Clicking along in old age
June 18th, 2005 by Administrator
Clicking along in old age - I don’t think you get smarter as you get older, but more along the line that having done so many foolish things when younger, the foolhardiness of later impulses “clicks” in your mind before you attempt them rather than after.
Take being outside in the rain, for example. It’s a proven fact that fishing or hunting just before and after a rain produces good results. But during the storm itself with the lightning crackling around, rain falling like it was poured out of a bucket and the wind whipping everything around, wild creatures don’t stay alive by being foolish. During the storm, fish, waterfowl, birds, rabbits all are stuck so far down in heavy cover they can hardly breathe.
There’s a difference in being caught out in a rain and going out into one. Being caught in a rain means you should have been prepared and make the most of it. Going out into one starts to bring back memories.
When I was 12 and at a fishing camp, all the grown men were in the caf/ playing cards and drinking coffee while I was out front dressed in a slicker, rubber boots and hat catching carp just as fast as I could reel them in. The day wasn’t a storm with wind or lightning just a light drizzle all day long.
Then there was the time I took a friend duck hunting at Texas Lake with lightning off towards Greensburg. It’s really hard to judge a storm when it’s still dark, and this one caught us on a mound in the middle of a green wheat field so we hunkered down trying to make ourselves as small as possible. During one flash, I saw Buzz curled up with the shotgun cradled between his arms and legs. The next lightning strike must have come closer to him than me, or he realized he was holding a lightning rod, because that gun went flying then sliding down the hill in the mud. Took me five or six cleanings before that gun could be used again.
When it started raining Sunday, I thought back to those fishing and hunting trips. I’ve caught my share of carp, cleaned more muddy equipment than a guy ever should in dry Kansas. So I don’t have to prove anything. Watching the rain water run down the street with the thought of staying dry, drinking coffee with a good book and not having to clean your equipment kind of “clicked.”
Monday morning I found out my wife was right. “See it didn’t kill you to not go fishing one weekend,” she said.
By Dry Creek