I talked to her on Skype this morning, Robin. She's more mad than anything, but pretty battered. They were being mortared the entire time we were talking and we had to reconnect several times due to comms problems. The helicopter gunships were flying in/out overhead non-stop. Seems the Iranians have supplied new equipment and training to the ne'er-do-wells and Al Qaeda remnants in Iraq. People who think that AQ and Iran don't work together due to religious differences are fools. All Muslims work together in the face of "infidel invaders." They always have. Oh well, enough of that. I sure am glad the war in Iraq is over now and the country is officially "pacified." Aren't you? LOL Don't get this stuff on the news, do we?

Fly fishing has been very good to me in terms of the fine people I have met and developed relationships with over the years. Al Crise was in the very top category of those fine people. If I came up with a short list of my favorite folks in fly fishing, Al would be on it no matter what size it had to be. He was the kind of guy we all should strive to be more like: less self-centered and more focused on helping others, less concerned with non-essentials and more focused on getting the important things done, less apt to get bogged down by the negatives of life and more able to enjoy the many positives we encounter each and every day.

Let me tell you how I found out Al had cancer...

Last summer I was scheduled to take a day-long class from Al at his place in Glen Rose. The evening before he called to tell me we needed to move the start time back a few hours and go until dusk because he had to go to the hospital first thing in the morning for an upper and lower GI. He had not been able to eat due to pain for a couple of months and had lost about 50 lbs. This was going to put us outside in the hottest part of the day in the Texas summer heat, but he assured me would be OK and that another one of his students would be there to help out just in case.

The next day, we met and did the class - 7 hours in the hot Texas sun, casting, standing, and walking around in the field behind his house. We paused only for water breaks. He told me he would have the test result the next day, but he never let on that it was anything more serious than an ulcer.

The day after that Al called me to tell me he got his test results and that he had cancer in his esophagus. Within a few days, we knew it was also in his stomach, pancreas, liver, intestines, and brain.

I will never be able to shake the impact of this man taking that day of his life in the midst of all that he was dealing with to pull it together just to help me teach fly casting better. I am totally unable to process it.