My Wikipedia submission, gone bad!!!

Some of you have heard of me speaking ill of my enemy, the Snagasaurus*. I continue to speak ill of said pain in the ass and developed "Stage II" in my war against it.  "Stage I" was me bitching about it to anyone who would listen when I talked or wrote about it while sharing a fishing story. 

"Stage II" is launching a Public Awareness Campaign to educate and inform the public so that they know what and who this evil doer is through the use of our greatest on-line reference of the 21st century, Wikipedia.  I would like to give a special thanks to my Editorial Staff and Public Relations Consultant for this campaign, Mrs. Critter, who assisted with all the English mumbo jumbo formatting.

THE PROBLEM:  You will not be able to see it on Wikipedia as our submission was deleted within minutes of posting it.  The reason given was that "the information was unverifiable...and...can not use...for personal inventions."  I call Bullsh@#!!  I know many who have met this evil doer who have had terrible personal encounters.  Now that we know that the evil Snagasaurus has an insider at Wikipedia on it's payroll, I will have to find other means to disseminate information to the masses.  And for the record, Mrs. Critter is very upset with the henchman at Wikipedia after all her effort to figure out diphthongs (whatever those are) that she had included in the submission.



Mark my wordsssss Snagasaurus...bewarrrrre.

* the truncated and much less embellished definition from what Jen and I had before we were deleted: Snagasaurus is the entity below a water surface that causes one who is fishing to get hung-up on or even lose their fly or fishing lure. Usually there is no indication of its presence as it resides outside the victims (i.e. fisherman) field of vision. Frequent snagasaurus encounters can result in frustrating outdoors experiences as well as increasing the expenses incurred during and following the fishing endeavors.

All packed up and unable to go.

So my fly tying/fishing club had scheduled a weekend outing to camp and fish in SE MN.  I had been looking forward to this the past two weeks.  Campfires, trout, friends, fall, nice weather forecast...you get my drift. 
Wednesday, I had most of the stuff put together and piled up in the living room, since I had to go to the club meeting Thursday night and had planned to take off right after work Friday.  It was week of mounting stress as another person quit and the department was short staffed to begin with.  I also had several things to take care of myself to complete my transition from a temporary contractor to a permanent employee (which is a good stress, but still stress).  Plans were going well, with a surprise appointment that had at the end of the day for a pre-employment exam for my new job. 

I got home on time according to "my plan" and commenced loading the Tahoe with our tent, cookware, fishing gear, chairs, table, stove, clothes, etc. etc.   Jen came home as I grabbed the final thing to put in the Tahoe, which was a sleeping bag.  As I went to toss it, I felt a shock to my lower back and my eyes instantly went wide open as I felt the pain!  My damn back went out.

I sat down with a pack of ice and had to make a decision.  Should I stay or should I go.  Is this a quick warning shot or is this going to hurt all weekend.  Jen pointed out some logic that my narrow focused fly fishing mind wasn't thinking about.  So a decision was made that I take care of my back for the night with an ice, take some lame weak ibuprofen, and lay down in bed to see how things go. I called Ben, who I was supposed to rendezvous with in the south part of the cities and reported the bad news.

Saturday morning came uncomfortably, and I surf the net till I found a chiropractor that was open on Saturdays.  I found one who was open for two hours.  After the typical initial paperwork was out of the way, he did an adjustment, and I went home to put an ice pack on again.  At first, I wasn't sure that he helped it or made it worse.  The muscles were more tense then they normally are when this happens to me.  I wasted the day in and out of bed. We did leave the house for a little bit just to get out and went for a "real burger" over at Moe's Grill, but I needed to get back as sitting straight wasn't giving me much comfort.

I was kind of cranky, in part due to the pain of my back, but more so I think because I missed out on a weekend camping with friends and Jen and fly fishing for trout as the season closes soon.  If there is a sliver lining here, I guess it is that I started reading a book that I just bought by Jack Hemmingway called A Life Worth Living.  At least I could read a little bit about fishing if I couldn't actually be out there doing it.  Jen just unloaded the truck since I won't need half that stuff for my adventure next weekend where I am going to northern Wisconsin for a guided Muskie fly fishing trip that my buddy and I booked last year. 

Hopefully next weekend will go more as planned then this one did.

Fall to Winer transition

This is that time of year that I feel stalled out. Trout season is done, the bass boat has been put away, there is no ice on the lakes for ice fishing, and the unpredictable weather conditions for grouse hunting. Not really cold enough for a stocking cap, but not warm enough for just a baseball hat either. Totally a frustrating time of year for me. Grrrrr.

So this weekend was spent moving things from the house and yard to the shed, replacing the dryer vent tube, placing ice scrapers and sleeping bags in the vehicles, covering the A/C unit up, shopping for a BBQ grill cover (still searching for one), looking for my winter clothes, and miscellaneous other to do's around the house since it has been abandoned so many weekends over the past two months.

Also I spent time at the fly shop getting a few supplies for some flies I want to tie and spent some hours looking up 'stuff' on catching big Blue gills and Pumpkinseeds, and potential places to cross country ski. My wife and I thought about trying it out last year, but there was little snow and very cold. We are hoping to try it out this year, the outlook is promising according the Farmers Almanac predictions.

So for now I wait, and wait, and wait some more. I will soon be ready to sit for hours in my fly tying room thinking about the next season of fishing, refilling my depleted fly boxes with some proven patterns and also with some late-night-inspired experimental patterns. I am sure there will be an evening or two 'organizing' the room, and maybe a night or two of catching up on the poor neglected unread fly fishing magazines that I have fallen behind on. All these things to do to pass the time of winter until I can rig up a fly rod again and slip back into my waders. I can all ready hear the spring sounds of my favorite trout river that I haven't been on since September.

I think this might be a winter I try to go ice fishing for Lake Trout, as I have only fished for them once before on a beautiful day after a foot and a half of show fell the day before in the U.P. with some friends from the area. It would be a nice change to go for something that I haven't caught a thousand times before just to mix it up and amplify the excitement of the great Midwest northern winter tradition.

I do have some fish pron to watch either tonight or tomorrow that I borrowed. I am excited about that. The first one is called "The Best of the Bear, Steelhead with Jeff 'Bear' Andrews" I had the opportunity last year at the Greatwaters Fly Fishing Expo to talk with him and watch him when he tied at the Fly Tying Theater that our club was in charge of. A very nice guy and knowledgeable about steelhead flies and steelhead fishing. The other two DVD's I borrowed are "Trout Bum Diaries" and "Drift." They should hold me over or cause me to book a trip and leave town next week. I'll let you know either way.