Gone Fishing

As part of my walk today, I decided to spend a couple of hours fishing. As things turned out, I spent a couple of hours mostly practicing my casting, but all in all, I'm not sure why it's taken this long to get a fishing rod back in my hand.

When I was in middle school, I spent three to five weeks with my grandparents in Oklahoma. It was a grand time. I helped grandpa farm, I worked in the thrift shop with grandma, I went to the diner for coffee with grandpa, I poked around in the garden, mowed the lawn with the riding mower (a real treat for me since all I had at home was a push mower), traded baseball cards with my cousins,  rode four wheelers, and shot fireworks on the fourth of July.  Of all those things, the activity I enjoyed most was fishing. Grandpa and I would load up the Dodge pickup and head out to the farm ponds he had access to and fish for two or three hours a day.  

We caught crappie, bass, bream, and catfish. I loved the challenge of fishing. The patience. Trying to get into the mind of the fish. We got to be pretty good at it, and cleaning a mess of bass and deep frying them on the weekend wasn't awful either.

I don't remember the last time I fished. It was a couple of years ago at least. Today after work, I had some time so I bought the Wisconsin DNR license, some inexpensive tackle from Wal-Mart, and headed down to the Menominee River to try my luck.

Fishing the Menominee - Marinette, WI

In terms of my ability to catch fish, my luck was mostly bad. It turns out that the old adage is true. A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work, and the scenery and the weather were perfect. Lest one think I left the river completely skunked, I did manage to latch onto a forty pound small mouth bass known locally as a smallie.

Forty Pound Small Mouth Bass - Marinette, WI

You may be asking yourself, "Why does this forty pound bass look so small?" I'll tell you why. Between the fishing license, the tackle, and the gas for the commute to the river I figure this little palm size fish ended up costing about forty pounds sterling (at the current exchange rate) to land on the end of my thumb.

Sunset on the Menominee - Marinette, WI

You might think that a forty pound small mouth bass is a pretty expensive fish, but I'll tell you that it was worth every penny. I'm looking forward to finding out just what tomorrow has in store for me.

A Rare Day of Rest

After a brief stint at work this morning, a coworker asked what I had planned for the rest of the day and suggested that, if I wanted, I could spend some time kicking around with him and his family. I thought about it for a minute, and I told him that I, though grateful for the offer, I thought I might take a nap instead. He said, "A nap, man, that sounds like a pretty good idea." With that little piece of encouragement, I laid down for about three hours and slept soundly.

I would be fibbing a little if I didn't admit that the idea of turning on the television, "for just a few minutes," didn't tempt me a little, but, in the end, I fought off the idea. Waking up after a good rest, I'm glad that I resisted the devil in the flatscreen. My energy restored, I headed south to Fairhope, AL to get in a walk and catch the sunset.

On the way down to Fairhope, I thought about stopping off at a store and getting a book, but the reminder of this minimalism way of life convinced me that I really didn't need a book. I remembered I'd seen the first Little Free Library, the index case of my LFL infection so to speak, in Fairhope and decided I'd see what was on offer.

Little Free Library - Fairhope, AL

Unfortunate, nothing really caught my attention so I moved on. Making my way to the second LFL in the area, I fell in behind a small woman walking a very big dog. I snapped a picture because the sight of this unlikely pair taking a stroll through a true American downtown area is something that catches the eye. It' probably not as rare as I perceive it to be, but also not a sight that's easy to ignore.

Small woman with Large Dog - Fairhope, AL

Happily, luck favored me at the second Little Free Library, and I borrowed The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw. The dust jacket advertises that it's a book about a swordfish boat Captain who returns to her small hometown in Maine for a change of pace and the book chronicles her adventures and insights along the way. Linda Greenlaw was prominently featured in  Sebastian Junger's, The Perfect Storm, and I'm looking forward to her observations about another small town in America.

Little Free Library #2 - Fairhope, AL

After getting in the better part of my walk, I relaxed a bit near the Fairhope Pier to take in the sunset. Disappointment was not part of the program, and the universe treated me to a rendering of the horizon rich in color and subtlety.

Sunset - Fairhope, AL

I spent the final moments of the day with the Fairhope Seahorse by Bruce Larsen on the bluff overlooking the municipal pier. 

Fairhope Seahorse 

Rest and recuperation were the order of the day, but it turned into a day of beauty, serenity, and adventure as well. Tomorrow I head out into the Gulf of Mexico if things go as planned, and I'm looking forward to another day or two of new sights and adventures on the rolling ocean.

Running on the top half of your gas tank and the bottom half of your bladder.

Rory Conlan gives quite a bit of advice.  Now he'll never tell you he's giving advice.  He characterizes his speeches as sharing insight or imparting wisdom.  Some of it's good, some of it a bit dodgy.  He calls it insight because as he likes to say, "He can't make you do what he wants."  The part he leaves out from time to time is that he sure can make you wish that you had done it his way.

All that said, one of my favorite little pieces of wisdom that he did pass along to me related to driving.  He suggested that I always try to run on the top half of the gas in my tank, and the bottom half of the pee in my bladder.  Now, it may take a minute to visualize this suggestion, but I promise that once you do, you'll see it as a solid piece of advice.  You'll also never be able to forget it.  We may get back to this little piece of wisdom in a bit, but right now I'd like to show you some of the monuments that I saw on my walks today.

Ad Astra by Richard Lippold at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
(Latin for To the Stars)

There are a number of different genres of monuments in Washington, DC.  There are aspirational monuments meant to hearken back to the heroic deeds of those that have come before us and inspire us to achieve greatness.  One of my favorites of this type is Ad Astra by Richard Lippold located at the Jefferson Drive entrance to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  The star topped monument towers over the building beckoning the viewer to (at the very least) imagine the trip into space like the heros of the Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle Programs that have gone there before.

Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress

Some monuments are embodied in buildings, both practical and impractical.  The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress is a monument to knowledge and learning.  The Library of Congress was established with $5000 of appropriated funding in 1800.  The collection was burned, along with a great deal of the District of Columbia by the British in 1814.  Thomas Jefferson donated his library to replace destroyed collection.  At the time, Mr. Jefferson's personal library was considered to be one of the best if not the best library in the country.  Today, this building is a monument to knowledge and learning and the value placed on it by the United States.  On an interesting side note, for visitors to Washington, DC who are 16 years of age and older, it is possible to receive a "library card" from the Library of Congress.  The official name for the card is a Reader Identification Card, and it provides access to electronic card catalog, the Office of Copyright public service areas, and are a minimum registration to access the Library of Congress Reading Rooms.  

Capitol Building, Washington, DC

The Capitol Building is a monument to the people of this country and the power entrusted to their representatives and senators.  It is an imposing edifice to the power wielded within the walls, and should also serve to remind the current occupants that the power flows from the people, and their tenure, however long it may be, will likely be shorter lived than the institution itself.

I passed all of those examples of monuments today while putting in some of my miles around the Washington, DC Mall.  They are imposing, exquisite, creative, and inspirational, but today, I came across a different type of monument.  This was a monument to the provision of things at exactly the time they are needed most.  It was a monument to the universe conspiring to make me successful; an organizing force looking out for me when I could not manage it alone.  Today, in a place that I least expected it, but had a very great need for it at the time, I came across this monument to luck and fate.

Porta Potty at the intersection of Jefferson Drive and 7th Street, SW

It turns out that Rory's advice, at least half of it applies to both walking and driving.  I was sorely in need of a facility to relieve myself when this monument to good fortune materialized out of the gloom in the early hours before dawn this morning.  No statue to the greatness of achievements, the artistic endeavors of human kind, or the inherent power that was manifest around me had held my attention and awe as this humble injection molded piece of heaven sent goodness held.  It appeared for me in my time of greatest need today, and I have no doubt that it will one day very soon be moved on to serve the same function for countless other individuals.  

When you're walking, it will always pay to know where the next drink of water is going to come from, and where you can get rid of the remainder of the last drink that you took.