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Friday – Surfcasting: Fish 1, Cindy 0
Saturday – Surfcasting: Fish 1, Cindy 0
Sunday – Headboat Fishing: Fish 0, Cindy 10

Funny how sometimes when you try something new, it’s best to have absolutely no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Case in point: Headboat fishing this weekend – all I knew was Dave asked, “Do you get seasick?” ahead of time. Friday & Saturday were howlers – cold and WINDY. Realized while we were out on the beach Friday night, I’d need another layer for Sunday… Hit WalMart for leggings & bootliners Saturday morning. Even with that on Saturday afternoon I was freezing.

Fortunately, the weather improved quite a bit on Sunday, and I headed out with my 2 sets of bootliners, socks, leggings, jeans, tank top, thermal top, windproof/waterproof shell with fleece lining, fleece head/earband I use for running and a ballcap, and gloves. As it turned out, I was able to ditch the gloves & headband and I was actually thinking it really wasn’t too bad. That’s only because I apparently didn’t know better. :)

Seems the conditions were actually pretty crappy. We were on a real nice 75′ boat w/a nice big heated cabin with lots of places to snooze while we went from point A to point B. (Nice since we got up at 4AM for this adventure.) All we had to do was bring lunch. Rods, rigs, bait and two kickass mates all provided.

We were going out for king mackerel, using live bait. The fact that it took us about 3 hours to get bait fish probably was a bad sign, and even then we got a huge bucketful from another boat that had just pulled in a bunch off their cast nets. As we headed out to the first stop, I discovered my new jacket IS in fact waterproof, after getting nailed by a good spray on one side of the boat.

Got to stop 1, dropped the lines, learned the over/under dance pretty quick, only got my line tangled once. Funny thing – Dave & I started off at opposite ends of the boat, next thing I know, my bait fish has gone and gotten tangled up with the one on the line next to me (when we reeled it in, it was *right* down at the rig) and I look up and who have I gotten tangled up with? Dave. Whole boat (15-20 people) only got 5 or 6 hits and one king brought in. Captain tells everyone to pull their lines and we’re gonna find another spot. Off we go. Drop lines again and I notice that wow, the boat is pitching about a lot, and I am very glad I still seem to have my boat legs, even if it has been years. Drop the lines again, my bait fish wants to go straight to the front of the boat. Over/under dance, get up to the bow, the pitching is MUCH more pronounced there. Mate comes over and says a couple of us are too bunched up and are going to get our lines crossed and can someone crank in and we can recast from the back. I volunteer cause it’s damn hard to stay standing up on this part of the boat. *Just* as I’m cranking in, we hit another trough and I near fall on my ass – fortunately the mate is right there, grabs my rod and tells me he’ll crank it in, I can concentrate on not falling. This guy was awesome. Drop my line again at the back, damn fish goes straight for the bow again. This time, we hit a swell and I bit it and was on my butt. (Found out later I wasn’t the only one this happened to.) Didn’t lose the rod. No hits this round, Captain says we’re going to go bottom fishing now, cause dammit, we’re going to catch some fish. I don’t care – it’s a beautiful day and I’m on a boat.

Tool about again and find a place to stop – I know from the last time, wait a couple minutes and let the boat settle in and then grab a rod… So, I’m sitting there on the seats on the outside of the boat, watching everyone else drop their bottom rigs (1# weight on them – when you drop them, they should go straight down.) and then watched as all the lines went at a 45 degree angle under the boat. Hmmmm… Captain immediately tells everyone to crank in, this ain’t gonna work.

Went to two other spots, and things were actually hitting, and hitting big time. I ended up with 5 sea bass, 3 red snappers, a triggerfish and a grunt. By the time we cranked in for the last time, we were about an hour out from the dock, and I slept the rest of the way back in – amazing how a couple 1000hp engines can create some great white noise.

So, the guys were kinda disappointed with the weather and the catches, but I was ecstatic. First – sunny day out on a cool boat. How can you not like that? Second, I didn’t freeze my ass off like I was so completely ready for. Third, I actually caught some fish! When we got offshore the swells were between 6 & 8 feet and the wind was kicking up a lot more towards the end of the day – I had no idea this was not considered “good” conditions – I was just happy that the sun was out and I could feel all my extremities, and just figured that was what offshore fishing was all about. I’ve been told if I do this again, there’s a good chance I will be able to spend more time concentrating on fishing than on not falling. :)

It’s just one of those days where everything is going to take 3x as long as it should, for no other reason than I am pressed for time. I hate it when that happens, but sometimes ya gotta say “Fuck It” and just do the best you can.

Good news is, there is no one standing at my front door saying, “Aren’t you ready yet??!” :)

Trimmer battery just didn’t have quite enough juice in it to finish the job, but should be 100% charged on Tuesday when I can hit it again. The windows are going to take longer than I anticipated, again, will finish off Tuesday, with different tools and some serious gloves. (Goof Off is some nasty stuff.) Then I can fax off my love letter to the HOA telling them “Ha, beat your deadline.”

The “rotted board” in the back of the townhouse is apparently invisible. I have absolutely NO idea what the HOA is talking about on that. I’m going to have my guy come out and do the gutters sometime next week, I’m going to ask him to take a look at the eaves in the back – I think (hard to see it from the ground) there is a wasps nest up there which may be what they think is “rotted” – will ask if he’s got someone brave enough to knock that sucker down.

But, my bag is packed, the cooler is filled, and I am ready to go.

I quite literally have been on the dead run since about 7 this morning, but even though I didn’t get *everything* done, I got quite a bit accomplished. It’s been a 2 Starbucks day to make it happen, tho.

Nah, not yet, just keep telling myself yes I will get everything done in time. I’m quite glad I got up at 6 now…

The chicken is now chicken salad and chilling in the fridge, the last of the laundry is in the dryer, the window solvent & paper towels are right by the door and I’m off to go desmudge the windows and finish off the yard…

Sent off a text to get a ballpark time of when we’re actually leaving – I know the absolute earliest possible would be 3:30. Figure if I am back here by 2, I should have time to make the sandwiches, clean the kitchen up, clean myself up and get packed. Right?

Right.

And away we go!

OK, I’ll admit, I am easily spoiled in the first place…

But, there is a reason that 9 times out of 10, I’ll take the extra time to go to Wegman’s to do the marketing, even if it is 20 minutes away vs. the 5 minutes to the closest Giant. However, since I am somewhat pressed for time today, I went over to Giant this morning to get what I needed so we’d have something to eat tonight down at the beach.

Simple things: chicken, mayo, mustard, croissants. Mayo & mustard, no problem. Chicken? Well, they didn’t have any “generic” chicken breasts in anything less than a 4# package. I don’t need 4#s. I don’t want 4#s. I don’t care that I could freeze them, I just don’t like buying more than I need. (If I freeze it, I’ll forget it’s there anyway and it will never get used.) So, I had to get the Perdue’s, which are fine and all, but more expensive and not *that* much better than the generic chicken. Annoying.

Croissants? None. This is a store that supposedly has a full service bakery. I asked if they would be coming out anytime soon. Nope. Great guys, thanks. Fortunately, The Swiss Bakery came through for me, and were rewarded with an extra sale for having ham & cheese croissants ready to go to boot. I’ve got lunch now. :)

But honestly, it seems every time I go to Giant anymore, they don’t have at least one thing that is on my list.

And just not because I was up at 6AM, a full 2 hours before my alarm time.

So, I had to make a quick run to the mall yesterday, and they’re getting the Christmas stuff setup… While I’m not surprised, I AM NOT READY for the holidays.

My grandmother is only going to be here for 2 weeks this year instead of a full month, thank god. I know it sounds bad, but a month is just too much time to have another person in the house, and especially one that seems to go out of her way to make me insane. 2 weeks may still be pushing it, as it will be 2 weeks where I basically can’t leave the damn house, and New Year’s will be trashed yet again, but it’s better than a month.

Had to go to Home Depot yesterday. It was yet another utterly fantastic customer experience. I need to find another place to go, because if I have to go in there again, I can’t be held responsible for my actions if I yet again cannot locate help, or to be told that I should use the Self Service Checkout by a clerk that is too damn lazy to ring up my purchase. I do believe most everyone in the front half of the store heard me say, “I do not WANT to use the self checkout!” I did hold back on the second half of the sentence, which was, “because I WILL get service out of someone here today come hell or high water!”

My Marine buddy is apparently not getting deployed after all. Have to say, he’s a good guy, but in the time I’ve known him, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. I shot him an email asking about his work schedule cause I needed to go do some work on the townhouse and didn’t want to barge in when he was sleeping or something (he’s got a weird work schedule) – that’s when I found out he’s back at his place now – um, darling, when were you going to tell me that? I’d held off on doing some things because he was staying there… Ah well.

November’s theme will be “townhouse, townhouse, townhouse” – starting today with whacking the yard down again, finding this mystery board in the back of the house that the HOA finds offensive, getting the last of the paint smudges off the kitchen window, and letting the HOA know I am almost finished with fixing everything they hate, yet they never noticed in the first 11 years I lived there. Then it’s getting the paint contractors in, getting a contractor to fix whatever is wrong with this board on the back, get the last of the crap out, fix a couple light fixtures, and that sucker goes on the market. Thank god.

But not all of life has me beating my head into the wall at least! MCM rocked, I am enjoying my no-training recovery week, I’m going fishing this weekend, and I had a nice somewhat spendy day yesterday. (While I don’t recommend retail therapy, sometimes it works, and especially when it’s on actual practical things.) Picked up the case of wine I ordered last week from the wine shop. Hit REI and got myself a nice mid-weight windproof shell with a zip out fleece lining that can be worn by itself. They had one by the same manufacturer w/no lining, but I didn’t like the the tabs to tighten up the wrists – hard plastic vs cloth tabs on the higher end one. Figure it’s not the end of the world to have an extra fleece zip up. Also picked up a new pair of Timberlands, which were stretched and broken-in in the space of 6 hours. Gotta love that.

Tons of little things to do before we take off this evening, and we’re leaving a little earlier than I’d originally thought, so it’s probably best that I am up this early after all.

Stan!!!!!!! I got the book – IT’S BEAUTIFUL! You do wonderful work! Thank you!!!!