Needles

A post by a follower of mine made me think. I have been pricked by a lot of needles in my day. I mean, besides the normal flu shots, that time I needed a tetanus shot because I got a fish hook in my eye, and generic needles everyone gets as a kid, I have had a lot of needles.

I had allergy shots for 4 years. My mom would take me to allergy shots once a week, and I would get 3 shots. Turns out, among other things I'm allergic to, I'm allergic to dust mites and grass pollen. And cats. But I guess cats are a lot harder to put into shot form compared to grass pollen and dust mites. Anyway, those shots were small, and didn't really hurt that much.

In college I started to donate blood. At first I just donated the normal way, one pint at a time, every 60 days. I donated somewhere between 15 to 20 pints before I moved up to the big leagues of blood donation. I started doing apherysis(I have no idea how to spell it). During the aforementioned procedure, you have a needle put in each arm, and lay there for 2 hours while they pull plasma from your blood. Though this takes longer than average blood donations, the Red Cross will let you donate 20 times a year this way. Which is a lot more than the 6 times you can donate whole blood.

So in summation, and staying completely on topic, donate blood with the Red Cross. It helps out your fellow man, doesn't take very long, and is a generally good thing to do. So get donating!

A New Fear

I realized today that I am quite frankly afraid of heights. It seems that this fear is directly related to my relative height as well. As a young kid, I remember racing my neighbor up the blue spruce in my side yard to see who could get higher. We could both make it up about 20 feet of tree in roughly 3 or 4 minutes. Not bad for 9 year olds.

But now, when I climb a ladder at work, I climb this:

But I feel like I'm climbing this:

I realize this is silly, but today at work, as I was trying to change a light bulb in a ceiling fixture. I started sweating, and I felt like I was about to fall. I almost dropped a fluorescent ligh(apparently a bad thing) and I managed to put in the new lightbulb. 

I just wish I knew why this fear started to manifest itself recently. Ahh well, can't win em all.

Fishing Stories

Seeing as fishing time is right around the corner, and as my fishing buddy so perfectly put it, it can't come soon enough. So, for the next few days, I plan on regaling you readers with some of my greatest fishing stories. And why save the best for last when you can use the best first?


THE BIGGEST FISH I'VE EVER SEEN
What follows is the story of the biggest fish I have ever seen. I didn't catch it. My Dad, however, did. Well sort of at least. He got it right next to the boat. I could have hit it with a canoe paddle, which in fishing terms, means that we caught it, and have accurate measurements for it.

Let me set the mood. It was a dark and stormy night, and my father and I were fishing underneath the 219 bridge on Deep Creek Lake. We were using live bait, and fishing for walleye, just to see if we could catch something. And that is when the night took a turn for the adventurous. My Dad hooked into a MONSTER.

I'm not kidding, it had to be about 7-8 feet long and weigh probably 200-300 pounds. Or thereabouts. It was a Northern Pike, the state record pike in fact. And as my dad coaxed the fish in on the light tackle we were using it swam into view. And when we saw the 12 foot long, 500 pound beast, it shocked us with its pure size. Let me use common everyday objects to demonstrate it's sheer size.  The snout on the leviathan was about the size of an aircraft carrier.

It's back was about the size of a tractor trailer.

And I have to believe the teeth would have made a T-Rex jealous.

Anyway, we managed to see the 1000 pound, 20 foot long leviathan a couple of times before it snapped my Dad's line. Ahh well, if only we had a net, or for that matter a boat, big enough to hold this toothy beast. But we didn't.

Needless to say, we have since remedied this, and gotten a slightly bigger net. We can now handle 4 to 5 pound bass with no problems. Oh, and I know you want to see a picture of the fish itself. Here's a picture of the beast from the night in question.

Pretty big, right?

Fishing Time is Coming Soon!

When I woke up today, and looked outside, I saw bright sun for the 2nd day in a row. I mean full, bright, this might actually warm something up sun. Spring is on the way, and you know what that means.

And yes, the eyes on a smallmouth bass really are that red. I can't wait to get back out fishing, even if it is just wading in the creek for a couple of sunfish for a few hours. 

The Plunge

I took it. And before you ask what plunge, I'll give you this hint. It's freezing cold, wet, and on the Jersey Shore.
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The Polar Bear Plunge in Sea Isle New Jersey of course. Now most people know that the Polar Bear Plunge is a charity event. But I'll be damned if I know what charity its for. Anyway, it all started when my friend Tom asked if I wanted to take the plunge.

I agreed to, and at the appointed time in Sea Isle, we met up and prepared to do battle with the icy ocean.  We steeled ourselves for the plunge took a running start, and ran into the ocean.

And quite frankly I thought I had been punched in the stomach when I hit the water. It was freezing. And it was only up to my knees.  Then My friend Eric saw me, and as we agreed, we both went underwater to experience the full effect of the cold water. Of course, Eric tackled me to get me to go under. He claims he didn't tackle me, but I testify otherwise.

All in all, this event is highly recommended, though a little on the chilly side. I can't wait for next year, I plan on doing it all over again. And also bringing a few extra towels.

Simon and Garfunkel

I spent two nights this past weekend singing Simon and Garfunkel songs with my Dad. For those of you who don't know who Simon and Garfunkel are, this is them:

My Dad and I knew practically every word to every song.

From the empty streets, down past the shop displays of For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her, to the dark deserted station, restless in anticipation of A Poem on the Underground Wall,  my dad and I lent our distinctive twang to some classic music. Harmonies that are present on the LP's we were listening to may not have been as apparent in our family room, but they were there. And we most certainly had a groovy thing going on.


In short, what's not to like about listening and singing along to some classic tunes in your family room? Nothing I can. And like a poem poorly written, we may have sounded like couplets out of rhyme(or tune) we sang anyway, and had a blast doing it.


P.S. 9000 points to anyone who can name all the songs I referenced in the above post.


P.P.S. Happy Birthday Dad.

I'm Back

So here is a short post to announce my return to blogging. I'm back after a long and silly vacation. Also, someone hacked my profile, I hope you like being able to see all of my google image search results, they are quite frankly astounding to behold. Better post tomorrow morning.