Nice Beginning To a Fall Camping Trip

Nice Beginning To a Fall Camping Trip, originally uploaded by use2blost.

     I left the battery to the Nikon in the charger. I also did not bring a fishing pole. I ended up buying a rod and reel combo from a Ma and Pa store. Said combo came with what looked like 20lb line. There was no notation on the packaging. Attaching a tiny rooster tail to the ah, rope, I proceeded to catch trout. It was wonderful, one of those times when the fish are biting so well, you begin to think it's YOU. You are a badass. An expert. You can sling a 1/24th oz rooster tail on the end of a freakin' hawser, and catch fish anyway.
     Fishing with this rig is kinda like circumcising with a broadsword. Not just anybody can do it. So I shot this with the little point and shoot, and really like it. The fall colors do it for me, but I'm not gay. The textures of the various lichens and algae on the water-rounded stones, and the scattered autumn leaves tickle my manly fancy. The earth tones, they call out to the  heterosexual outdoorsman within. Too bad I had to shoot it with the low-res fujifilm. I wanted to get it uploaded so I can send the link to some folks I want to make jealous, but that's it. I need to stay off this computer for a couple days.
     Trout fishing is a treat for me. There are no trout where I live, though bream are perhaps a reasonable equivalent, sport-wise. I think it may be the environment. Trout are an oily fish, having oils throughout their body, unlike a whiter fish. Trout are rich in the omega-goodstuff that helps the ticker. These fish generally prefer cooler water, and The local waters around here are like soup much of the year. Usually when I go to North Georgia, it is to hike. As I was leaving this time, Jack my oldest screamed a howling protest. Jack knows what a backpack is for, and my ear and guilty conscience picked up a note of anguished abandonment in Jack's plaintive wail. It occurred to me that I could backpack less, and camp more, until Jack dies. I really don't think it will be long.
     So I changed plans, upgraded a couple items, and threw a second dog in the car, but I forgot my fly rod...and my battery for the Nikon.

I have made it through

The first week of school, A little behind on my reading, but I feel, prepared for my first test monday. I have have some feelings of trepidation, over finance, and time management, the pressure of juggling a couple of days a week of work, my studies, the obligations of my guardianship over my invalid aunt, and relationships: romance with Debbie, building bridges with my family, and establishing/maintaining intimacy with members of my small group, and church community. I  believe relationships are the most important thing, and that we most closely resemble the image of the Living God when we interact in loving community, and that our power to do good is multiplied exponentially when we cooperate, The whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The question is, how to do the next right thing? Is it a question of seasons, and should some things simply be sacrificed, or curtailed for the next four years? These are hard decisions. And what of my love of photography, and my need to escape to the mountains, to recharge, and reach the quiet, lonely places to better hear the voice of my Father in Heaven?

Tired

Larger

Haven’t posted in a while…I browse through some peoples blogs and the craftsmanship humbles me…some of these people are so prolific, they are obviously putting things into words at a much faster rate than I can under the best of circumstances. My incompetent keyboarding combines with a pathetic attention span, requiring too much time to articulate my thoughts with any regularity and still get my chores done. The inevitable storms of everyday life take their toll as well. Lately, my disintegrating marriage and the upcoming divorce, along with all it entails has occupied most of my attention.
I am forced to redefine my faith and reconcile the consequences of relational failure, with a loving God who nevertheless has standards of acceptable behavior. I begin to wonder at the propriety of some of the things I can see me posting in the future. This Blog is fairly anonymous, only one or two friends have ever intentionally browsed through it, but with a little deduction, it could probably be traced to my Public Identity.
The cathartic release I seek when I put pain of this magnitude into words, requires complete freedom, and the knowledge of who I am, however unlikely it is stumbled across, could compromise the privacy of people that I still care about. School begins the 28th of May, and the drastic change in lifestyle was something I reasonably expected to be quite challenging in it’s own right. The prospect of having to acquire a familiarity with a large amount of data spread across several disciplines while simultaneously working through the grief of shattered hopes to complete life with my first wife is paralyzing. I have heard many stories of God’s grace restoring impossible relationships, but realistically, it seems this involves two willing souls, and Divine Providence seldom overrides freewill, especially in the realm of personal relationship.