Family, Food, gardening, home, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized

Whew!

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We were asked to go fishing on Lake Sakakawea on Saturday with a colleague and his sweetie.  He is in his 70’s, still works at my agency as a psychologist, and loves to fish. He has a rather nice boat, about 20 feet long,  with a live well, windshield, and comfortable seating.  It had been a couple of years since we had gone fishing with him, and he was excited to spend some time with us. He has been working from home since the virus struck, and has felt rather isolated.  It is a two hour drive up to the lake on oilfield highways, and we planned to leave about 6:00 am. We were in charge of the lunch, and I had prepared Baboon Joanne’s Southwest Salad, rhubarb muffins, banana bread, and ham and beef sandwiches.

At 5:00 AM, our friend phoned and said he was in too much pain from bone spurs in his neck, and he had to cancel the trip. I felt sorry for him,  but I was so happy we didn’t have to go. I don’t like boats, I especially don’t like boats on big lakes, and I find fishing unutterably boring. Husband likes to fish, and I didn’t want to disappoint him or our friend, so I was prepared to go along and do my best to have a good time.  I may not have had any siblings, but I don’t want to act like the stereotypical spoiled only child. (Only children aren’t any more spoiled and self centered than any other children, as a rule, but we have to combat these inaccurate stereotypes.)

We spent the day in the garden Saturday and got a lot of things done around the house. We had lots of good food already prepared.  It was a good day.

When have you been relieved lately?  What do you put up with out of love and affection?

33 thoughts on “Whew!”

  1. For what it’s worth, Renee, if the header photo is an indication of what you think of when you think of fishing, small wonder you think it’s boring. Many years ago, husband and I and a couple of friends took my father-in-law on such a fishing expedition on Lake Superior; the one and only time I’ve fished like that. I’ll spare you all the boring and expensive details, but suffice it to say, that between the five of us and our captain of the boat we had chartered, we caught one big inedible lake trout. It’s quite the story, though, and I might tell it some other time.

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        1. i’ve got the same story out of steve’s beloved cornucopia where i specified that i would only participate with the understanding i was a catch and release guy
          i was bored for 3 hours then pissed when i caught a fish and the captain pulled it in and instead of helping me pull the hook out he got his club and beat it to death
          i was livid and refused my portion of the payment be paid

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  2. The last time we went fishing with our friend, I caught the most fish, but I didn’t snag them with hook. Instead, I let out too much line which ran along the bottom of the lake in places, and I sort of lassoed the fish. They came up wrapped in my line.

    Lake Sakakawea is sort of weird to fish on, since in places it is quite deep, and in other places you can clearly see the roofs of houses that were covered when the dam flooded small communities.

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  3. I used to write magazine articles about Great Lakes fishing, which is the type of fishing represented in the header photo. To catch fish in the Great Lakes it is usually necessary to use complicated equipment that sucks away any possibility of fun.

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    1. I agree, Steve. This way of fishing is completely devoid of any charm. You just sit there and stare at those rods trailing their lines behind the boat for hours on end.

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      1. I always thought of it is more like commercial fishing than fishing for sport. The gear catches the fish. The fishermen just wind them in, and even that isn’t fun most of the time.

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  5. Had to laugh when I read your second question: ” What do you put up with out of love and affection?” My knee jerk reaction although grammatically incorrect, was “my wife.” She’s a “who,” not a “what.” Good thing she doesn’t read this blog.

    I was both relieved and disappointed when “the best golf buddy in the world” emailed me yesterday and said he wouldn’t be flying up for a member-guest golf tournament we’ve played more than a dozen times (and almost won last year!). His wife is concerned because of COVID-19. He’s 70, still runs 5 ks regularly, and is in generally good health but . . . it’s not worth the risk of getting sick and maybe dying just for 4 days of golf competing for an essentially meaningless trophy (other than bragging rights for a while and lots of funny stories and memories).

    I’m relieved because I won’t be worried about the “what if?” and feel as if it was my fault that he got sick or worse.

    As he said, “God willing, we’ll try for next year.”

    Chris in Owatonna

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      1. Probably not. I might offer to volunteer to help the pro or be available as an emergency sub. Aside from my local golf buddies who are members, I don’t know any golfers I’d like to invite to play as a guest. Plus, I might feel a little guilty about “cheating” on my Palm Springs buddy with another golfer. 🙂 Silly, huh?

        Chris

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  6. Morning-

    As a kid I often went fishing down in the creek. Had my little black Zebco rod and reel. As I got older, I bought a fancier rod and reel. Dad would take me to random places; the power dam at Alma, other creeks or lakes, all just day drives. Dad wasn’t a fisherman or hunter so I never learned any of that from him. but he’d put up with it out of love or affection and we’d go fishing. And I never caught any fish and he’d catch a few and it didn’t take long for me to lose interest. Not blaming Dad, who knows what I was doing.

    I’ve been relieved of a lot of shows this spring. I mentioned earlier of the three shows that were supposed to open at the same time. A few more this summer have been postponed. And I’m relieved of the overtime they would have provided. Oh well.

    Last official day at ‘work’ work then I’m off for summer. I see they’ve got me back on payroll in August so that’s good. 🙂

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  7. We took our Tortie to the vet today to check out her eardrum polyp, and to see if she lost weight, as she seems lighter. Well, she lost a pound, and I am relieved that it isn’t diabetes, kidney failure, or her thyroid. No, I am only annoyed. She just doesn’t like the new cat food I got a couple of months ago. I switched from regular adult Science Diet cat food to Indoor Adult Science Diet cat food, as our other cat was getting fat on the higher calorie cat food. So, I will switch back to the regular stuff so Miss Tortie doesn’t starve herself.

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    1. You know I have several friends who tell stories about their kitties who won’t eat or are picky eaters. This is not some thing I have ever experienced. Zorro and now Nimue eat just about anything I put down for them.

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      1. my cats have batches of canned food they don’t like
        we buy asst where you get 3 types /4cans each in a case and lord know what goes in there but every now and again a batch of one is not acceptable
        3 more cans in the next 10 days then we’re done
        daily program is 1 big can of cat food split so 80% gets split between the 2 cats then the 2 dogs get the remaining 20% split between them and buried by purina dog chow
        i used to switch around but a 50lb bag of unacceptable dog food is not a good thing

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  8. When shelter in place started, I decided to give YA a gift of dishwashing. Dirty dishes in the sink are a point of contention between us. I prefer fewer, she can let them go longer. So I told her that during shelter in place I would be in charge of the dishes. This has turned out to actually be a gift for me as now we are not arguing about the dishes at all.

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    1. You know, I’ve kinda got the same thing going with daughter. Since all her programs closed, I don’t have to wake her up in the mornings and hassle her to keep moving which also means I’m not pushing her to get to bed at night. It’s pretty much a win-win!
      Just this morning, Kelly had a zoom meeting from 8-12. She had a 10 minute break in the middle and ran to the kitchen to make her tea and get a potty break in too. Daughter said “Geez, there’s no need to rush.” And once again, I tried to explain that yes, sometimes there is a need to rush, and sometimes SHE needs to rush, but she never does.
      Then there was the giant wooshing sound as it all went in one ear and out the other.

      Reminds me of many years ago when one of the theater guys was stressing out. I replied casually “Yeah, man. Whatever.” He said rather tersely “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! I’M 35 YEARS OLD; I’M TRYING NOT TO HAVE A FRIGGIN HEART ATTACK”.

      Flash forward 10 years. I’m at a high school trying to get their sound system working. I still have to get home and do chores and milk cows and get back in for the show. I was stressed. The high school kid said to me “Yeah man. Whatever.”
      Ah. I get it now.

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  9. Well, the cats are definitely relieved now that I opened the Adult, regular calorie cat food bag and served them the original cat food this noon. They both chowed down then raced all over the house.

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    1. There are most definitely unacceptable pet foods, and my pets have no trouble telling me what they won’t eat. Bernie is easy, but of course, he eats only homemade food. I’ve tried cooking for my cats, but they prefer canned cat food. But not all canned cat food is created equal, and Martha can tell the difference.

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  10. I’ve been relieved lately at several upcoming thing events being cancelled. It seems I was operating on inertia, and was overbooking myself before Covid-19 hit. I look forward to the time I can add some things back into my life (if that ever happens), but I’ll try to slim down the schedule!

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