Turning It Around

Dread filled my heart and mind around 4:23am. I compensated by emptying my bladder and going back to sleep. I woke again about two hours later and got up. The Big T had mentioned making breakfast at half six so I wanted to be there for that. He was attempting the breakfast samidges on the machine I’d got him years before. He somehow bungled things and made a big mess. I proceeded to rattle off three consecutive gems for us to consume. We were done shortly after seven and I made a lunch of two leftover rotisserie chicken sandwiches, a granola bar, bottle of water, and some kangaroo pepperettes. I got my damp life jacket and fishing stuff and was at Theodore Complete’s place by eight, well around eight. I moved my stuff to his truck and we were off to go fishing for the morning. We went to Mowat’s Landing and launched the boat successfully, including a running motor, and started going up the Montreal River. I had to hold the boat while he parked and I saw a family of ducks swimming past. Hopefully today is more of that and less of falling in the water and losing vital components of my existence.

I had my phone (camera), keys, FitBit etc. safely stowed in my tacklebox today after learning my lesson the hard way. The day was magnificent and we soaked in the sun and enjoyed exploring a couple small bays. We went further up the river and I caught a chunky smallmouth bass. We didn’t get a picture of it, and regretted it. After an hour of mostly cleaning weeds out of the river he caught a pike, it was small but aggressive. It swallowed his curly tailed grub completely. I got to dig it out, which I did cleanly. I surprised myself. I had my gloves in the boat to avoid any scratches and cuts from the fish.

After a shorter while and some very promising bites I finally hooked another fish. This one was a pickerel. It was around eating size so it went into the live well. Where it was somewhat forgotten for awhile. We fished on but didn’t get much else so we had the lunches that we’d packed for ourselves, mine was more extravagant. The wind started to pick up so we decided to trawl back towards the launch. I was happy for the opportunity, it allowed me to try out a couple of new setups that I’d never tried before. My paddle tail soft plastics seemed to work okay and I’ll have them as a tool in the future. I’ve also included below a couple of photos showing just how beautiful the morning turned out to be. Bright, sunny with a slight breeze, it would be hard to beat such a nice time. We smoked a few small cigars too to further relax. It was a very different day to yesterday.

We got back to the launch around two in the afternoon. There was a dude there taking his sweet time and tying up the launch. He didn’t follow any of the posted rules and wasn’t in a hurry, must have been on island time. After some delay we were able to load the boat quickly and efficiently and hit the road. When we got back to civilization our phone exploded with messages and such. After helping him back in and dispatch the one keeper we had I hit the road to the bank. I was able to get a debit card and get my credit cards looked after in a short visit. I’m moving closer to becoming a person again. I have three work cards to worry about now and a pesticide card and the rest were points and reward cards. And my university ID card that hasn’t been used in over a decade, I just liked having it. I made my way home from the bank. Mother was cooking up a storm when I got home and after I had a short rest I was called upon to BBQ some Smokie’s sausages, cheddar flavour. That was going to make up part of the meal. We stuffed some hot pepper rings in the bottom of the bun for good measure. The sausages were so juicy that when the T bit into his, it burst juices clear across the table and on to the wall. He was not excited to clean it up but was loving the perfectly cooked sausage. The other component of the meal is a Mediterranean Shrimp and Pearl Couscous salad. It had some elements that normally I’d be hesitant to eat but I found myself seeking out seconds of this one. It was very good. A more expensive salad than I’m used to but very nice.

There was also a dessert course with this meal. Mother had picked some rhubarb from our garden and made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp with some neopolitan iced cream. Sweet, sour and crunchy. This was a lovely capstone to a great meal. Even though I was goaded into doing the dishes. There were a lot for such a massive meal.

After dinner was about getting ready for D&D for me. I wanted to read over my notes again, test my systems and be one early enough to tell my story from yesterday to the group. All those things happened but we started to realized towards the normal start time that we were down a member. The system also stopped working and we couldn’t hear each other. The missing member had got his second dose of vaccine and was feeling very rough. We decided to postpone the game until the weekend. I was pretty bummed but also glad he got the shot. I learned of four more people who had rough days after the second dose. I’m anticipating the same coming for me when I get the chance. I decided to work on Musings and the site in general for a bit since I already had the computer plugged in and running. It was after nine when I finished up with that. Bedtime was again at ten.