I am back from vacation and ready to get back into the swing of things with the blog. I saw a t-shirt not to long ago that said “More People Have Read This Than Your Blog” and I was struck by how true that is of most blogs including this one. Undaunted, I press on with the thought that maybe today will be the day that one person reads this blog and is affected in one way or another.
Speaking of vacation, the family I spent two weeks in northern Michigan at my wife’s ancestral home on the shore of Burt Lake. It is without a doubt one of my favorite places on the planet and we have been blessed to be able to go up there every summer for the past 15 or 16 years. I think one year we went to the beach in South Cackalacky but other than that we have gone North.
One of our favorite vacation activities is fishing for Smallmouth Bass. The family record is held by Ghenny, my wife’s grandmother. Legend tells that back in the day she caught a fish that was 21 3/4″ long and just a hair over six pounds. To put that in perspective, a keeper is anything over 14″ and most of the fish we catch are between two and three pounds. I have been dutifully trying to dethrone her for years and this year, for a moment, I thought I had her.
The fish I caught was 5.71 pounds and 21 1/2″ long. Let me do the math for you: I missed the record by less than three tenths of a pound in weight and half an inch in length. If I had a lick of sense, I’d have stuffed it with a little split shot and hung it up for a while before I took it down to Pat and Gary’s for entry into the annual contest. Needless to say I am in first place (or was when we left) but I never seem to be able to win. Some seven year old will catch a six and a half pounder on a Sponge Bob pole and relegate my lunker to second place. Never fails to happen.
So there is my fish story. No blog is complete without one. In closing, I’ll mention that I called Ghenny and told her that she better live for a few more years (she’s in her late 80′s) becuase I plan on dethroning her before she dies. She chuckled and promised me she’d do her best to oblige.
(Yes, the camo does help me sneak up on the fish and yes, I am having the sucker mounted to hang on the wall. Sorry Babe!)
\m/ >.< \m/ on.
