2010, in review

Seems like everyone is doing a year in review, so why can’t I do one?

During the summer this year I was considering quitting fly fishing altogether.  I couldn’t cast and after hours and days of fly fishing I hadn’t caught anything.  I met a kindly gentleman named Dale at Meadows Creek Pond in Roy, Utah and he gave me some awesome advice.  I followed what Dale told me and I had enough success to get excited about fly fishing again.  When the weather is warmer my wife likes to join me for a couple of hours of fishing.  She saw how the other fly fishers were casting and gave me pointers on the back cast.  Under the right conditions (I feel good, no wind, light fly) I can back cast up to 60 feet.  I can roll cast about 40 feet.  One of the things I tried to do was to catch as many trout as I could in one calendar day, I caught 72 on a fly that I not only tied but changed to meet the hatch.

I’ve been tying my own flies for several months now and I have even posted a few videos of how I tied them on Youtube.  One of the videos was picked up on a web site in Japan.  I have invented several flies that work great; the sexy chironomid and leechasaurus.  I have even figured out an easy way to make spoon bodies for flies.

I caught and tamed four feral kittens.  The kittens that I caught at Glassman Pond in Odgen are awesome.  We just had them fixed and they are recovering.  One of my worst fears has been realized, my wife and I got attached to all of them.  The people who wanted the kittens either backed out of the deal or couldn’t adopt them.  My wife told me last night that we would keep them all.  Just after Christmas my wife and I were able to pick Shadow up and put her in a blanket.  Shadow started purring.  The next day we had Shadow tested and she was negative for FIV and FLV so we introduced her to our other two cats (yes, we now own six cats, my wife loves cats.  I would go to hell for my wife, six cats is a small price to pay).  We got a small ferret cage and are keeping her in it until she is comfortable enough and big enough to be released in our house.  Mysty’s surgery was botched.  The vet thought that Mysty was a female and opened him up to spay, unfortunately, Mysty is a little boy so he has a 1.5 inch incision in his gut as well as being neutered.  We put Mysty in another ferret cage to watch him.  What a little sweetheart Mysty is.  After we got him away from the other cats he started being a lap kitten.  Mysty loves to be rubbed and snuggled and play.  Smoky is still downstairs with Buddy.  Smoky loves to eat and be rubbed.  Bring down a plate of food and Smoky will come out of hiding to eat and get rubbed.  We found out that Buddy was the alpha cat.  I saw was because I am the alpha.  Buddy learns quick and is very smart.  Buddy loves to be rubbed and has a purr that sounds like a diesel truck.  I didn’t want to keep all the kittens but my wife wants them.  I can imagine a day in the future when I wake up with six cats sleeping next to me. 

I had two surgeries this year, I hate being cut open but it turned out to be a good thing.  I feel much better.  Thanx docs.

For Christmas I got a brand new fly reel.  A Martin 3/4 weight.  I love it!

I quit my job, my last day was the 15th of November.  I had an appointment with a VA counselor and the fact that I quit my job came up.  She seems to think I have PTSD and now I have an appointment with the VA about it.  I guess just short of 26 years as an air traffic controller and two tours in the Middle East took its toll.  I got a fairly good lead on a job on Hill AFB but they announced a job freeze. Ouch.  Its alright, I will keep looking.  At least the wife has a good job and I get my USAF retirement check and some money for disability from the VA.  Life’s good!

I got involved with troop 719 at the Golden Spike Elks Lodge.  What an awesome bunch of guys.  I am really looking forward to hiking and camping with them this summer!

I’m really looking forward to the new year.  I can’t wait for the summer when I can hike up to some of the lakes in the mountains and fly fish.  The videos that I have been making on fly fishing are actually puzzles for geocaches.  If you didn’t know to look for the puzzle you would never see it.  I have three videos and geocaches that I am working one in my spare time which is quite a bit at the moment.  I am going to hide some geocaches up at these mountain lakes.

Well, I would like to write some more but I got to go change a litter box.  We changed the kittens food to different brand with higher protein and it gave Shadow the squirts.  I didn’t know that cats could fart.