Friday, July 8

Let’s get ready……to get ready!

Met a habs fan at a little coffee stand this morning. He saw the back of my hat and said, “Is that a Hab’s hat?’’ When I wheeled around and said yeah, he turned his arm over exposing a large tattoo of the CH emblazoned in bleu, blanc, et rouge. We chit chatted about the moves that the team made last week, sang a little ole’ ole’ and he was on his way.

Had to buy a new pair of sunglasses and get some reading material for the plane flight tomorrow. Ended up with two pairs of Oakley’s and 4 books….over kill maybe.

My next stop was the fabled Golden Gate Fly Casting Club of San Francisco. This place is unique in that catching fish is sort of secondary to the actual casting of a fly rod. I’d always wanted to see it. When you arrive you see the historic clubhouse and the giant cement casting pools created in the 30’s. Fly casting legends have come from this place and the world championships are often held here. Tonight there were only two other people casting in the pools. No one seemed to object to me firing a few casts at some targets. It is an odd feeling just casting to an empty piece of water with zero hope of hooking a fish, but it felt good to bust the rods out for the first time on this trip.

While I was casting an elderly man came hobbling thru a hole in the bushes. Cane in hand, his step was unsteady, he was wobbly and clearly struggling to take some of the last steps of his life…his mission was to get all the way around the casting pools. A feat that would have taken me all of about 45 seconds, took him over 20 minutes. With the air cooling, clouds steam began to rise off the pools creating an cool effect. I wanted to ask the man a question…..As I watched him struggle, I wanted his advice….I wanted to ask him if he thought I should ever wait an extra day to go fishing or do something else I love. He was wavering through the steam and I think I knew what he'd tell me…….. He would have told me not to wait another day, not even another minute, because someday it’ll come down to this, the struggle to take just one single step. That day is coming for all of us, and it’s coming sooner than you think. So don’t put off your passions, get out there and feel the water flowing over your thighs, fish and laugh and explore. Like Cathy did, in the comment left by Tracy Landry, and like I hope I’m doing every summer….get after it and get after it now.