TR: A waste of time?

I went to my favorite little spot on Saturday, reasonably close to home,
with thoughts of perhaps going a bit further east to the woods and camping
near a brook trout stream. As I pulled off the interstate, Shane MacGowan
growls through the stereo at me:

If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I¹m buried ¹neath the sod
But the angels won¹t receive me

Well, think I, I'm off to face what god will have me, the woods, the river,
the kingfisher, the trout- we'll see if those angels will receive me.

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

The corn reaches well above my head now in the field where I park. It's a
glorious morning, clear blue sky and cooler than it has been in quite some
time. The walk to the water brings all sorts of testaments, first the
grasshoppers jumping before the tread of my feet (grasshoppers! I smile),
there's the Indigo Bunting who frequently welcomes me, and, yep, the
raspberries are ripe, both red and black. The walk, thus encumbered by my
own devotional stations of the cross, is slow, measured.

My arrival bank-side confirms my fears. The water is low. Very low. I see
trout finning along the bottom of the deepest holes so familiar to me. My
stream thermometer measures 70. I probably should turn and head for the
higher hills of the Allegheny, where the brook always runs cold, but I
don't. I've not hiked the full length of this section of stream, never
making it beyond the mile or so that contains proven pools. So I half
heartedly cast to trout (who pay me no mind) and hike clear up to the next
road crossing, what must be two miles or so. More berries. Heron.
Kingfisher. By mid afternoon, I decide to circle the wagon and head home.
MacGowan's annunciation should have spoken louder to me than it did. But I
can't help but think the day wasn't wasted.

Bill

Whether you decide the trip was a waste of time or not (and I suspect
it wasn't), reading about it certainly was time well spent.

Thanks.

Steve

William Claspy wrote:
I went to my favorite little spot on Saturday, reasonably close to
home, with thoughts of perhaps going a bit further east to the woods
and camping near a brook trout stream. As I pulled off the
interstate, Shane MacGowan growls through the stereo at me:

If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I¹m buried ¹neath the sod
But the angels won¹t receive me

Well, think I, I'm off to face what god will have me, the woods, the
river, the kingfisher, the trout- we'll see if those angels will
receive me.

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

The corn reaches well above my head now in the field where I park.
It's a glorious morning, clear blue sky and cooler than it has been
in quite some time. The walk to the water brings all sorts of
testaments, first the grasshoppers jumping before the tread of my
feet (grasshoppers! I smile), there's the Indigo Bunting who
frequently welcomes me, and, yep, the raspberries are ripe, both red
and black. The walk, thus encumbered by my own devotional stations
of the cross, is slow, measured.

My arrival bank-side confirms my fears. The water is low. Very low.
I see trout finning along the bottom of the deepest holes so familiar
to me. My stream thermometer measures 70. I probably should turn
and head for the higher hills of the Allegheny, where the brook
always runs cold, but I don't. I've not hiked the full length of
this section of stream, never making it beyond the mile or so that
contains proven pools. So I half heartedly cast to trout (who pay me
no mind) and hike clear up to the next road crossing, what must be
two miles or so. More berries. Heron. Kingfisher. By mid
afternoon, I decide to circle the wagon and head home. MacGowan's
annunciation should have spoken louder to me than it did. But I
can't help but think the day wasn't wasted.

I'd vote not. Very nice way to start the day today. Thanks, my friend.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

William Claspy wrote:

[snip]

The walk, thus encumbered by my
own devotional stations of the cross, is slow, measured.

I really like that.

My arrival bank-side confirms my fears. The water is low. Very low. I see
trout finning along the bottom of the deepest holes so familiar to me. My
stream thermometer measures 70. I probably should turn and head for the
higher hills of the Allegheny, where the brook always runs cold, but I
don't. I've not hiked the full length of this section of stream, never
making it beyond the mile or so that contains proven pools. So I half
heartedly cast to trout (who pay me no mind) and hike clear up to the next
road crossing, what must be two miles or so. More berries. Heron.
Kingfisher. By mid afternoon, I decide to circle the wagon and head home.
MacGowan's annunciation should have spoken louder to me than it did. But I
can't help but think the day wasn't wasted.

IMHO, if you wouldn't enjoy the hike without a fly rod in your
hands, then you're in the wrong area.

But I suspect you already had that figured out. :-)

Thanks for sharing, Bill.


Chuck Vance

On 8/8/05 10:10 AM, in article , "Conan The
Librarian" wrote:


Thanks for sharing, Bill.

You're welcome.

Yesterday was spent in the shop, cutting sliding tapered dovetails, also
mighty enjoyable. I snapped some pix, as promised, and will send along when
the project is done. Though won't post it to ROFF :-)

B

Nice job Bill. Love the Pogues!

bh

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 09:06:59 -0400, William Claspy
wrote:


. But I
can't help but think the day wasn't wasted.

Bill

Wasn't wasted in the time spent typing about it, either. I enjoyed
the reading of it.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)

William Claspy wrote:

Yesterday was spent in the shop, cutting sliding tapered dovetails, also
mighty enjoyable. I snapped some pix, as promised, and will send along when
the project is done. Though won't post it to ROFF :-)

I don't see why not. ROFF has just been cluttered with ontopic
stuff these days. A little woodworking won't hurt anyone. ;-)

I'd love to hear about how you went about cutting those. (I assume
all work was done with handtools, no?) I've yet to try them myself.
I'm guessing I'd need to buy a few specific tools for that, no? :-)

Unfortunately, I haven't had much shoptime recently. But the reason
I haven't been wooddorking is because SWMBO had her first full gallery
showing last Friday (30 pictures). I was busy framing the pics for her
(metal frames, so it doesn't count).

The good news is she sold a picture within the first hour of the
reception. The bad news is that she needs to sell about 5 more just to
break even on printing and framing costs. :-}


Chuck Vance (sounds a bit like my wooddorking exploits)

Conan The Librarian wrote:
snip
The good news is she sold a picture within the first hour of the
reception. The bad news is that she needs to sell about 5 more just
to break even on printing and framing costs. :-}

That'll come with time and referrals. After viewing some of her work on
her website, I can't believe she'll be anything but a great success in
this endeavor.

....but, if not, you'll have a lot of neat photos and frames. ;-)
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

Tim J. wrote:

Conan The Librarian wrote:

The good news is she sold a picture within the first hour of the
reception. The bad news is that she needs to sell about 5 more just
to break even on printing and framing costs. :-}

That'll come with time and referrals. After viewing some of her work on
her website, I can't believe she'll be anything but a great success in
this endeavor.

Thanks, Tim. And you are dead-on about the time and referrals
point. We are looking at this as a chance for her to "network" (god, I
hate that "verb") and spread the word. She already got a photo chosen
for the "New Texas Talent" show at the Craighead-Green Gallery in
Dallas, and she got picked for the cover of the oxymoronically-titled
"Elegant Texan" magazine; a rag whose main purpose seems to be to appeal
to folks with way too much money and an inverse amount of common sense.

But I digress ... :-) She's come so far so fast that we are trying
to keep in mind that what she's doing now is investing in the future.

...but, if not, you'll have a lot of neat photos and frames. ;-)

Yeah, I can always cover the walls of my shop with them. ;-)


Chuck Vance