Fishing for fun and necessity.

So yesterday we were out and about in Walden Woods, circling the overfilled Walden Pond looking for a suitable place to wet some lines. Walden is a kettle pond in Concord, MA…made famous by some guy named “Thoreau”. In any case, we had some heavy rains back in the spring, and the pond is filled anywhere from 3-5 feet above normal levels. Since it is a kettle pond, the only outflow is by evaporation, so it might take a while to get back to a more normal level.

We tried a couple of spots, and wound up on the far side by Thoreau’s cabin, before finally finding a section of walkway with no obstructing trees, right by a dropoff to deeper water. Walden is stocked with trout, but they were out in the deeper, cool waters. I did see a big fish looking at the bait, but he was never interested. In the end, we wound up catching one moderate sized Pumpknseed, and then a fairly big Bluegill.

This was Javi’s first time fishing in clean water where we could actually keep the fish, so he was quite fascinated by the poor things flapping around in the cooler. I had hoped to catch enough for Sunday dinner, but it was not to be, so we finally made the long walk home.

Now came the fun part. Once we got home, I dumped the fish in the sink, and ran some tap water over them. Imagine my surprise when one of them gasped and started twitching weakly around the bottom of my sink. I worked on the obviously dead one, but my attempt to filet it yielded not much meat. Moving to the bigger fish, I lopped off its head and gutted it, intending to fry the body whole.

Now, I’m not squeamish about food; Intellectually, I know where it comes from, and a long time ago I used to be a far more active fisherman. In fact, before I was married, I used to be an unpaid deckhand on a private boat…my only payment was a day on the water in the sun, and whatever fish I could catch.

But yesterday was the first time in a long, long time that I caught a fellow-creature, killed it with my own hands, and ate its flesh. It actually gave me pause. Surely I’ll not become a vegan; I like meat too much. But I guess like any American, I like my meat to come in neat Styrofoam packages at the supermarket.

I won’t be quitting fishing anytime soon…in fact, I’m searching for more bodies of water nearby where we can actually eat what we catch. The way things are going, foraging for food may become an economic necessity.

Obama isn't really working out for me.

In 2008, I had had more than enough of George Bush. I blogged hard, talked to anyone that would listen, and phone banked for the Democratic candidate down the stretch. I really and truly feared what might happen to the United States if we had four more years of Republican Policy under a President McCain.

January, 2009 found me on the National Mall with about 2 million others, cheering in relief and celebrating what we hoped would be the voice of reason in the White House. Hope..and change…was in the air.

Not quite 30 days later, I lost my job.

So here we are, over a year later. I’m still not permanently employed, we just lost our insurance, and most egregious of all, my car is probably destroyed by a broken fan belt that messed up the timing and likely ruined the engine.

Under the Bush Regime…I bought a new car. I had a steady job with a good company and an easy commute. We had the best insurance available in the state in Blue Cross. We could afford to travel a couple of times a year. Hell, we even went to Disney World. And we did this on only one job. Yep, I was the ‘breadwinner’, and Mrs. TriSec was a stay at home Mom.

Now, I’m working two jobs just to stay ahead of the bills. Mrs. TriSec also has a small job at the school, but that’s gone away for the summer and she’s not sure she’ll be back in the fall. We have no savings. COBRA has just run out, so we have no insurance…and the other day on the way between jobs, my car died.

I hate to say it, but I was doing better under the Republicans.

Does this change my worldview? Maybe a little. Let me be clear; I will never agree with a Republican on social issues. Ever. Understood?

But as far as the economy and all those other things go…is it possible the Republicans are right? I don’t know about the 10,000-foot-view, and what it means for society, the nation, the world. But I look around my little world and I see that things are worse instead of better. In fact, they are far worse than things were on January 19, 2009.

Did I make the wrong choice?

What the President should have said.

MY Fellow Americans:

I’ve fucking had enough, haven’t you? British Petroleum has acted with malice, incompetence, and arrogance since the day their rig caught fire and sank below the waves of the Gulf.

We have been more than patient and fair. Patience and fairness that has resulted in continued misdirection, lies, and incompetence from every level of BP from their CEO all the way to the lowliest worker on the rig.

This is a national emergency, perhaps even more severe than any we have faced before, since so many Americans and so much of our shores are under a direct threat of destruction.

Therefore, starting from today, I am changing the nature of this crisis. It is no longer an environmental crisis; I am considering this an act of war. I have ordered our ambassador home from London for consultations, and I declare that the “special relationship” long held between the US and England is now over. I have ordered an immediate seizure of all of BP’s assets in the United States.

These assets, and any income derived from the sale of these assets will be distributed directly to those affected by the oil spill first, then any balance remaining will go directly to the cleanup efforts.

I am also ordering the United States Navy to seize all the British Petroleum oil platforms within our 200-mile economic zone. These platforms are now American Petroleum, and if the safety of any of these rigs is questionable, they will be shut down immediately.

I realize that this will have dramatic and probably negative consequences to our economy; even now I expect the price of gas to shoot up over $5/gallon.

We would do well to look at our history…from the Great Depression, to Pearl Harbor, to WWII…our forbears have faced adversity and persevered. From curing diseases, developing technology, and putting a man on the moon, we have always faced challenges to our society with genius and inspiration.

From this point forward, we will become energy-independent. I have just signed an Executive Order requiring that all oil extracted in the United States be refined and sold in the United States, no matter what country owns the oil rig. It’s our oil, and as such, it should go to Americans, and not the Chinese or the larger world market. I have ordered that any and all Wind Farm projects be immediately approved, wherever they may be. The objections of the privileged few can no longer stand in the way of progress for us all. I have asked the United States Navy to begin exploring whether we can build more submarine-style reactors across the US. As the largest operator of nuclear reactors in the world, the knowledge and expertise of our military is unparalleled, and should be put to good use for our citizens as well.

My fellow Americans….we face a dramatic challenge, for survival of our Gulf States, and for our energy independence. We tried it the old way, and the result was an unnecessary war, 4,000 dead GIs, and over a billion dollars squandered.

The challenges are many, but if we cannot band together as Americans and solve them, then I must declare that the great experiment begun by our Founding Fathers will be a failure, and our days as a global leader will be numbered.

Finally, I ask that we remember the human tragedy. Let us pause for a moment and remember the 11 Americans that were murdered as a direct result of BP negligence.

God Bless America, and the World, and let us move forward from here.

One day's commute

So, if I roadkill a dude because I have the green light, and he assumes he has the right-of-way and steps off the curb without looking, is it still my fault?

Not once, but twice on the way home last night. The one that got me though, is the guy that stopped in the crosswalk and glared at me. I yelled at him, “Hey buddy, I have the green light” “So fuckin’ what?” was his reply.

I should have hit him.

When I was a bicycle commuter, it really used to piss me off when I would stop at a light to wait, and cars coming the other way would slam on their brakes and wave me across. Nice gesture, but I usually angrily pointed at the signal and ignored them. We sure live in a strange driving city.

Of course, there’s the roads, too. On the way into Southie this morning, I encountered a wildly-weaving pickup truck on Soldier’s Field Road. Of course, he gained a whopping 4 or 5 carlengths….I was keeping pace with him all the way to Kenmore, then I finally caught up and passed him on the stretch before the tunnel. All that craziness bought you what, exactly?

Speaking of crazy….I was exiting at Arlington street, but the mainline had to slow down. Some crazy college kid was riding a Vespa as fast as it would go in the center lane…but it wasn’t fast enough as SUVs were swerving around him in an attempt not to make ground meat.

Good luck with that.

A Sports Muse

The Sox are playing Oakland as I write this….day baseball is always a good thing. Unfortunately, the Sox are trailing, and it looks like poor Tim Wakefield is going to have another one of those years where he pitches just OK, but the team doesn’t give him any run support.

But tonight is the main event….another Boston-LA NBA final. Much like baseball, I wonder if the rest of the country ever gets tired of seeing this matchup? Yankees-Red Sox is always relevant in The Hub, but how does it play in Des Moines?

In any case…just some thoughts for today. Did you see the Almost Perfect Game the other night? A blown call on batter #27 cost the pitcher his place in the record books. This has sparked renewed debate on whether or not baseball should have an instant-replay rule. I must admit, I have mixed emotions about this. No doubt the Sox would have been helped by overturning many questionable calls over the years….but I tend to be a purist where baseball is concerned. I like games to be played on natural grass and dirt out in the sunshine…and I really don’t like the Designated Hitter rule here in the AL.

But for something of this magnitude, where the ump very clearly missed the call? (I mean come on, the runner was out by a full stride.) A friend posted on Four Freedoms that perhaps the managers should be given just 3 challenges per game…that might be the way to go. But I really don’t want to see MLB go the way of the NFL. There’s still a human element out there on the diamond that hasn’t been corporatized, computerized, or controlled yet. A human blowing a call is part of the game, too.

I also have an issue with the NBA stealing things from other sports. Anyone remember the last time the Lakers and Celtics were hot, back in the 80s? The last NBA final to be played under the “2-2-1-1-1” format was 1986…where the Celtics beat the Rockets for #16.

The following year, they took the format from the World Series and changed it to “2-3-2”. But therein lies the problem. It’s that pivotal 5th game. Larry Bird had it right back in the day…assuming the teams are evenly matched, the go-ahead game should be at the team’s building with the home-court advantage. The way it plays now, if the Celtics were to steal one in LA tonight, the all import game 5 would be in Boston.

I suppose it’s inconclusive which team has home-court advantage under the current system, but suffice to say I don’t like it and never have.

Lastly, a couple of things to ponder from even further back…all the way to the Russell/Auerbach era. Much has been written of late that the C’s are too old and too tired to win it all. Well, the same was being written about the 1968-1969 Celtics. They creaked into the playoffs with a 42-40 record that year…but beat LA for the title in 7 games.

Red had it right then, and it still holds true today. The Celtics are a T E A M. On any given night, they can beat a single-star team. LA’s got Kobe for sure…but after that it’s a bunch of (very good) role players. Look up what happened in the Michael Jordan record game in 1986. MJ got 63 points that day, but the C’s shut down the rest of the team and won anyway.

I suspect it may go all 7 games…but I’m betting the C’s wrap it up in 5 or 6.

Just a test.

So, I've been looking at the stretches between blog posts here getting longer and longer. It's been well over a year for my little side project here.

Tonight, I sat in front of the ol' computer and changed a few things around. I'm testing posting from a little widget I installed in iGoogle...here's hoping it all works out.

There's much to talk about...oil is flowing into the Gulf, political weirdness goes on and on throughout America, and oh, yeah..I'm still a contractor without a permanent job, and our COBRA has just run out.

Stay tuned....there will be semi-ocassional rants and raves posted hopefully a little more regularly if this all works out.