What could be better?  This week was devoted to fishing, friends, and family. 

We attended out last church service of the year at First United Methodist Church, Mountain Home, on Sunday as our next two Sundays will be devoted to grandkids, and of course, their parents.  We rarely miss church, but…

Ed, John, and I fished Monday morning on the White River, and John served as boatman for the day.  After waiting in queue at the Norfork launching ramp (vehicles for both Rose’s Trout Dock and Norfork River Resort pulled in front of us), John motored us upstream to the riffle on the left descending bank at the tip of the island. I hook and landed a fish immediately on the Davy’s Fly.  I caught a few more fish on this first drift, almost all the way downstream to the confluence, while Ed picked up fewer fish.  The second drift produced a few fish for both of us.  Ed switched flies, and caught a half dozen or more fish in a row before I finally landed one.  The next couple of drifts produced fewer and fewer fish.  John motored us the bubble line on the right descending side, and two drifts produced no fish.  He motored us downstream below the confluence to the first riffle, but again, no fish.  A sediment plume from Arkansas Game and Fish Commission work on the Norfork River existed in the best line downstream of the riffle, and rather than motor further downstream, we called it a day.  Most of the fish were slightly larger than those caught last week on the White River.  Kay had an interesting day, having a filling replaced and suffering through a Norfork Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to deliberate allowing house trailers to be set up anywhere in Norfork where subdivision restrictions do not prohibit them.  She said the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting was more painful!  The “againers” are outnumbered by the GOB (good ole boys) who believe a person can do anything they want with their property without regard to impacts to others.  Of course, we know about subdivision restrictions, and most aren’t worth the paper they are written on based on recent decisions affecting us by both the US Federal Court and the US Federal Court of Appeals.  So, we may have a house trailer next door.  What’s our world coming to? 

Tuesday was oil change day for the Expedition.  It began raining shortly after I left the house at 7:30 AM, and rained most of the day.  The inclement weather provided a good opportunity to tidy up the workshop area, and identify more STUFF to be given away, including the remainder of our incandescent lightbulbs which John will use as a heat source for specific areas in winter.  We had a great visit with Ed, Linda, John, and Sandy Tuesday evening, and Sandy prepared a sumptuous chicken dinner; both she and John are excellent cooks/chefs.

Wednesday morning found Ed, John, and I fishing again, but this time we launched at Sneed’s Creek and I served as the boatman.  We started our drift near the first upstream house on the left descending bank.  Ed was into fish immediately, fishing #14 Davy’s Fly and a #20 Red/Silver Zebra Midge.  He continued to catch fish, mostly on Davy’s Fly.  John took several fish as well, but today belonged to Ed who seemed to be in a zone.  Several fish took something on the surface near the shoreline on the left descending side of the river.  Water levels rose most of the morning, and there was lots of debris, slime, and moss in the water.  The wind changed directions several times, making it difficult to provide a good drift for Ed and John.  We all had a great time, as we always do when fishing together.

It was a routine day Thursday, with more pilfering , sorting, and pseudo organization in the workshop.  Kay and I went through the last of our music collection on cassette tapes and CDs, finding a song we “howled” together when I first started singing; I was not good!  She was such a trooper to stand there and try to harmonize.  And, we also found the audio portion of entire wedding ceremony.  We transferred both to digital media, and will make a backup for posterity.  We have given our entire music collection to Wayne who also enjoys the same genres as we do.   Over the course of the last few years, most of the cassette tapes were transferred to digital format, and both those and the CDs were loaded into the computer.  Consequently, we have made substantial progress in cleaning out the shop and storeroom in the basement.

We were off to Maumelle, AR, Friday morning to spend the weekend with Ridge while his parents visited Fayetteville for the Auburn vs. Arkansas football game—he’s such a cute kid, and I’m not even biased!  We took over his care mid-afternoon, and played the rest of the day, including a couple of hours at the nearby playground.  At the house, he drug every toy out of his toy storage areas, and we played with them all, until bath time and bedtime.  We all went to bed early.  

About 2:30 AM he awoke, but went back to sleep for an hour or so and and after some time, Kay brought him to bed with us, thinking he would sleep the rest of the night—no way.  So we all got up REALLY EARLY, and continued playing where we left off the evening before.  After breakfast, we all loaded up in the car and drove to Sam’s Club, and he fell asleep on the way.  I was going to stay in the car with him while Kay shopped, but he awoke just as we pulled into the parking place.  We all went in, and because shopping was limited to corporate members at that early hour, it was eerily quiet—until Ridge arrived!  The store has used balloons for display throughout the store, and several had broken loose and drifted to the ceiling.  Ridge spotted every single one, and chattered loudly about them.  He can get very animated in his talking, and we even understand an occasional word or two.  We definitely broke the silence at Sam’s Club that morning.  From there, we drove to Bedford Camera in North Little Rock to investigate their trade-in policies for two cameras and lenses bought there.  I had to wait about 30 minutes for someone to assist me, and then only to find they would give us pennies on the dollar for photographic equipment, and that was after they hum hawed around and about for several minutes.  So much for customer appreciation and loyalty, and people wonder played why we shop on the internet!  While I was in Bedford, Kay played with Ridge around the pavilion and pool, and we exchanged places after I finished while she shopped.  Ridge explored every crack and crevice in the pool, but did not get wet.  Back at the house, he napped for a couple of hours, and then we were off to the playgrounds for the slides.  He enjoys climbing and sliding and could spend hours there.  It was baseball Saturday, and the park was crowded with rambunctious kids either playing ball, or having siblings playing ball, and some were quite rude.  Kay and I took turns playing nice playground police.  Ron and Cheryl dropped by for a visit, and we enjoyed spending time with them.  All of the kids lead very busy lives, and we feel blessed to get to see them as often as we do.  After they left, we had some play time, and early bedtime.