Hello,
        The season for fishing has arrived and with it many memories. One of the distant memories I have now comes floating through the abyss of time, and if you will indulge me, I will regal you to the best of my ability with the incidents of that memory. I must confess however, details become somewhat seasoned with the passage of time, but I will do my best to stay true to the facts.
        It all started with an island on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage and a small but complete collection of my immediate relatives. This collection of relatives has an acute appetite for fishing. It was on a balmy summer evening that I, my wife, sister, and her husband betook it upon ourselves to go in pursuit of the fishes. One of the most successful accomplishments was the landing of a nice, plump bass. I will briefly mention in passing that yours truly took the credit for this piece of skill and sportsmanship.  (My dear wife says she doesn't recall that particular fish, but I do.) We caught many other fishes also, but I won't mention them here.
         After fishing ourselves to the point of insanity and to the point where darkness was beginning to show its first shadowy talons, we decided to return to the campsite. Upon arriving we showed off our great catch to the others that cared to listen. It so happened that night was beginning to come on and it would be quite late till we had rendered our catch fit for consumption. So we determined to stow them in a cooler and take the cooler to another remote island.
          My father gave me instructions as to the location of the perfect spot to store it. "You shouldn't have to get out of the boat," he informed me. "It shouldn't be any problem at all." Ladies and Gentlemen, statements like this should be banned. They are the omen of impending doom. Upon parting ways with someone who has just made this statement a person should go to a very safe spot, put on full body armer, and lock all the doors. Then he should refuse to come out until some else has completed the task that "shouldn't be any problem at all".
         Nevertheless I fell for this one. I departed to the afore mentioned location and when I saw it I told myself in my thoughts that "This shouldn't be any problem at all." This had to have been the last nail in the coffin, because the situation rapidly disintegrated from this point on. The location consisted of a couple of rocks right by the shore that were perfectly positioned to hold a cooler. I positioned myself in a strategic position and reached out to grasp one of the rocks. I concluded that if I were able to pull myself into the shore via the rocks I should then be able to easily swing the cooler over the edge and be on my way. The rock didn't come closer. Instead being rebellious in nature it decided to move away, taking the entire island with it. I am slow of mind and even slower of action so not fully comprehending the nature of the situation I continued to stay attached to the rock. I now was in a prone position above the water. The lake, not to be outdone, decided to enter the canoe. In those brief moments, I did some calculations, and I calculated that if I did not get out of the canoe the lake would get in it. There fore I must go in the lake. As I stared at the black waters below me, I had a brief thought "This is going to be wet." The thought was instantly confirmed. The waters closed over my head in a watery boom. Fortunately I entered the water in a flat position other wise it wouldn't have been deep enough to get me all wet. I resumed a standing position and put the cooler in the proposed location and seeing that it was only knee deep boarded my now partially water logged canoe. Now as canoes are not designed to accommodate water for ballast, my ride to get a change of clothes was rather tricky and again the lake and I made contact. I will explain how it happened here. I motored up to the shore and put the prow into the beach as well as any expert. I then turned to pull up the motor. Canoes are narrow, I am not. Upon reaching a certain point in my effort to raise the motor, Isaac Newton once again revisited the situation, insisting that that was far to much weight to support the current situation. Why such an action as turning around to reach the motor should have recalled this age old law of gravity I don't know, but in I went again.
       Upon changing my clothes I considered not telling my relations about the incident. There were two factors which prevented this. One was my now soaked camera and the second was the explaining of a fresh set of clothes. I need not tell you that they laughed.

That is all for now!!

Hope you enjoyed.

Clark

Sort of Breaking the Silence

   This blog hasn't been very active lately. But I have an excuse, a really good excuse. You see, I've been sick for the last several months.  And I kept hoping I'd get better. But I haven't, at least not like I was planning to. With Benny's pregnancy, I felt really good after 1'st trimester.  Not this time. So maybe I"ll have one of those be-sick-for-nine-months deals. And no, peppermint, ginger, vitamins, and even nausea meds. don't really help me. Ugh! Anyway. But we are happy and excited about the new baby. So in the end it will be worth it, hopefully. I keep reminding myself that I'd much rather have this "problem" then be facing cancer or Lyme or something like that. We got to see our healthy, active baby via ultrasound the other day. For anyone having a rough pregnancy, do an ultrasound. It makes the bad sick days more bearable.
   And so I am learning to pace myself very carefully. To work on the days that I feel well, and on the bad days, to be ok with not doing. Which means my expectations have to be kept very, very low, because there are more bad and middling days then good days so far. To make sure that I save enough energy to take care of Benny all day if nothing else. And people were very kind and took good care of us when I was at my worst.
   Benny had a few rough weeks of adjustments. But the last month has been much better. And it did help when I got through the worst of the sickness and could intelligently take care of him again. He's just pretty sure I should be able to understand everything he babbles. He loves being outside, and goes nuts on days like today when it's raining too much to go outside.
   Speaking of rain, it's been raining a lot this past week or so. I've been enjoying it. But my poor garden is looking like a jungle. Perhaps on a sunshiny day if I feel well enough, I can do something about that.
  And now I must see if that pile of clean laundry can be tackled, and my wardrobes changed out. I need to bake bread too, but that's going to have to wait for another day.

Little Boy Meets Mud Puddle

What Fun!

Summer Is Here!