I Played Hooky!

Literally! I took the day off! I needed it. I did not called in sick. I took a personal day. I have too many days of leave and will actually lose some if I don't use them so I took off. At my previous position, they commented one time that I never missed any day except for Wednesday. Why? Well that is obvious...WE DON'T REHEARSE ON WEDNESDAYS! I would not trade what I wanted at the moment for what I want most.

So what did I catch? I caught some fish but more importantly I caught some new friends. I was out by myself and heard a call on the radio for somebody looking for help finding fish. Usually I don't answer these calls but today I did. I told him exactly where I was and that I was catching fish. He sure did look happy. It made me feel good to help him and even more happy that he was appreciative. Then I made another friend at the dock. When I launched in the morning, I noticed a large cabin criuser at the dock. When I came back, I saw an older man fishing sitting on the the dock beside the boat. The man asked me if I had "done any good". I usually don't talk much to people at the dock as I am usually pretty tired as I get up to go fishing at about 4:45 a.m. but today was different. I showed him my fish and talked to him for about 45 mintues. He marvelled over my fish and showed me his boat. It was nice. A 25. 1 feet Chris Craft house boat. He told me he lived on it for most of the year and just moved to Lake Murray. He wanted to live on the ocean but at his age he just could not do that anymore (he may have been 80). His wife had died and he bought a boat to live on. We talked about fishing and GPS and my boat but I just think he wanted to talk and I complied. I am glad I did. I told him I would be happy to take him striper fishing and he said that would be great to just "ring the bell" if I saw him on the water.

I have been told more than once that I am an old soul. Today I caught more than fish. I caught a bit of life. By the way, I also caught a limit of fish!

Tomorrow is back to work and cleaning drill but today was a pleasant surprise.