I have been minding my manners and being a good father. It finally paid off last Saturday. My precious Son called me out of the blue and said, "Dad were going fishing!" After I got divorced 2.5 yrs ago, my fishing went into hibernation. I've also had a pile of medical problems. Luckily I have had you persons to talk to (and terrorize) Sorry about that Jack! (Hi!) Anyway Joe told me he would drive and I would be the fishing Guide. I felt pretty inadequate!! I tried to relax and go with the flow, so we drove up the Clackamas River, since it was the closest river. Believe me, I had little hope of catching anything, I just wanted to spend time with Joe. Almost all of my Son's fly fishing has been in a float tube on a lake, not on a river. He had never been where we were going. We came to a place that was a parking spot, which was the head of a 1 mile trail to the river. Something was going to happen to me walking down this trail, because I hadn't been there in 36 years! 1971, Senior in HS, camping with my brother and friend. I made the right decision because the forest was very beautiful and when we had hiked the mile to the river, I was captivated by the surroundings. The trees were 36 years older, but the river still looked the same. I turned to my right and there is a 200 foot dirt cliff and my memory drifted back to when my brother Rob climbed that cliff, got stuck, hiked to the Ranger Station's phone booth, called our Mother and told her what he had done. BIG problem was that Rob was detached from our camp in the pitch black of the night. I think my Mother told him, "That serves you right for doing something so stupid!!" So Rob started down the mile long trail, in the dark, and we heard him yelling at us for some sort of reference point. Rob went through absolute HELL! coming down that trail in the blackness. That is the story I remembered from 71 as I gazed at that dirt cliff. Joe and I noticed that after 36 years, the soil had eroded so much that the cliff was almost vertical and not climbable any more.
I'm not going to run myself down as a Fishing Guide (I'm tempted) but I give myself credit for Guiding my Son to a beautiful place and we had a nice time fishing (No Fish).
I learned that catching was irrelevant, since spending time with Joe meant the world to me. Also I learned that casting my fly rod was not something I had forgotten how to do.
Next Subject! 6 days ago I took my computer in to have some work done on it and today I went and retrieved my computer (NOT fixed) The guy let me down and I let myself down. I was lured by the cheaper price but I blew it! He gave me excuse after excuse of WHY he hadn't got the work done. Today was do or die with my gut feeling that he wasn't trustworthy. When I walked through the front door of the repairman, I asked what the status of my computer was and he said negative and gave me another excuse. It was a LESSON for me to stick with my old reliable comp repair person from here on out.
Doug