Fish Stories

So I took the Manolin out twice over the weekend around town and caught zero fish and lost my anchor (don't ask). But I really did enjoy being out in the kayak. There is a water poker run on Squam Lake up in Ashland this weekend. I will probably go up freakishly early so I can fish for a while first. Prizes ironically include a new kayak donated by Dick's Sporting Goods in Concord.

So a customer at work named Chris gave me two rubber worms and a hook and showed me a little better way to rig my lures so I am excited to give that a try this weekend. One last note on fishing for the week I picked up some Berkley Gulp Worms, these are obviously worm shaped but with the odorous liquid that made the minnows so successful for me. So again I am excited for the weekend and it's only Tuesday.

The Kayak

So I have received the mythical pile of Army money for being held a really long time after my contract was supposed to end. As an added bonus the Army took out very little in taxes, most likely because I was in a war zone when I technically "earned" the money making it tax free. Most of the money is earmarked for repairs of one sort or another but Renee agreed that I could get a Kayak. So this is the Kayak that I got on clearance from the Piche's outlet in Belmont and this is basically the rod holder that I installed myself (the trade-off for saving a couple of hundred dollars not buying a fishing kayak).

I took her out this morning from about four a.m. until 7:30 and had a blast. Unfortunately I didn't catch any fish but fun nonetheless. Realizing that a boat without a name cannot possibly catch fish I quickly came home, did some nice errands with the family, bought a small anchor, and did I quick online search for the name I had in mind.

Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is one of the most poignant and timeless fishing tales in American literature. Set in Cuba, the old man, Santiago, hasn't caught a fish in over two months, has trouble remembering to eat, and wouldn't have the money to buy food if he could remember. He is essentially the archetype for the unlucky fisherman. Manolin is the young boy who helps to take care of the old man and brings good luck with the fish...and not a bad name for a little kayak. Just my opinion, but naming her Santiago would be like asking for trouble.

Family Friday

So no major news for our first Family Friday. The boy was very good both yesterday and today. Yesterday we went to the park for awhile and then we went fishing for about an hour. Jackie was very cooperative, he helped carry a few lures and helped me look for fish. Today we had to do some serious power shopping between 6 and 7:30 pm and again the boy was a very good sport. When we finished, as a reward for good behavior, I took the boy to Big Lots and let him pick out a few super hero friends to play with.

He got a real kick out of his little men completely ignoring the pre-existing collection of 700 little men in order to spend quality time showing his new friends around. All in all a nice week. Renee and I also had some nice chats about different future plans which we are considering.

In him I see myself

So the point of Thousand word Thursday is to post a title, a picture, and a link or credit as needed without further explanation. As this is the first Thursday I thought a brief explanation was in order. Some pictures may be of historical significance, I am also partial to National Geographic and their images, and some days like today I may just choose a family photo.

Most people think that the boy looks a lot more like Renee than me which is, of course, true but I love this particular photo because he could be my twin when I was little and we lived on Guam for a while.

I Write Like

For our first installment of World Wide Wednesday I picked a simple little website which I came across "which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers." I write like is a very straight forward website where you copy a sample of your writing and simply paste it into a block, click on the analyze button at the bottom of the page, and presto your work has been compared to a famous and well respected author.

I played around with the website and copied a few different posts. The website is certainly good for one's self esteem because at best I was comically compared to James Joyce and at worst I was compared to Stephen King (who does OK in spite of what critics might suggest). Interestingly enough the website never responded by saying, "your writing is crap, did you ever wonder why your a blogger rather than an author?"