"Geez Wes, what have you been doing?" "What's happened in the last five years, ten years, fifteen years?"
I've been getting a lot of that lately. Facebook, in it's vast expanse across the web void, has magically connected me to people I haven't seen in years. It's kind of the High School Reunion syndrome where most of the people you'd actually want to keep in contact with you've... well, kept in contact with. There's been some pleasant surprises but it's also connected me with 3 ex girlfriends, ex workmates looking for jobs, ex brothers in the Lord that remind me of what a legalistic "us and them" doctrine jerk I was, relatives I didn't know I had, people wanting to sell me stuff based on my interests... you get the idea.
I was bad enough at not keeping up with close friends. Facebook for some reason has given me a steady stream of 1-2 people a week that are checking in and expecting a response.
The flip side is that it's validated having hundreds of extremely shallow relationships with people. If I'm faithful enough to actually reply I'll skip the whole "got married, went back to school, left a predictable computer job, worked for non profits, did indie movie work stuff, traveled and met people all over the world, moved 3 times, got a predictable job again, hit a couple long mid life depressive episodes,then found inner peace" part and just say: I'm great! I went fishing last week.
I don't know how many times I've stopped by the grocery store after work or on a Saturday morning and had to dodge hundreds of people white knuckling coupons and playing shopping cart bumper cars. The solution I've discovered is to go to Cub Foods at 4:00AM and beat the crowds.
The 4 AM sweet spot was almost spooky. There was NO ONE there. Convenient, because I was running late. I was up until 1 AM, then had to get up at 4 AM to grab doughnuts and drive up to my wife's brothers house to then carpool another hour or so to the designated fishing spot.
As much as I looked like cat sick warmed up in the microwave, and felt even worse, there is one benefit to morning fishing. Doughnuts. You can always drink beer at lunch like afternoon and evening fishing but morning fishing opens up the doughnut options. If anyone is reading this outside of yankee land I'd be curious to hear the breakfast options in your culture. You Aussies can get away with Beer as a side dish for any meal imaginable. I have to assume it's because you don't have doughnuts.
I'll disband the myth right now. Freezing in the dark so you can be on the lake ahead of the mornign sun and get the jump on the fish is just an excuse by old men who want to escape before their wives give them the Saturday to do list. Fish sleep in.
I ended up fishing with my wife's brother and two cousins who are all seasoned fisherman. I was a fat dumb and happy fisherman who was happy to feel something pulling on the end a couple times so size didn't matter. One juicy bass and someone to clean it was enough to proclaim success and hit the bar for lunch.
Great to hear form you. Yes, it's been forever. Me? What have I been doing? Well - I went fishing last weekend. Yea. That's about it. Hmmm, it was good enough for the Zen masters, kept many of my Viking kin folk alive... even Christ himself did it so yea, I'd say that's a strong example of my life and that's just fine with me.
Time for a tasty bass.