Monday Morning Sidewalk Shaping Hats Shaping Up July

Monday Morning Sidewalk

As we stagger into another week, from wherever we are … to right here staring at your screens; I hope we are all taking the time this summer to fly fish somewhere that takes our minds off the trials and tribulations we may encounter in these days unlike any other.

It is worth reminding you that there is a ten year repository – a library if you will – of fly fishing information and wonderful getaways stored within this website. Amazing, ten full years the wheel has spun since the first words were written here.  Somehow, when I started this journey, I wanted to live it like there was no tomorrow – as if I knew I wasn’t going to make it to a natural end of the road.

Cancer could have fulfilled that prophecy, but I was evidently spared – unlike some friends that are now gone. It (cancer) turned out to be more of a pothole in the road, one that severely damaged my suspension, but a pothole instead of a dead end. I don’t know how many of my friends made from Reel Recovery bother to read the site – be they administrators, facilitators or the class I participated with, but one – ONE – of my class has kept in touch over the last 2-1/2 years.

When I met him he had no signs of sickness, but his was a ticking time bomb type of cancer. Next Monday I’ll be headed to Houston to visit him after a round of chemo at MD Anderson. So send your thoughts and prayers his way and keep them coming.

One of the things that has transpired over the last three years since being diagnosed (7/7/15) was taking on a manual labor job that ate my weekends whole for the last twelve months. The only real upside was boosting my endurance and conditioning to a level (better than years before cancer), that I assume, gets me ready for the next road that I take as I reach the intersection in July. You see, my conditioning peaked about two months ago, and the body says it’s time to do something different before real injury results. That little/long road is about over now, and I’ll need your feedback to figure out where the road goes … the physical clock is ticking, and I am turning off this one-year road at the last possible second, two wheels in the air  …

Speaking of July

July has always been my most sentimental month – bar none. And like it or not, I am a pretty darn sentimental sod of a person and fly fisher. July was the “Family Reunion” time of year, which meant South Padre Island (SPI), Texas, for at least a week that included the 4th., and sometimes another week just for good measure. If I had to identify geography for coming of age, South Padre Island would be one of the top two places. It is no different now. If there were a choice, I would find the full moon and put SPI on my calendar every single year.

But sometimes other more pressing needs take undeniable precedent. A huge part of the coming July will be an adventure along a road I have never traveled to a place I’ve never been. I’ll be riding and driving along with a friend of mine from here in North Texas – all the way to New England – to fulfill his late wife’s last wish.

FLY FISHING

We now have a week of cooler and unstable weather to look forward to! What a relief. As I said in last Friday’s report – the variables here in North Texas are many, and fish few. Maybe some rain and cooler temperatures are just what the fly doctor ordered? Something has to give …

So I soaked my next straw hat – from www.sunbodyhats.com in Houston – in the trough this morning, and am reshaping it to be “The Hat” for the rest of this year – if I can get it to fatten up around my fattening head! I guess you could call it shaping my anticipation for future roads?

NOTE: I did become aware of some glitches in videos deposited here (never on YouTube) last week, and will work to remedy those – and repost them, as new, very soon!