The Benefits of Fishing

Finely finished reading Chicken Soup for the Fisherman’s Soul. It is a collection of about 90 short stories about fishing, most being 2 pages long. There are stories from two of our greatest Americans, presidents George and Jimmy. One thinks fishing about seeing how fast your 30 foot boat can go and the other lost all his fish when his belt loop broke. There’s even a quote by Lady Bird Johnson and a story from our favorite writer P.F. McManus. Too say the least the book is about the joys and benefits and relaxation that fishing can bring.
So to quote Izaak Walton ” I have laid aside business, and gone fishing.”
Has anybody seen my license?

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Great time travel and the best mystery novel I think I ever read. If you mess up history can you go back and fix it? What if another conundrum shows up on every other page? This book is full of twists and turns and where part of the answer occurred to me late in the book you never know until the end. Connie Willis is the master of chaos. I was not even sure what the mystery was as it too seems to change as the book goes on, is it the missing bishop’s bird stump, did saving a cat change history, did returning it to the past make it worse? How can a cat in 1888 allow Hitler to conquer England and is it wise to send someone back to fix it that has time lag so bad he doesn’t  know where he at?

Three Men in a Time Machine, To Say Nothing of the Dog

I Read Another Book

I’ve been reading two books at one time, never a good idea. I just finished “Yes Please” by Amy Poehler and dutifully put my pants on and took it back to the library that instant because it was due back in two days. I is suppose to be a memoir and it is. I thought it would be funny but other than a one liner or two it wasn’t. The last 50 pages were enlightening and well worth the read as they tell about her ideas on drugs, her trip to Haiti and how her cell phone is out to get her. I read the last two hundred pages in two days because the book was getting close to due and it left me feeling like I was smacked in the face, might be time for bigger glasses. I’m going back to one page a day, no need to rush.

The other book I’ve been reading has had two hundred and fifty calamities in two hundred and fifty five pages, it never stops. I still have two hundred and fifty pages to go and I’m not sure I can take it. I may have to have someone finish it for me and not tell me how it ended. Time travel can be tricky.

What did I Just Eat

I finely finished another book. “If You Didn’t Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?” by Bill Heavey. He is an editor at large for Field and Stream and appears in The Washington Post, Outside, Men’s Journal and other publications. He is billed as the funnest writer since Patrick McManus but he isn’t. He is amusing sometimes thou. If I can find his other two books at the library I will read them too. His story’s are about hunting and fish around Washington DC, with lots of trips out west to hunt caribou,elk,deer and cougar’s. He goes fishing for taimen in Mongolia and claims to use prairie dog for bait, they’re really big fish. Bass fishing in Cuba is enlightening and I’m surprised he made it home from caribou hunting above the arctic circle. The one thing that’s constant is that no matter how prepared or knowledgeable he is he’s no good at any of these things. He does have enough success to keep trying thou. In one story he and a buddy go fishing in the Potomac River next to Fort Lesley McNair witch is a secure facility. They end up with surveillance cameras, armed guards and a 84 foot Coast Guard Cutter watching the fish from a canoe. Like I say the book is amusing.

I think I read another book but I can’t remember it atoll or what I did with it. If anyone finds it let me know. ” A Confederation of Valor” by Tanya Huff and ” To Say Nothing of the Dog” by Connie Willis are next on my list and should keep me busy till Christmas. I also have a dozen books I started and never finished so we’ll see what happens.

Hatteras Blues

At length did cross an Albatross,
Through the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.

Hatteras Blues; A Story From the Edge of America by Tom Carlson.
I had a long post written but at some point I realized I was just rambling. I’ll just say it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s replaced “The Old Man and the Sea” and it’s not really about fishing but there is a little fishing in it. It’s a memoir about a family, a village and the author drawn there. Well worth the read.

“If you watch the way a big king mackerel hits a live bait near your boat, it’ll probably change the way you look at life,” Ernie said with a wry smile”…

“… the sailfish came out of the water, close in. It shimmied on it’s tail for longer than physics seemed to allow, and it lit up an electric neon blue, dark blue with lighter stripes.”

Circles in the Snow

I took a break from reading “Hatteras Blues” to read “Circles in the Snow, A Bo Tully Mystery”. It’s another light fluffy mystery by Patrick McManus and a delightful read with a surprising ending. Or I should say an unusual ending, ether way he dies it as allways, the blight way. I can highly recommend all of them and would read “The Blight Way” first and this one last, or just read them in order. https://www.goodreads.com/series/45354-sheriff-bo-tully

Last Book

I finished “The Duck Commander Family” and it was enjoyable. Of the 4 books Si’s was the best and this one was right behind it. In some ways it was better. This book, “Happy Happy Happy”, and “Good Call” pretty much tell the same story but this one was the easiest to read. You can tell Phil has the master’s degree because he is the wordiest. He doesn’t talk much in real life but when he writes he tells the story the long way. This book was written by Willie and Korie and it is interesting as they tell the story from their different perspectives.
There are also recipes at the end of each chapter so you’ll be able to cook catfish, rice and beans, garlic frog legs and squirrels the correct way. They even tell you how to make duck gumbo and duck wraps.
Now I need to find something else to read. I requested the library to buy a new book this morning because they’ve run out of books. I guess I’ll have to go back to National Geographic’s for awhile, lots of pictures to look at there.

Good Call ?

Just finished “Good Call” by Jase Robertson, the third book in the Duck Dynasty series. It was okay except he finished every chapter with a sermon. Not much else to say, I’m going to read the next one if I can find it, no since leaving anyone out.

I went to see the surgeon about my umbilical hernia I decided to grow a few month ago. He said it would be better to fix it while it was small than when it’s bigger but at the same time they don’t recommend fixing it as I’m a high risk patient. I didn’t feel like operating today anyway.

I saw a good luck turtle in the yard this morning, I went back to take her picture a little while later but she was no where to be found. I didn’t think turtles could move that fast, that’s how I know she was lucky.

Movie review. Take Me Home.

Take Me Home http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1261954/ is a good movie which I highly recommend. The end will make you smile or cry, I’m not sure which, I’m really not sure how it ended. I’m hoping Pat will watch it and tell me as I never know what’s going on.
I found it on Netflix by the way, they have thousands of movies but never the ones I’m looking for. I was hoping to find “Summer Rental”
but they didn’t have it.

Happy, Happy, Happy

I just finished the Duck Commander book; almost. It is about growing up poor in the 40’s and 50’s where they grew most of their food and had to hunt and fish for the rest of their food. Their log cabin didn’t have a bathroom but they did had a pipe that brought water into the house and they had tapped onto an old gas well which had barely enough pressure to run the stove. They had to put coals from the fireplace under the water pipe in the winter time to unfreeze it in the mornings. Basically they grew up like they were living in the 1850’s.  Their were 4 boys and a girl and the boys all got into collage on athletic scholarships. Phil got married as soon as he started collage and while Kay was still in high school. He managed to get a bachelors degree in physical education and a masters in education and started teaching high school English. From there he spiraled down with alcohol an drugs and ended up managing a honky-tonk in Arkansas which he claims was one of the only places that allowed blacks and whites in a the same time. They each had their own side with a wall in between and their own music. He says it was before desegregation but near as I can figure it would have been 1973. He hit rock bottom when he was 28 and that’s when he turned to God and worked his way back up. He went back to teaching then quit to become a commercial fisherman and later to start making duck calls. It was an interesting journey and some how he built a large business. The next to last chapter he talks about his preaching and baptizing thousands of people. Three of his sons are ordained preachers but you wouldn’t guess it from watching Duck Dynasty. The show is nothing like real life but it’s fun to watch. IN the last chapter he talks about his politics which are Jeffersonian and farther out there than the tea party, I couldn’t finish the chapter. He seems to think healthcare money is only used for abortions. It is a good book and worth the read but it’s too descriptive and he goes into too much detail sometimes, I liked Si’s book better.
The book I asked the library to buy came in yesterday so I’m reading “Never Have I Ever” by Katei Heaney next, I hope it’s silly.