relentless pursuit.
and then they were gone. and now it's a rare occasion that we are all here together. but we have the memories. and so it is just the two of us when we come for our yearly pilgrimmage. though the pursuit of THE LIMIT is always in our sights, it is not quite so relentless these days. my hot-headed fiesty-ness has long ago dissolved. now he is the driver AND anchor-master. he has gone it alone so much in the years past that he does it all effortlessly (or so it seems). when he glides into a fishing spot and cuts the motor he comes to the front and throws that anchor out while i watch in amazement. it seems as if he wouldn't think of asking me to pick up that anchor. it almost reminds me of a gentleman opening the car door for his lady.
we fish together. when the bites get few and far between and he continues to cast out his line, i get my book out of my bag and sit myself down and have a read, or hang my feet off the back of the boat and relax. this has become our way. our fishing forays this trip have panned out quite nicely after that first day and we have fallen back into our usual comfortable rythmn. but back to the other day and the inspiration for this blog entry. i had put my rod up at some point during the morning and was just sitting on the chair in the boat trying to catch a breeze and he made a remark about me not fishing. to which i replied, "now you know i'm not here because i "have" to fish. you know i'm just here to be your fishing companion." and so i am. and that is why i fish.
in other news, the yearly meteor shower put on a show for me the last couple nights. not quite as impressive as i would have liked, but on saturday night i tallied up 14 and last night although i didn't do the count, as i was giving one final look before closing the door for bed and asking God please one more to sleep on....zing, there went one big one flying right past and a tiny one hot on it's tail. is my Dad awesome? or what?
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