Laboring Away on Labor Day – Lebowski Day
It has been awhile since Labor Day was an escape from labor for me but, like so many people, this one is different. Sure, it’s a day off, and one I will spend at least a little time watching, “The Big Lebowski,” and I don’t know about you? but I am exhausted, worked out today. Today is truly an escape.
For me, it is because of burning the working oils day-in day-out on the startup Los Pescadores from this distance, and with a pretty thin bench backing me up. I am in this game for all four quarters, and the first one isn’t over yet.
At the end of last week, it was submitting electrical drawings for the new space in Port Isabel, drawings for the “above head” electrical for the building. Imagine that? Me drawing electrical plans, rough ones of course, to try and get the lighting for the retail, back area and coffee bar in approximately the correct place to run it out. At least I know what it is supposed to look like from my vast travels to fly shops in Texas and a scant few visits to shops in other states. Do I know what I am doing? What do you think?
Let’s not talk about the high voltage (220) for machines under the bars, filtered water and drainage … what else am I forgetting? A ton, I am leaving off, not forgetting, a ton of things left on my plate this Labor Day. And there’s the rub this labor day; not forgetting, and having this stuff running in a constant loop in the synapses. Twenty, thirty years ago? Not a problem. But as I approach midlife (61), room is running out and space for the things I (and we) care about most – is limited.
KEEP HOPE ALIVE
But, while I have never been tasked so hard, I have also never been the locomotive engineer for a train that I know is going somewhere – somewhere good. Acquaintances are popping up down in the Valley, like new Harlingen resident Jim Ford who I had a thirty-minute phone call with yesterday. (If you know me and my phone tendencies? Thirty-minutes is a lifetime for me!) We talked about his habit of targeting redfish and trout with very, very small weight rods. It was so counter to what I think I know, I had to listen for the long version. That is a future story that is sure to turn a few ears and eyes. Personally, I will need to see this to believe it.
Then there’s Glenn Harrison, a guy who introduced himself to me by definitely poking me on the Lower Laguna Madre Fly Fishing Association facebook page. Not offended by it, I wanted to know more, and Captain Glenn Harrison has become a definite “fisherman of interest” and a guide referral, the first from Los Pescadores, for the Lower Laguna Madre. (Professional guides are always welcome to contact me!) I am still looking for hunting guides for nilgai, deer, dove and quail hunting in the Valley.
So there’s a lot to look forward to between this Labor Day 2022, and by the next Labor Day, God willing and the Bay don’t rise? There will be a lot – a ton – to look back on. Perhaps my biggest problem is one a lot of fly fishers encounter – you have this pre-visualization of what you expect to find when you arrive at your fly fishing destination, only to find it blown up, blown out or completely dry. Try pre-visualizing your life in these terms. These are perilous times.
Category: Adventure, Body-Mind-Soul, Destination Fly Fishing, Eating and Drinking, Los Pescadores Coffee and Outfitters, Saltwater Fly Fishing Texas, South Texas
