Triumph In Spearfish Canyon!

I struck out last week, but this afternoon I finally pulled my first trout of Spearfish Creek. It was a harrowing experience... I sunk waist deep in mud at one point and began to wonder if I would be able to get out. At another point I could barely make headway against the current and had to pull myself forward inch by inch. But at last I found a nice deep pool in the creek and I could see my adversaries at the bottom. Using a Copper John tied by my friend Patrick, I caught two brown trout (about 8 to 10 inches each) casting across the creek and slightly up stream. I had a couple of close calls with overhanging branches, but managed to get unsnagged each time without scaring off the fish.

The only disappointment of the day was that the flies I tied myself were not successful. Two were lost in the trees and one began to unravel... better luck next time!

Self Consciousness

One morning after Matins at Holy Resurrection Monastery, where I was once a novice, one of the monks looked at me said "Dear Br. Spyridon (for that was my monastic name), the one thing you need but can never have is a Catholic childhood!"

He said this because he had seen in me (a very recent convert to the True Church (TM)), from the moment I showed up, an awkwardness in my religion. Over the next two years he would do his best to give me the Catholic childhood I had missed. Using his unique spiritual gifts (discouragement and sarcasm), a vigorous reading program (the Sword of Honor trilogy, The Land of Spices, Speak Memory, to name but a few) and, well hidden beneath his crusty exterior, a generous amount of love and prayers, he attempted to transmute a convert still damp with the oil of chrism into a cradle Catholic.

Sadly, he was never entirely successful. I still feel self conscious when making the sign of the cross. I still don't know what to buy someone on the occasion of their first communion. Unlike the residents of Santa Dulcina delle Rocce, "... to whom the supernatural order in all its ramifications was ever present and ever more lively than the humdrum world about them...", for the me the supernatural order and clouds of witnesses are something I read about but rarely feel comfortable enough to treat as a reality.

My fervent prayer is that someday before I die I will be able to walk into a church and not wonder what the hell I am doing there.

More Fish Stories

I went fishing again yesterday after work. I first tried close to home, on White Tail Creek which runs through the Kirk Valley below my home. It is a pretty narrow stream at most places and those places where it widens up a bit have a lot of overhanging trees, so I wasn't able to do much in the way of angling.

So, I motored down Highway 85 a couple of miles to Spearfish Canyon and, after nearly getting the RAV4 stuck in about a foot and a half of snow on one side road, found a place to try my hand. My reading on fishing in the canyon indicated that dry flies were often successful, so I tied one on and started working my way up Spearfish Creek. The water moves pretty fast where I was so I was doing a lot of casting, but alas, no luck. I lost one fly due to a poor knot. Better luck next time!

Fishing on Saturday

Saturday, the first decent day of spring, found me out on Crow Creek with Jon and Patrick as we tried out our new fly fishing skills. I'd spent several hours last week standing in the middle of the street practicing my casting, but I was still nervous and convinced that I'd spend more time untangling my line from over hanging branches than fishing.

Jon and I started out at a wide pool at a bend in the creek. We were both fishing with a Hare's Ear, a wet fly tied by Jon himself, and it was clearly a great choice since we both caught fish within the first 5 minutes. Jon caught a smallish brown trout and I got an even smaller rainbow. Casting, at Crow Creek anyway, was easier than expected since the creek was pretty wide, there weren't a lot of overhanging branches and the brush hasn't really started to grow in yet. I only got hung up a couple of times and only one of those resulted in the loss of a fly.

We stayed out for about 5 hours and had lots of luck. Jon and I caught 4 or 5 each, while Patrick got 10 or so. Jon and Patrick each caught one fish of a size worth keeping (though we released all we caught), while mine were a little too small to fillet. We knocked off about 3:30 and headed to Sanford's for some much deserved beer! Below is a picture of Jon with one of his smaller conquests. More pics to follow!

My First Meme

The Rules:

a)The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
b)The blogger who gets tagged must answer the following questions about himself
c)After this has been accomplished, the blogger tags five more to answer the meme, and leaves a comment at their blog to answer it

1) What I was doing ten years ago: Working as a computer programmer for Meditech.

2) Five things on my to-do list:

• Clean the garage
• Figure out how to assemble my new fly fishing rod/reel.
• Finish playing Field Commander: Rommel.
• Put a patio in my backyard.
• Call a plumber about installing an spigot near the garage.
  

3) Things I would do if I were a billonaire:

• Buy a bigger house. Or maybe an entire subdivision of bigger houses.
  
• Buy my wife a car with all wheel drive. Or maybe a fleet of cars with all wheel drive.
  

4) Three bad habits:

• Laziness
• Nail biting
• Compulsive book buying
  

5) Five places I have visited:

• Nogales, Mexico
• Bastogne
• Wall Drug, SD
• The Cosmos Mystery Area
• Devil's Tower
  

6) Five jobs I’ve had:

• Combat Field Medical Specialist, U.S. Army
• Phlebotomist
• Deli Clerk
• Pizza Delivery Driver
• Computer Programmer
  

7) Five snacks I enjoy:

• Sour Gummy Worms - the best can be found at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.
• Anything Jerky
• Almonds
• Hot-n-Spicy Chex Mix
• Dried Figs

Five places I’ve lived:

• Greensboro, NC
• Longmeadow, MA
• Karlsruhe, Germany
• Newberry Springs, CA
• Kansas City, MO

Game Night

Last night I made the 40 mile journey to Beulah, WY, for my bi-monthly game night with Mike and Theresa. On the table this time was the highly anticipated Descent: Road to Legends. An expansion to base game Descent, Road to Legends adds a campaign setting to the game and the ability to continue your adventures over the many weeks it will take to complete it without having to leave this component heavy game set up on the kitchen table. After setting up and equipping our adventurers, we cleared one level of a nearby dungeon, then called it quits for the night. Though a bit too "dungeons and dragony", it was good fun.

Next, we played Through the Ages, a abstract Civilization-esque game. It is a neat game with elegant mechanics and a surprisingly quick pace. My only complaint is that it uses tons of these little wooden bits to track resources, population and other things and my clumsy fingers had a hard time manipulating them. Anyway, the object of the game is to produce more culture than the surrounding civilizations. This can be done in a variety of ways: science, art, religion, etc. Naturally, I went the religion route, adopting the Theocracy government type as soon as it showed up and plugged significant resources into my religion structures. Happily, I won by a wide margin.

All and all, a good time!