Late last week I spent a couple of days on Lake Erie with my friend, Hawg Head. We had our annual deep water bladebait contest. We had a ball catching smallies and playing around. It wasn’t as good as most years, however. The hurricane muddied the water and messed up our fishing.
I’m not complaining, though. Given what the people of New Jersey and New York are going through a few less fish means nothing, and I do mean nothing. At least we had our homes and our worldly possessions. I can’t imagine what it must be like for some of them up there. The before and after pictures will break your heart.
About 16 hours after I left there I was on Toho in Florida catching them in warm sunshine on a Tiny Torpedo. That’s something I want to say thanks for — not for the fishing but for living in a country where that kind of lifestyle and experience is possible. The fishing is almost secondary. You can do that with almost any sport, business, profession or hobby you can think of. What a country! There’s something here for everybody.
I know we’re having some problems right now. I hear about it all the time, and as a small businessman I have my opinions and my complaints. But this is a wonderful country that offers things that other people in other countries can’t even imagine. I’m thankful for that and I hope you are too.
Tracey came down here with me this time. Right now she’s over helping her mother get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. That’s a big deal with them, you know. They take pride in doing it right. I take pride in eating too much of it. After Thanksgiving they’ll be putting together a retirement shindig for her mother. That’ll end up about the same — they’ll fix everything with pride and I’ll eat too much of it with equal pride.
Once that’s completed we’ll move to another lake for a couple of weeks before heading back to Ohio and the workaday life that most of us know far too much about. I hope to get most everything ready for next year before I go back and then return after the first of the year to bear down on Toho, site of the first Southern Open.
To tell the truth it’s time for me to get off to a good start. A quality finish on Toho would do me wonders, not only for the points but for my mental confidence going into the 2013 Elite Series events. I need to get that straightened out.
I want to finish with another thought about being thankful: Almost all of us could have it a lot worse than what we do. We need to keep that in mind no matter what difficulties we might be facing. They’d certainly be worse in some other country or in some other form of government. We should say thanks more often than just on Thanksgiving in November. Once isn’t often enough.