Florida – Catharsis of the Bogue

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

It’s Tom Lehrer’s Birthday (nerdist.com)

LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 01: U.S. Transportation Security Administration supervisor Nick Fox (R) and another TSA employee demonstrate an advanced image technology (AIT) millimeter wave scanner using new Automated Target Recognition software being tested by the TSA at McCarran International Airport February 1, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new software detects potential threat items and displays them on the outline of a generic body displayed on a monitor attached to the unit instead of using passenger-specific images. TSA officers will no longer need to use a remotely located room to view the images, which will make the process more efficient according to a TSA spokesman. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Last year there was much speculation and fear associated with the TSA and flying in general. It hasn’t eased up. If you haven’t read already, we are headed to Florida in 3 weeks for my daughters Make A Wish trip. We have known this for a while now, and, of course, getting to Florida from Utah means flying.

With that I know that the TSA is imminent. I began to research the new security procedures and things we would have to do. It didn’t encourage me. I started figuring that I may as well make the best of this and get through security with as little hassle as possible. Now, with the trip so close, I have a plan for dealing with security.

I did not have a plan for my nightmares about dealing with the TSA and spending the whole Make A Wish trip in a jail cell. The jail cell came after handing the tickets to my wife and saying, “Have a nice trip” as I launched myself at the TSA Agent who went above and beyond his duty in the pat down search of my 11 year old daughter.

His wandering hands earned him a broken nose and disfigured face. I may not be a finesse boxer but I have spent considerable amounts of time on the heavy bag just hitting hard. It was no different in this dream. The first punch caught his nose, the second his jaw. By the time he fell and I jumped on top of him, there were 3 other agents there pulling me off. I woke up after that so I don’t really know if I made it to Florida or not.

I hope that was not a prophetic dream. I am still trying to take a deep breath and make the best of the TSA thing, but I have 4 kids to get through security. Even writing this post may doom all of us to full body scans and pat downs but I have nothing to hide so it should be ok.

Image from the backscatter advanced imaging technology (AIT) machine used by the TSA to screen passengers. This is what the remote TSA agent would see on their screen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Any horror stories from you all about the TSA, or better yet, good stories that will take me away from all fo the bad that happens to show up every day. Let me know in the comments.