August 8, 2007

Nine seems like a fine time to rise especially when one is staying up ‘til the wee hours and then of course there is all the fishing. It is relaxing for the mind but hard on the body especially the body of those who are old. Someday we hope to experience what it is like to be old but in the meantime we will enjoy our youth, swimming, fishing and playing dominoes.

Our summer time is hanging in there very well, thank you, even if it is now week twelve.

It was fifty four when we rose and with the sunny skies it promised to be even warmer before we slept again.

Coffee and tea accompanied our Cheerios and banana before we set off for the pool.

On the way back we stopped at the bank to take care of a little business and then at Safeway for groceries, a latte and Chai before heading home at two.

Bill was waiting to fish. After helping Onie with our purchases I headed off to the river with him. Onie and Nancy stayed in to visit and play dominoes taking an hour break to come down and throw in during which time Onie hooked some fish but never put one on the grate.

During the next three and a half hours Bill hooked one while four went on my stringer. At five thirty we took a thirty minute break before resuming our fishing duties. Before we left for Custom at six I managed to string one more.

Bill’s car was loaded when we left for Custom because this time the ladies went with us. When the fish had been dropped off we headed for Suzie’s where we had a short wait before sitting down to an enjoyable evening meal.

By nine thirty we were back home, tired.

We said our goodnights to the Hagers and were in bed by ten. Onie turned on Court TV. Snuggled next to her I quickly fell asleep. Sometime later she turned off the tube and slept, too.

August 9, 2007

The girls day out looked like it was going to get off to a cold start. It was forty four at five and had only warmed up two degrees by eight.

Shirley’s sugar free apricot-pineapple preserves were great on the steaming hot biscuits. Coffee and tea also steamed on the table next to our plates that held the venison-feral hog sausage compliment to the biscuits. When the plates were empty we were full.

Onie dressed and was gone at nine with Nancy.

Agency work occupied me for the next half hour then I stopped to clean up the mornings dishes before heading back to the laptop to make notes and write.

The paper was brought in and read before the gray water tank was emptied and the fresh water tank filled.

Bill arrived and we visited for a bit before heading off to look at fifth wheels parked next to Noble Car Wash. Bill wants to come back next year and thinks he might like to have a rig to live in rather than rent a room. A camper would provide a lot more opportunity for independent living but would also entail a lot more work than they are currently doing and I don’t think he has any experience with one. There were two fifth wheels to be looked at, a twenty eight foot Cougar and a thirty two foot Prowler. Both had slides but both showed signs of neglect and need of repairs and maintenance. While we were there the owner of the Cougar showed up to show it to a woman who was there. We looked, too. It was worse inside than out but it did give Bill and idea of what a fifth wheel is all about. We called on the Prowler but never did get to see inside of it.

Bill would like to park the fifth wheel at Castaway if he buys it but I told him there is a waiting list and he has to get on it. He opined as how a little more money for a site might turn the trick but I told him I didn’t think so. We went to look at other parks that have river frontage and fishing. Of the three we looked at one was a total waste of time being a total dump. The other two were better but didn’t hold a candle to Castaway. Bill opined he still thought he could talk La Von into renting him a space. A bigger problem might be selling Nancy on the idea but both of those were problems for him to solve, not me.

When we got back to the coach at six the girls were already back, playing dominoes. They had gone to the cannery, visited the old Russian Orthodox Church and had lunch in Kenai, at Veronica’s, as well as exploring along K-Beach Road.

While Bill and Nancy discussed the idea of a fifth wheel I stepped outside to tie fish hooks and fish.

Over the next three hours four fish went on the stringer.

Inside the idea of a fifth wheel held sway while Onie fixed Bill a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. Onie and Nancy had Salmon Oriental.

After fishing a game of dominoes occupied us until the Hagers headed up the hill to the lodge.

While Onie got ready for bed I had a salad and Salmon Oriental while working a crossword.

At midnight we went to bed.

August 10, 2007

Onie was up at eight thirty. The sun shone down from a cloudless sky with the rays pirouetting off the river like so many dancers.

While the coffee and tea brewed she made preparations for our breakfast; eggs, grits and sausage.

Breakfast at an end and the kitchen clean we went to the river to fish. Onie skunked me with one fish. It seemed like there were no fish in the river.

Looking for something more productive we went back to the coach where she gathered up her laptop and went to the laundry room to access the web. In the coach I wrote.

Some time later she came back with some very sad news. Our friend, Stephen Boudreau, of Nova Scotia is near death. He has been battling cancer for a long time. We have prayed for his recovery as has our Sunday School class but it seems like the answer has been, no. We don’t understand this but there are many things we don’t understand and just have to accept them. We visited Stephen and his wife, Yvonne, last October, and while his spirits were good it was easy to tell he was in a lot of pain and his health was failing.

Steven and Yvonne, celebrating our anniversary, June 2004, Digby, Nova Scotia

It was a very sad time for us and now the sadness grows like a heavy stone in our stomachs weighing us down and stealing our sunshine. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to him and Yvonne. Never will there be another Stephen. He loves life, song, work, people, his family and people in general. He is so good that it hurts just to think about his being gone, never seeing him again in this life, never hearing his voice, the sound of his guitar, him singing Me and Bobby Magee, clamming with him on the beach at Saint Mary’s Bay, riding bicycles, huddling around the campfire, getting a welcome hug, seeing his smile and all those things we did together. These are selfish thoughts. Stephen has suffered a lot in his struggle and death will bring him release and peace but for us it will leave emptiness and sadness, sadness for ourselves, not him.

We are concerned about Yvonne, his bride of many years. They married when she was just out of school and she has never known adult life without him. We will remember to pray for her each day and be in touch. Perhaps she can come to Texas in the spring to spend some time with us, remember all the good times and continue healing.

It was with a heavy heart that I placed these notes in the laptop and then sought relief at the river. Fishing is rote for me and can be done in a mindless state. As I watched the waters roll by I felt I was losing a son.

Sometime during my deep thoughts Bill and Nancy had returned from a trip into town. He joined me at the grate. While I wept inside for Stephen I was glad for Bill. He had fished hard from the beginning, despite his health problems, and today he landed his first fish.

Before we were finished fishing we had two limits.

With the fish in coolers we headed off for Custom again, with the girls.

On the way back we stopped for Chinese food. The restaurant had been remodeled as had the menus. It looked like they intended to recover their considerable investment in the first year of operation after the reopening. Even with the spendy pricing the meal was good and true to Chinese restaurants the one meal was more than enough for two people. Even with this knowledge we ordered four entrees but at the end of the day they were all gone.

Back home at nine we got out the dominoes for another game. Someone won and the rest of us finished behind them, the fourth person finishing third behind the winner.

By ten thirty the game was over and Bill and Nancy went to the lodge.

Before going to bed we looked at the power strip that has been running our laptops and the auxiliary hard drive. For sometime now it has caused the GFI outlet in the kitchen to trip when we use it. It was plugged in at the bathroom outlet, also a GFI circuit, and it tripped the breaker with no load on it. The strip was placed in the trash can.

It had been a long and trying day but a few more notes were placed in memory before I headed off to the shower where I hoped some of the cares of the day would be flushed away in a torrent of hot water. It didn’t work.

Lying in bed my heart felt as though it would sink through the mattress. It didn’t and I finally fell asleep.

August 12, 2007

Onie has been working her way through a tome for several days now. With the end in sight she chose to read when she woke at nine thirty.

Outside the sun was shining through broken clouds but even with the sun the temp hung at fifty four.

With the coffee and tea made notes were made with steaming tea next to the laptop. Onie enjoyed coffee in bed with her book.

Some Cheerios and bananas were eaten before heading off to church. The sermon was on the twenty third Psalm, a retired missionary was the speaker, and the emphasis was altogether different than what had been heard in the past. As has been said the Word of God is full ofunsearchable riches.

Back hone at twelve fifteen we relaxed and read the Sunday paper from cover to cover, cleaning out a few leftovers from the fridge as we went, before Onie began some early work on supper.

We went to the grate with the Hagars at two. Onie fished off and on as did Nancy. They didn’t manage to put any fish on a stringer. Bill and I stayed with it until five by which time a limit, six, was on my stringer. Bill had managed to land one and lost another before it could be netted but with help from others he had three on his stringer. His technique is improving daily and his catch will soon follow. Before they go home he will be catching his limit if he doesn’t flag in his efforts.

The domino table had claimed Nancy and Onie in the last hour or so of our fishing and when Bill and I headed off to Custom they stayed at the table.

We were back at a quarter to seven.

Grilled chicken was on the menu so the charcoal was started in the grill. The salad was followed by the chicken and sautéed zucchini and onion.

More dominoes followed and we played until eleven. Around nine, I had smelled a strong odor of fish coming from the river.

When the Hagars went out the door I followed them, took my pole and went to the river. In twenty tries I bumped two fish even though I didn’t hook any. Surely the fish were there in good numbers but with the cold biting into my bare hands and the thought of cleaning fish in the dark I decided the better part of valor was an orderly retreat to the Marlin.

A few notes were put down before the warmth of the bed was sought at eleven thirty.

August 13, 2007

Fifty degrees at four in the morning could be winter weather on Lake Road but here it is just Indian summer. We know it won’t last but before the snow flies we will be home in Texas.

The blazing sun had warmed the coach by eight thirty and by ten the temp had risen to seventy five. It would be a hot day on the Kenai and at Castaway but it could well be one of the last of this year.

The fireweed has had a good summer. The plants that we moved from the road to our site, the three that survived, have done well and even though they probably won’t bloom this year they should revive after the winter and bloom next summer. Our private fireweed next to the coach has bloomed profusely and will surely be even larger in oh-eight and provide more beauty. But as the Indian summer lingers the fireweed follows its own clock and now has bloomed out.

Our freedom toast was preceded by coffee and tea and accompanied by skillet bacon. We had just put it on the table when the Hagars arrived at ten thirty.

The leisurely breakfast came to an end at noon and we headed for the river at one

The writer was dressed in short pants and a tee shirt but the blazing sun and ferocious heat proved too much for such skimpy wear. Mass quantities of sun screen were slathered on every where clothing, hat or safety glasses didn’t cover. Even so long pants were soon donned to protect the tender white skin that seldom sees sun.

It was a good day to be alive. Even as the sun beat down Onie was busy stringing six fish as was I. In the process a one ounce round ball we use for weight had struck Onie on the back of her right hand. It came flying at high speed after the hook loosed from a red she was fighting. It came so fast she had no time to dodge. A bleeding hole in the back of her hand resulted but the bad part was a huge hematoma developed almost instantly. Being the compassionate husband I offered to lance it with a fillet knife. She passed. A week later it was still several shades of blue, green and red.

While we were limiting out Bill hit his high number, so far, with four strung. Nancy has yet to land a fish although she has hooked a few.

At five thirty Bill and I set out for Custom where we checked in and weighed our fish. The two stringers Onie and I filled weighed a total of eighty six pounds. Bill’s four tipped the scales at twenty seven.

Long showers were enjoyed at the lodge before we dressed to go to dinner at the Bear’s Den at seven. The food was delicious and made more so by several facts, first, Onie didn’t have to cook, second we wouldn’t have to clean up, third we were trying a new restaurant and the Hagars were treating. It was an altogether nice evening.

It was capped off with a game of dominoes before the Hagers drove up the hill at eleven.

As the cooling breezes, fifty eight, of late evening blew through the coach home a few notes were made before we retired.

August 14, 2007

It never did really cool off last night, not for Alaska. We slept under just a sheet and at times we were still too warm.

This morning at nine it was already fifty seven and would have been warmer except for the heavy overcast blocking out the sun’s heating rays.

The fish report said that fifteen thousand fish entered the river yesterday, not a large number at all for this time of year, since there has been no really large numbers reported yet.

Onie was still working on her book and sipped her coffee as she turned the pages. I too was turning pages, the pages of yesterday’s Anchorage Daily News, and drinking tea. When the paper was read writing occupied me until the Hagars made an appearance at noon.

Onie and Nancy set off on a shopping trip, at one, while Bill and I went to fish.

Even though the number of fish in the river wasn’t great it was certainly fishable. As we fished the wind began to strengthen and with the rising wind came falling temperatures and a light drizzle. We fished on and both managed to string six fish. This was a first ever event for Bill but one I knew he could achieve by just keeping on keeping on. He was quite pleased with his achievement as well he should be. A few weeks ago he had been unable to stand alone due to being stricken with an ailment similar to Bell’s Palsy and when he had arrived here his gait had been very unsteady. Today he walked well and landed his limit of hard fighting red salmon. His progress health wise was as great as his progress as a salmon fisherman.

When Onie and Nancy returned they fished for an hour but with no success.

By six o’clock, when the fishing was over, the temperature was down to fifty and the drizzle continued. We drove to Custom at six thirty in the light rain that had replaced the drizzle.

We ate at seven, played dominoes ‘til nine and then it was time for a shower and note making.

Outside the clouds came lower along with the temperature.