Catching Tuesday

The day started at six bells this morning. I got a quick shower in before watching part of an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. It was glorious! Wheels were turning ahead of seven but had to stop at the train tracks. The strange thing is I heard the train whistle as I was leaving home so it must have been a heck of a long train to be still going by the time I drove to the tracks. I only had to wait a few minutes and it was quite lovely. I was able to snap a quick picture since the truck was in park at this point. With the sun peeking over, it made it an interesting photo.

I was out of the house so early today because I was meeting Theodore Complete at his place to go fishing. I was early and wanted to eat so I parked a few blocks away and slammed my McBreakfast. I’d stopped to grab that and a coffee for him after waiting out the train. He caught me doing this last time so I made sure to park further away for round two. He texted me asking where I was at seven twenty five, I was there in thirty seconds. We loaded up the boat and struck off for the big lake today, Temiskaming. It was very calm but there was a strange smokey streak across the sky. Apparently there is a forest fire raging not far away. How quickly things can move from wet to dry. I took a photo and you can see the difference in the sky, the purple area of smoke and the bright blue in the corner that it all should be. You can also get a feel for how dark and dangerous the water can be.

It was a mobile office or personal time for Theodore Complete today. He was technically away from work but decided to keep answering the phone and messages to make sure things got done. All was quiet until around nine then both the phone and the fish came to life. I’ve elected to describe each photo as a caption for the next few, not my usual method but it should work to get the point across.

Theodore Complete nailed the first fish again. I was concerned that I was going to miss out again for the fourth or fifth time in a row. It had been a long time since I’d managed to get something in the boat. But then his phone started to ring.

It seemed like every time he got a call, I got a fish. This big pike is the largest one I’ve ever caught of this species. This picture hardly does it justice, it was big, and beauftiful. Zoom in and have a look at its colouring. Wonderful fish. I caught it and got the hook out while he was on the phone and it rang again so we just gently lowered this beast back into the wild.

This is a decent pickerel I caught during another phone call. Theodore wanted to bring it home with us. He offered it to me but I was happy to let him deal with cleaning it. It was a decent one. He actually ate it for dinner on this day, made a full meal for them, I was happy to get their supper for them.

This is a chunky bass that I caught. Theodore was reeling in a mid-sized pickerel and I was retrieving my lure to be able to help him net his catch when I got this fella on the line. We had ourselves a double header. I got mine to the boat quicker and he netted it for me. His popped off in the thirty seconds it took. He claims it was huge but mine was the bigger fish in this case.

I had a team meeting that I decided to call into. I had brought my headphones for that reason and when quarter after eleven rolled in I called in. I turned my camera on for a second to show them where I was. It was funny. This was how I took the call. I was pretty relaxed and the cigar definitely enhanced that. I think I was having more fun than the rest of the team.

The fun dwindled quickly for Theodore Complete and we had to get moving to head back for noon. He had a surprise meeting with his two up suddenly on the books. I hope it went okay, he was starting to get stressed by all the accumulating little issues that quickly piled up. I too had discovered some work that I needed to do in the afternoon and didn’t protest when it was time to go in. We got the boat out of the water and I loaded up for home, arriving around half past noon. Mother already had lunch on for me. A tasty samdige with some Campbell’s Vegetable soup. That was a tasty meal. I again had several pints of water after bringing none on the boat again.

After lunch I returned to my bed with the intention of writing some Musings but instead found myself falling asleep and having a short nap. I got up and walked around upstairs for a bit until returning to the basement to do my work stuff. It was five when I finished that up. I’d put in too many work hours on vacation. Not a smart move and definitely not a pattern I want to repeat as the week goes on. I climbed out of the basement to find that Mother had dinner nearly fit for the table. She had cooked some chicken tournedos in the air fryer and prepared an asparagus risotto. She’s also baked another zucchini and cheese loaf in the afternoon. It must have been a lot of effort but it was delicious. The tangy citrus hit off the risotto and the juicy meat melded together to create great soppin’s for the bread. A great meal and early had too.

After eating and passing her the dishes I had to perform a number of tasks for her. I had to put away some stuff, make a trip to the basement, and release her prisoner. She’d captured a chipmunk in the squirrel trap. I wasn’t going to do it right, which would have involved a drive before releasing it. It was getting dehydrated and she didn’t want it to die in captivity so we stayed it’s relocation this one time and I simply freed the little fella. He was somewhat confused but took off, not before affording me a backward glance of gratitude. Today was its lucky day.

My next labour was to bring some water out to the Big T was combining beside the house. I’d noticed all his water jugs were in the house and figured he’d need a drink. He was guiding the big, dusty machine through some amber waves of grain, wheat specifically. I didn’t time my arrival well and had to wait for him to return to the close end of the field before I hopped in with him for two rounds. The crop was running well and he hoped to finish the field before it got tough. I wasn’t sure he’d make it.

In the end I was proven right. They may have had a shot but a chain broke, was replaced and broke again. I surmise that it was getting too tough by that hour but I’m no doctor. Either way, I returned to the house ahead of eight and had my dessert, some moose tracks iced cream. I chatted briefly with Mother before burrowing into my nest in the basement to try and do some writing and catching up on these here Musings. I digressed into watching some YouTube before caving entirely to sleep ahead of ten. It was a fitful night, not sure why but I was up and awake a handful of times. Probably stressing about something work related.