Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: spring

Oh the woes of winter.

Hello all.  Well here we are mid February.  Winter is waning here in Utah, with temperatures are climbing into the 50’s and all of the snow almost gone.  Here is where I have issues with winter.

Dogs in Grange Park, Toronto, Canada.

Dogs in Grange Park, Toronto, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, I don’t mind the cold, or the snow, what I mind is the pending spring, and all of the mud and gunk that goes with it.  Continue reading

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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Groundhog was wrong, It’s time for Yardwork!

Take 2.  Hopefully wordpress wont crash out on me this time.

Ok so it is not exactly time for yardwork but if it isn’t going to snow then it is time to start planning for summer!  Sorry East Coast, we have had tons on high pressure over Northern Utah this winter.  A couple of good storms early but bupkis since before Christmas.

So now it is time for us(the Mrs. that is) to start planning all of the projects I get to do over the summer.  Ok I put many of them on myself.  It was strange this morning to be outside at 24 degrees taking pictures of the yard to plan what need to be torn out or built up.

Thinking of planting a garden when there is still frost on the windshield is a bit odd as well.  I have learned in the past that if we wait to plan and prepare, there is not enough time for things to grow before the season is over.

So I sit here and while not checking my email, twitter or my page vies on here, I have been looking up growing charts, planting guides, deck building tutorials, stone column building, and mailbox building so I can have something to do over the summer. I have been researching how to make the dog quit peeing on the kids slide and I gotta say if the pee stake doesn’t work, I am going to electrify the slide.

I still have much work to do that is left over from last fall.  I was sick for the week before it snowed and is just now getting off of my lawn.  There are many leaves that are still there as well as my roses that still have leaves on them.  I was lucky that there were some strong winds that blew leaves around the bottom of the roses to keep them from freezing.  I didn’t even get the rest of the detritus out of the garden.  It is almost pathetic.

I am glad that spring is on the way though. I actually like to do yardwork.  Now I have to go draw on the pictures I took this morning and figure out how to make those drawings into reality.  I can’t wait!

If anyone wants to come over and clean up dog manure or haul dirt give me a buzz.

Until tomorrow.

Justin