Woke up a bit disturbed because of the dreams I had. This week, I’ve had some weird dreams. The first night, I dreamed that my
mother–whose health is failing at 81 years old–was dying and I wasn’t able to be
with her because I was off gallivanting in
This morning’s dream was, as I said, disturbing. I dreamed that I was having an affair with a
young woman who looked almost identical to the character “Abby” from the
television show “N.C.I.S.” In the television show, Abby is a cute,
high-energy Goth-Techie. The character in my dreams was more ordinary, but
still a very fun person. I was disturbed,
obviously, because I was having an affair–something I feel is wrong–and I
didn’t want to hurt Kathy. In the dream,
my mind was tortured–understandably–by the fact that I truly loved two women,
and I couldn’t stand to hurt Kathy, whom I still felt was my best friend in the
world, ever. I still loved her, but I
loved this “Abby” too, and it was very unsettling. I was glad to wake up and find out it wasn’t
a real predicament!
Today we went to Favourable
Lake with the guide we hired, Jim, a real down-to-Earth wholesome guy.
The weather was very
cold–high of 11 degrees C (52 F) and drizzling.
A camp helper went with us in the boat, straight across to the far end
of South Trout lake, where we disembarked.
Our boat and all its contents were put onto a boat trailer and driven
down the two-mile portage by a Honda 350 ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). There were two other boats who put their gear
in our boat as well, then all the people got into a small wooden people trailer,
which was pulled by a six-wheeled vehicle called an
The weather was horrible–cold and drizzle as I said
before, but now it was very windy with large choppy waves. Within minutes, we were chilled to the bone
and jarred by the big waves our boat skipped over. I wondered if we were going to make it out
there a whole day.
Now Favourable, we heard, is
where the best fishing is. All the big
fish live there–big lunker Northern Pike that are
forty pounds, they said, and that people routinely haul in fifty walleyes all
in a day’s work. Imagine our
disappointment when we caught absolutely nothing all morning, except for a few
tiny fish that we literally could have used for bait. We caught a couple of Northerns
that were little more than a foot (1/3 meter) long. By the way, we were fishing for walleye.
To make things worse, it was
We landed on shore at a place somewhat sheltered from the
wind. Jim got out the big propane stove
he borrowed from Russ, another friendly guide, and started the fire. He cooked the beans, heated water, cleaned
and prepared the fish. Then he dumped a
huge amount of vegetable oil into a huge frying pan and started cooking
potatoes and onions which he had cut up.
He added the fish and we had a wonderful shore lunch made from fish we
had just caught. Wonderful.
After lunch and warming up, we got back into the boat and
kept fishing. The afternoon was much
more productive than the morning. We
started getting walleyes and actually caught quite a few. We caught a few Northerns
too, but they were pretty small. All
fish were thrown back except for the few we ate at lunch. I told Jim that the fish were not biting in
the morning because they knew they would become our lunch. Now, having eaten our lunch, the fish were
happy to be caught, with the full knowledge they would be thrown back and
allowed to live.
The temperature dropped–it felt like about 38F to me–and
we became very cold, but we kept fishing.
The ride back to the exit point, ATV ride back, and boat ride back to
the camp were pretty much the reverse of the way we came. By the time we got back to camp, we were numb
with the cold, but I lit a fire in our cabin’s stove and we headed off to
dinner.
Recipe of the day from dinner: roasted chicken. Fabulous.
It was lightly brushed with an apricot glaze, then sprinkled with a
combination of rosemary and lemon-pepper seasoning.
Now I’m trying to keep the fire hot, and staying warm,
although Kathy is still cold.