Foiled

This marks the second, or maybe third year in a row; I can't really remember anymore. F3T has screwed me again. I love you F3T! You are highlight of my entire year! I sit in the dark of my room the other 364 days a year waiting for you to come back. Why do you keep avoiding me like this??

Well, maybe I'm not that extreme, but I do love the show. It's a great mid-winter reminder of how refreshing summer fishing can be, and for some of us it's a nice reminder of how refreshing fishing in general is.

But with that said, I will sadly be out of town yet again for the Portland showing of the Film tour. I don't think I'm quite devoted enough to drive down to Corvallis for the show the following weekend....but I might be.

Everyone else out there should watch the schedule and plan on attending.  It's a lot of fun, everyone attending is generally happy and excited, and free gear is given away. You can't beat free gear.

http://www.flyfilmtour.com/

Ode to Plebians and Peons

Once a year every year for the past three years I have been gifted a wonderful early Christmas gift. This is indirectly and graciously given to me by all the peasants on their holiday journeys to visit friends and family. I too am about to be on such a journey. I take plenty of trips every year, and never ever get seat upgrades. The reason is that I am just about the very bottom of the bottom of the barrel of fliers with airline status. Each year I attain just a few miles over the minimum for status and thus am among the dregs who are qualified for upgrades (but never actually get them).

But this time of year when the airport gates are packed to the brim and people are packed like sardines into the ballistic aluminum cylinders, the ratio of important people to the rabble decreases. And it decreases sufficiently for an important person like myself to achieve that much vaunted upgrade to first class.

But at this point I have to say, I really don't think first class is all that. It's certainly not worth the money. Sure you have a little more space. Sure you get free drinks. Sure you don't have to wait for the bathroom. But big deal. Of course this is coming from someone who's 5'7" and 140lbs soaking wet. I fit quite nicely into the tiny airline living spaces provided in coach. Of course it's nice to get to hobnob with the elites of society once a year and pretend that I am actually someone; when it's free.

And here I come huge aluminum cylinder filled with recycled air. Be good to me.

Personal Stimulation

I have a new ride that I'm struggling to get a handle on. Big cars are a bit unwieldy and not very responsive so I feel weird driving it. This is what it looks like:

Here's what my old car looked like:

Just kidding, it looks like an old, dirty version of this, except VR6 rather than TDI and a broken antenna:

And everyone who knows me well is instantly curious why I would now have this boat of a car. I've been planning a car purchase for quite a while now, and here I am driving around something that is the last car I would add to my list of consideration.

So why the land yacht? Well, on my drive home last night I noticed the temperature gauge in my car creeping up beyond the its position halfway up the dial.  And by the time I got home it was in the red and steam was beginning to billow out of the engine. Fortunately it at least waited until I was home to blow up on me. This morning I located the nearest autoshop, drove it over, and luckily arrived just about the time Mr Jetta was about to overheat again. 

Being unsure what the prognosis would be and thinking it might cost nearly as much as the car's worth and adding in the fact that I am planning to buy a new car very very soon, I figured I'd rent a car for today and maybe through the weekend for some shopping. A quick call to the enterprise just down the street provided me with a positive response and they drove over to pick me up... in the land yacht pictured above. 

Apparently the prolonged sub-zero temps we've been suffering through lately has put a lot of people in the situation I find myself in, and this was the only car they had left so I got it at a bargain basement price. 

I also found myself in a similar situation earlier this week. I had a plumber out to do some work that I've been putting off for quite some time. In chatting with him it turns out that they're also incredibly busy repairing all sorts of busted and frozen pipes. 

There are a ton of depressing ways to look at our current cold snap, mostly involving personal discomfort.  But apparently the tiny silver lining to this massive thunderhead of doom is a forced economic stimulus. Plenty of people are being forced to shell out extra unplanned cash for bare necessities they (I) took for granted. You're welcome economy. I'm glad to have participated in your stimulation.

Now can I get my money back through massive economic growth next year and a gargantuan raise, please? Tit for tat, you know.

Snow Day!

Blue moons are much more common in the Portland area than snow days. Yet today, we have one. Sort of. 

On my drive in to work this morning I was struck by the ridiculosity of what I was hearing on the radio. A couple of schools closed, a few more with delayed start hours, and all of Portland's school buses were on "snow routes." I know what you're thinking: it must be pretty bad here but not horrible since most schools will still be open. 

Well, you'd be wrong. It's blizzard-like out there! Just check out how bad my drive in was:

I was lucky I made it in. And yes that was just about the worst of it.

In all seriousness, I feel sorry for kids in Portland. I remember how glorious real snow days were. Waking up with a foot or more of snow on the ground with more coming down. Sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast and eagerly awaiting the list of school closures on the radio or TV. Then rejoicing when we heard our school called or saw it scroll by on the bottom of the TV screen.

At which point we immediately donned all our winter gear and ran outside to play. Snowmen were built, driveways were voluntarily shoveled into a single pile so that a sweet fort could be constructed, sled races ensued in the back yard dangerously down the hill and through the woods. Eventually we'd get called in for lunch, which none of us really wanted and it required the enticement of marshmallows doused in hot chocolate for mom to get us to even think of listening.

Then of course we'd hurriedly scarf down our mallows and lunches and immediately put all our coats and gear back on to go back outside and finish off the day. We'd stay out again until near dark when it started getting too cold, we were wet from melting snow and sweat, and honestly were getting way too tired for the excitement to punch through any longer. Later that evening we'd all lay down in bed, but not forgetting to say our prayers, prayers for more snow and another snow day tomorrow!

I hope you're enjoying your winter!

Picture postcards

With Cuba nearly within arms reach I am a bit ashamed to say I sit beachside tonight smoking a nicuraguan cigar. But we do what we can in the states. On the flip side I'm being serenaded by what sounds like a live Sigur Ros concert happening a couple blocks away. If you don't know Sigur Ros, look them up and tell me they are not an excellent evening beachside serenade. Perfect background music to staring out onto the ocean and south beach. 

What's even better is I am seeing frequent bait ball explosions on the water surface just 10 yards from shore. I have my rod and flies in the hotel room and may have just scheduled a date with the water for tomorrow night. Hopefully whatever is chasing the fish is catchable. 

In the meantime I will continue to sit here and enjoy soaking up Miami. Thanks for the free concert. And the work-cation. 

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Fall hits everyone in different ways. To some it's a depressing season where days get shorter, temperatures get colder, rain comes back, et cetera. To others it is a season of rebirth after suffering through the heat of summer, and a siren of the coming ski season. To many it's a sad end to the best trout fishing of the year and a reminder of the hours to come sitting at the tying desk/bench. Eyes aching from becoming more near sighted and back throbbing from sitting hunched over for too long.

In my view Fall brings with it three main characteristics. Most notably, not to mention the positive side, is cooler temps. I know it's Fall once I need to put a jacket on to go outside. And I don't know why, but I love the crisp coolness of Fall. I love donning a jacket to stay warm, I love the morning dew, and most of all I love not getting hot and sweaty when not exerting myself. It resonates within me as a new beginning, a rebirth. Of course rebirth doesn't seem to fit, as trees are dropping leaves and insects and animals are withdrawing toward hibernative states, but I never claimed to be rational. Or maybe it's not really a rebirth, but more like a cleansing; like a snake molting. Regardless it makes me feel alive. 

And yes I added that fake temp gauge to my rearview because my car is too cheap/old to have one.

Fall also brings with it a shortening of days. It annoys and depresses me. There's something disturbing about coming home after a long day of work to less and less daylight day by day. And perhaps worse is when it's also dark when you leave for work in the morning. After months of the darkness we all begin to look and feel more and more like vampires. Nocturnal, color draining from our bodies that become pasty white (if not already so), and a thirst for blood developing. Well, maybe not the blood thirst but the others. It's all quite bad but I can think of worse.

But what's most disturbing and massively depressing is the coming rains. For those of you who don't live in the PacNW, I'm not talking about a refreshing day or two of rain. I'm talking about 6-8 months of insidious drizzle. It's sort of nice at first, but unless you're a reptile it certainly gets ugly fast. Then again if you're a reptile, you're ugly too.

For now though I'll focus on the crisp coolness that I find so rejuvenating and try to ignore the pending winter. When it comes, I guess I'll go skiing.

Stop It!

Fishing can become a bit of an addiction. So can online shopping. And when the two meet bad things happen. Or maybe it's good things; I'm not quite sure. For some people it manifests as a boatload of old reels they never use. For others it's dozens of unnecessary rods. For many it's a whole slew of unnecessary gadgets and trinkets. For me it's a little less bad. I have 1 reel for each rod, and each rod serves a purpose (and there are only 5 of them, not dozens). I have had the same vest for nearly 6 years. I also don't have a ton gadgetry, just the basics. Or at least what I consider to be the basics.

What I did do, though, is buy yet another fly box online last week and received it earlier this week. Why would I do this? Well, I started fishing in two newish modes this year and so I obviously needed 2 new boxes. Obviously. I got one for my birthday and that held me over for a while. Then I spent some time in CO fishing, not for trout, but for pike. They're a ton of fun and fishing for them increased my need for streamers ten-fold. I had always just kept a small tin full of loose streamers and a couple in my nymph box but I never really used them. With this new box I had a nicely set up and organized box for all my new monstrosities.

Then I started fishing for carp a lot more this year than I ever had previously. Before this year I had just reserved a row in my nymph box for carp flies, but I now have way too many for just a row. Thus yet another need for yet another box. It's beginning to look like a mental illness or obsession. So I bought a cheap fly box online and have begun to fill it up. 

I would go see help so that I could stop the spread of this disease, but I sort of like it.

Now I'd better head downstairs.  Fight club is about to begin and Tyler Durden is calling my name.