Gone Fishin'

Grandson has a thing about wanting to order "stuff" when it is advertised on TV. Mighty Putty, Shark floor cleaners, collapsible fishing poles. I decided after a very grueling evening last night, that the poles needed a christening. So we took off around noon for a pier over the line in 'Bama - it was a cloudy, but balmy day, a delicious Southern fall day.

We first went to Walmart and gathered a few supplies and a fishing tackle box. All my fishing equipment from Wyoming was lost in our many moves here in Florida. And, trout fishing in the mountains is totally different than fishing in the bayous and the Gulf of Mexico.

So, not being sure of how to accomplish our goal - catching an edible fish - or how to fix the line or what to use for bait, we did it anyway. I did find a man shopping in the aisle of Walmart who was a great help. (I'm getting to old when I am now visiting with people in the aisles of a super store.) Anyway, I'm finding that fishermen are cool people. When we arrived at the pier, the man next to us was so kind in tying our hook on and even giving us some bait as he said the fish would not be taking our rubber creatures even if they did have shrimp and shrimp oil in them. Sigh.

We didn't catch a thing but it was a tremendously healing time being there on the water and meeting gentle, giving souls today after an encounter with one from hell last night. The boy was trying to talk me into asking both men along, one on our trip, and the other to lunch. Well, I found it really hard to explain to an eleven year old that I didn't want to appear to be a granny out hustling up men for impromptu dates nor did I believe in hooking up with strangers. He just didn't understand and thinks I have a trust issue. I do. It scares me to see how trusting he is.

I think that if I ever did want to go on a man search and pick-up mission however, that taking a boy with a pole would be a much better ploy than the traditional meet-up dog! At any rate, I have an incredibly social grandson. Come to find out, the man helping us at the pier worked out in Wyoming in the oil fields during the last boom and we talked about the oil patches and good ol' Wyoming and fishing, it was kind of fun. It was nice talking to someone who smiles.

Great schools of jellyfish with their transparent bodies and pink circles and fluffy insides floated gracefully by, looking like constellations in a moving universe. I loved it - but was glad I wasn't IN the water.

A man down the pier a bit caught a fish that looked like a dragon from a sci fi movie - it was an "Orange Flying Fish" and was quite poisonous to even touch they said. They just had to keep it because it was such an oddity. We didn't get a thing we could eat. I would love to plan a trip out in the Gulf during red fish season. Yum! And Fun!

So the boy is here for the weekend it seems - who would blame him, I bring him food and spoil him rotten, but he's so good always it doesn't seem like spoiling. Yah,yah,yah.