Saturday, January 10, 2009

In deep

I'm in deep. Deep in snow. Last winter I was dying to get out on the water to try for steelhead. It was my understanding that having one of these silver bullets take off with your fly is an experience that will change your life. Then I realized, I like my life I don't want to change and above all I don't have the cahoonies to get out there and stand in ice water and drift a pink ball. I tried last year a couple of times with a friend named Mick, who is a great with more stamina then I'll ever have. But in the end I realized it's not in me. I'm OK with that and feel more at ease this winter. I have been keeping busy building rods. I just finished a 4pc 6'6" Batson 2wt that in actuality throws a 3wt line much better. I am now working on a pacbay 6'6" 2wt that is more of a true 2wt and am taking it slow. I have all winter. Right now the snow is high. I just got back from the Ohio Fly Tying Expo and it was a really good experience. Met some people that I had known only online and that made it worth it. Attended a seminar on smallmouth bass by Joe Cornwall. Which was fantastic he is was great and really made me look forward to the spring.
I constantly collect conversations that are happening around me. When I say collect what I mean is that I hone in them, it's not necessarily eavesdropping because if you can hear them without trying they were almost, in my mind, meant to be heard. With the necessity that everyone feels towards cellphones and the often complete disregard for ones privacy, it feels like my responsibility. It is something that I have done since I was a kid. As a new friend and I were standing outside smoking there was a young lady standing out there and a guy about here age walked up and lit a cigarette. She said "don't I know you?" he said yeah I'm "so and so". She said "where have you been" he responded. "I've been paralyzed for four months" ...now I'm no expert on paralysis but his recovery was flawless..would never know. She says "Wow!! what happened"..at this point my friend and I are entering back in the building and I slow a bit to hear the response as the door was closing I hear "I go stabbed in the brain"...Now, I'm no expert on being stabbed in the brain but he, umm....ahh. I went in and bought some yellow chenille because a falling bumble bee in a pond to a bluegill is what a large pepperoni pizza falling from the ceiling is to a room full of stoners. Drove home thinking about growing old with this sport in my life, maybe because I was around others older than me and the passion was still as strong as it was when they discovered the fly rod. Maybe because I am looking foward to it.Or possibly because the winter can, if you accept it, paralyze you for four months.