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Tag: mountains

The fishing is imminent….

I feel like singing that old Tom Lehrer song, “Spring is here, Spring is here…” Oh here, just watch it.

While there may not be many pigeons meeting their demise at my hands, I can’t say the same for the fish.  The ice is melting, the sun is shining, the fish are hungry and so am I.  I just recently cleaned out my garage and nicely stacked my fishing gear near the door.  I am almost ready to put them permanently in the car for the summer.

I just love to fish.  I like to teach people how to fish.  I like to read about fishing so that I can be better at fishing.  This summer I will be fishing less and less, thanks to the money grubbing (insert your own insulting adjective here) people who sell gas and are making it hit $4 per gallon.  I can’t afford to go fishing; very often.

I will still manage a few trips to the over fished community ponds, and maybe I will take a long hike to a couple of lakes, but that will probably be it. I am not even going to register my boat this year, I don’t know that it will get used.  But I will still have my fishing license.  A side story on that, I was buying a little pistol last year for my birthday and I neglected to take in 2 current forms of address verification.  I only had one utility bill, but they were able to accept my fishing license as proof of address because it was issued by the state.  Second best thing I have ever used my license for.

Anyhow, most of you know that we are headed to Florida this year for my daughters Make A Wish.  No, I don’t think I will have any great deep sea fishing moments, and Disney only lets you fish in a couple of the lakes if you are a guest of the resort, but the place we are staying for the first part of the trip is made just for kids getting their wish granted.  They have all sorts of things geared to kids of all abilities and restrictions, including a fishing pond.  I do believe that I am going to volunteer to help these kids fish.

Some of them will never have had the opportunity to fish and I can only hope that they will get into the sport.  Some will only ever be able to fish there.  How could I not help?  Well, if they will let me.  I am going to try though.

For a long time I thought fishing was the best thing ever.  Now, after teaching my kids to fish, I find that bringing in new people is awesome.  My kids were asking me yesterday when we were going to go fishing.  They have the bug.  My 11 year old wants to learn to fly fish.  That may as well be Christmas morning to me.

So, for now, I will clean my gear, respool my reels, and hope that I can get out soon.  What about you all?  Do you fish?  Do you want to fish?  Are you willing to split gas so we can go together?  I would go with my friend Bob but Georgia is even further away than the mountains here.  Let me know what you all think down there in the comments.

Have a great day.

-Justin

 

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The Mountains Are Calling and I Must Go.

Image courtesy of  http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/matthes/john_muir_glacial_theory.html

John Muir is one of my favorites. He was an amazing conservationist and lover of nature. He was also filled with quotes that resonate with me.  Probably my most favorite is the title of this post, “The Mountains are Calling and I Must go.”   Whatever it was he meant by this, it is part of me.  Much like the title to Irving Stones book “Men to Match My Mountains.”  The book is about westward expansion and an interesting read but the title is magical.

Just in case you couldn’t tell, I love the mountains.  I have posts about fishing and there will be more about the outdoors and being in them.  John Muir may be famous for the mountains of Yosemite in California but the Wasatch mountains here in Utah call to me.

I have been spending time in the mountains since I could walk.  I have grown up (partially) in tents and surrounded by trees.  There is a certain peace and awe that you can get in the mountains that you can get nowhere else.

In the most excellent and in my top 3 movies of all time is the film, “Jeremiah Johnson”.  It’s the story of a man who left civilization in the early 1800’s for the mountains.  He left to get away from the politics and city life and make his fortune as a trapper.  I have always wished it could be more of a tutorial than just a movie, but I like my computer too much.  One of the characters in the film has a line, “You can’t cheat the mountain.  Mountain’s got its own ways.”  I think of that every single time I am in the mountains and I am trying to manipulate my environment.  The mountain will make me conform, no matter what I throw at it, in the long run, the Mountain will prevail.

A long introduction to get to this, I can see the mountains from my front door, but they are 20 miles away.  If I think of my blog as a mountain, it is right here at my desk.  My Blog is calling and I must go.  I am sure my wife loves that.  “Not right now, I have to write” is not as eloquent a quote but nonetheless true.  There are obstacles to climb when getting a blog up and running.  There are ways that I want to do things but can’t; forced to conform with HTML code and PHP limitations.

As a blogger I am heading out into a mysterious and only partially explored territory.  Like the mountains in 1800 there is not much known to the general public about blogging.   The term is out there.  The basic idea is in most peoples heads, but few know the intricacies and the path to blogging success.

I am not interested in climbing mountains to reach the summit.  There are too few places to fish up there.  I am looking to get to the top of the blogging mountain though.  I have been running for 2 solid months now and the ever elusive 3rd month is dwindling fast.  That third month is not the summit though, it is just a plateau with a little shop that sells water and local flies.  Wait that is the real mountain, my plateau sells e-books.

My blog is calling and I must go should be on a t-shirt.  Nobody steal that there may be shirts at that plateau shop as well.  My blog is calling and I must go is kind of a mantra that has been in the back of my head while the Mountains are in the front.  My blog is a huge deal to me right now.  I am nurturing and growing it fairly well and I can only hope that it will grow and strengthen to a point where it is as solid and timeless as one of those mountians.

The Mountains are Calling and I must go.  I have Cabin Fever like crazy right now, If it wasn’t so snowy, I think I would be up there tomorrow.  What is really going to be interesting is what kind of posts I end up with from spending time in the mountains with only my digital recorder…

Later!