Last year my neighbor bought a fishing boat. It’s nice and similar to what I would choose to buy if I had those funds. He’s in his late 70’s and most of the time takes his wife out for cruises on the lake in it. She often takes selfies of them and it’s adorable.
After talking with him the other day, he seemed a little sad that people of his age are dying off, he’s losing friends. He wanted to go fishing, something his wife doesn’t exactly like. I told him to let me know – and I’d be happy to go with him. He asked, and today we went for an early morning fishing session at Lake Monroe. As soon as he asked, I sent an email to my boss stating that I would be taking the day off, and while I monitored goings on I was able to be care free.
The weather has been cooling off in the last few days, which has made it nice for me. I wish I would have gotten a picture but the lake was covered in fog when we got there, it was absolutely beautiful.
I haven’t even been on a boat since I was young, let alone went fishing on one. With my trusty Zebco Bullet .22 fishing pole that I’ve had since I was about 13 we got to work and eventually found a cove where the fish were biting, and hard. Every time I tried to set the hook however, nothing. Then surprisingly, my hook was gone! That dang fish took my hook!
We then trolled up the shoreline (he had never used his trolling motor) for a while. I kept casting, but wasn’t getting any bites. Then we both decided we needed a bite of our own, and decided to pack up and grab some grub. Deciding to go to Cloverleaf and we both decided on a full order of biscuits and gravy.
When I first moved into my home in 2006, he came off as the kind of person you try to avoid. Over that time, he’s seen the highs and lows that have come with my life which I believe has led to a softness he doesn’t show everyone. Thank you Bill. Today probably meant as much to you as it did to me.