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I have been asking for permission to go to the
Idaho Fish-In for a few months now, but without
a firm answer. The main problem is and always
has been the time of year and obligations I may
have at that time. This year is no exception.
In fact, this year is a little more difficult
than I thought it would be.
You see, this year there is a fly fishing show
in Denver the same weekend the Fish-In starts
in Idaho. And, the fishing show starts later
this year, so the days really conflict with the
Fish-In in Idaho. As soon as the fish show is
done in Denver, I'm supposed to be working on
the fly program for the company I work for.
That leaves little chance for travel unless I
do something to make it work. Well, I did
something to make it work last spring, and it
seems to be enough to convince them to let me go.
Of course, that wasn't without a lot of questions.
First, there was a question of who would go this
year. I have handled the program pretty much by
myself for many years, with a guy who went to help,
but was not as good at writing the program as I am,
or at least I guess that was the point. This year,
somebody else will take his place to add to the body
of help, and to give the new guy a look at the show.
He may or may not be at the show next year, but I'm
hoping he will be able to make things run smoother
at least this year.
Then, there were the questions of when I would get
my part of the program done. I usually take a laptop
computer with me to the show, and work on the program
at night, but there is a lot more to do than what
can be done on one computer at the show. The entire
list has to be laid out on a computer and rated for
the whole company. That takes time, and a lot of
paperwork.
There were also questions about how to streamline
the computer program to make it load faster. I
spent roughly 100 hours on that project in the
spring, learning new stuff about the computer,
and applying it to the programs we already have.
Now, instead of changing pages when we need to
do a change of materials on the page, I can insert
or delete the numbers of rows needed, and do the
changes without sacrificing anything. It makes
things run a lot faster.
This year there will be three guys at the show,
and all of us will be working on the program.
Hopefully, there will also be three laptop
computers there too, so the documentation will
go faster. If you think about it, if you take
a program that has been designed to run faster,
and split it three ways at the show, we might
not have a lot to do when we get home. At least
that is our hopes/prayers. If we get down to
business right away and work real hard at the
show, we may be nearly finished before we go
home.
Anyway, that is the game this year, and I finally
was given permission and the vacation days to go
to the Fish-In in Idaho. Whether I get to go
again next year will depend a lot on how things
work this year. If we leave the show with a
complete or mostly complete package of fly
fishing programs, I'll bet next year will be
a lot easier to get permission to go to a Fish-In.
If it turns out like last year, and if we don't
get the package done before November, I'll miss
the rest of the fall Fish-Ins, no questions asked.
So, I'm depending a lot on this Denver program
and some speed in writing the program.
If you're planning on being at the Fish-In, look
for me Monday evening. I would love to be there
earlier, but that just won't happen. I will get
off the plane from Denver on Sunday evening,
unpack and repack for Idaho. On Monday morning
I will be in my place of employment just long
enough to turn in my paperwork and then head
west for Idaho. If things go well, I might
even be there before midnight, I hope. I will
have my fly fishing gear and some fly tying stuff
to boot. And, unlike last year, I will also have
a spare knot tool in case I lose mine again this
year. Would somebody please reserve a seat for
me at the tying table? See ya there. ~ AC
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