Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

Scott Bellows typed:
(I've always found Google
Groups awkward.)

I just spoke to Google Groups and they think *you're* awkward.

Hope everyone's well

You, too, Scooby.
--
TL,
Tim

Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

On 7/8/2011 7:10 PM, Scott Bellows wrote:
much pleasantry snipped

wow! Kauffmann's went bankrupt? What happened(other than the obvious,
"they ran out of money")?

Tom

Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

On 7/9/2011 12:06 AM, wrote:
tommylitt is
still the only yankee i have ever known who i would call a gentleman.


no doubt the Virginia bloodlines, once you ponder it for a bitg

Tom
p.s. The full name IS Thomas Jackson Littleton, and Reid has seen
the house in Virginia with the framed portrait of the namesake.

Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

On Jul 8, 5:28*pm, Frank Reid © 2010 wrote:
On Jul 8, 6:10*pm, Scott Bellows wrote:



On Jul 8, 1:56*pm, Tom Littleton wrote:

On 7/8/2011 4:26 PM, Frank Reid 2010 wrote:

On Jul 8, 3:13 pm, Scott *wrote:
Hi, guys. I was an active roffian years ago and attended the Penn's
Creek clave. (Remember the pic of me in my stripey long johns?) Don't
subscribe to usenet currently but would love to rejoin my roffian
buds. Is the forum still mainly on usenet, or is there a more modern
"forum" site where y'all are hanging out? (I've always found Google
Groups awkward.)

Hope everyone's well --
Scoobey

And WHY would anyone want to rejoin this madhouse... just saying. :-)
Frank Reid

indeed, and welcome back, Scott,er,Scooby!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Tom

Tom! Frank! And you remember details about me! Day-umn! I'm impressed
and humbly gratified.

Yep, I gave up litigation shortly after that early-2000s clave, and
entered an 11-step program (like 12 step, but without #9, "make
amends," because really, how can an ex trial lawyer ever hope to even
BEGIN to make amends for all the harm he's done?). Still a lawyer
(like Lincoln and Gandhi), but working only as a mediator and
arbitrator. Pays 1/10 as much, but only 1/10 the likelihood of being
reincarnated as a newt, which is a reasonable tradeoff IMHO (if not in
my wife's).

Haven't fished anywhere near as much as I should have, despite hi-def
memories of catching my first-ever rising-to-a-fly trout (and my first-
ever brownie) on a CDC Sulphur in Penn's Creek while the rest of you
goggled in amazement at how frigging long it took me just to tie on a
fly and repressed urges to step in front of me and cast to the damn
thing before the hatch abated. But had great good fun catching nothing
while floating the Deschutes last summer with my then-16, 17 year old
daughter (other one's 15), and now the 17 year old is pushing to learn
FFing. Yeehaw! A built-in buddy (for the next year, anyway)! So I'm
trying to step back into it. Bought new waders (Patagonia's last-year
model at half off) and $100 worth of flies yesterday at Kaufmann's
bankruptcy sale to stock her box and replenish my own (hat placed
solemnly on heart Kauffmann's; I now own the last true Kauffmann's
Stimulators on Earth).

How are you guys? Any notable changes to the group?

Well, Joel Axelrad (he of the martini) passed away this year. *That
was just last month. *He had come down to Penns, didn't feel well,
went to the hospital and never checked out. *He will be missed.
Now on to the less serious.
Most of the folks in the group have given up fly fishing after Mike
Makela and I regaled them daily of that day that you, Makela and I
kept yanking lips at Ingleby. They couldn't bare the shame of not
measuring up to those standards.
Tom moved from commercial medical lab work and joined the DEA.
Handyman Mike shaved off his ponytail and beard and is now a mixed
martial artist. * Dave PA is now running for Pennslyvania State Patrol
Chief. *Makela stil fly fishes. *He's got a lot of time after that
incident where he lived for 4 months as a noviate in the convent.
Kinda got found out when kept asking about the class for smacking
students over the knuckles with a ruler.
What else. *Oh, the two boy lawyers from North Cackalacky also
repented their years in law and started an organic duck duck farm.
Don't worry, they're doing quite well as Jeff has discovered a new way
to dispatch and pluck the ducks in one swift move. *Dave, the Pirate,
LaCourse is now a political advisor to the Massachusetts State
Democratic Party
I've moved to Nebraska and caught every trout in the state, three
times. *After that first weekend, I became a logger in our national
forest. *I also ship flash-frozen carp cake to Maryland.
So, yeah, pretty much the status quo (that's latin for all horcked
up).
Frank Reid

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA -- I think you might be pulling my leg. MAKELA STILL
FISHES?

Damn, my sympathies about Joel. But may we all be lucky enough to have
our last time in the world be at Penn's!

S.

Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

On Jul 11, 4:19*pm, Tom Littleton wrote:
On 7/8/2011 7:10 PM, Scott Bellows wrote:
much pleasantry snipped

wow! Kauffmann's went bankrupt? What happened(other than the obvious,
"they ran out of money")?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Tom

Yeah, I was shocked about Kaufmann's. In part, they mistakenly took
the usual poor MBA's advice to expand or die; they moved their Tigard,
OR store from a small side street where they'd been for years to a
larger, prettier, well-fenestrated showcase on the main drag, where
drivebys could see them; basically, switching from a fly-tying
operation with a showroom to an Orvis competitor. They did this
immediately before the economy tanked. I was driving by and saw that
they weren't open on a weekday, scratched my head, pulled in, and they
were closed tight; my first notice of it.

Sad thing is, they apparently left a lot of people in the lurch. They
had a great travel business, and were holding people's deposits for
trips that now will never materialize. They also advertised a
beginner's FFing class on Groupon, which I considered buying for my
daughter and myself to take, but I noticed that they had something
like 200 signups -- all of whom would be taken fishing at one of just
a couple local sites over July-August, as part of the class. That
seemed skunky to me: that water's gonna be pretty pounded by the end
of the summer with all those newbies flailing at it -- so I passed.
Now it looks like they were scrambling for any kind of case flow,
because they shut down shortly after taking those people's money.

Still have good memories of the help they gave me before, however --
time spent with me in the parking lot trying rods, a casting class,
lots of good advice for the price of a couple flies -- so I wish them
well. And the Kaufmann Stimulator is still my go-to Western fly when I
have no idea what I'm doing (ie, pretty much all the time).

Trying to rejoin ROFF after years
 

Does this presage a ROFF renaissance? I hope so, because this place
has been tits-up for years.

I hope it's not daid yet. I'll keep checking in now that I've
rediscovered it, so long as you regulars are still hanging out. Is
there another forum site that's displaced it, though? Sort of like my
old go-to for advice on my old BMW, roadfly.com, got surpassed by
MyE28.com while my car sat composting in my driveway for a few years?