Slipping into Fall
The days are getting blatantly shorter now, and the nights I actually sleep through surprise me with their darkening mornings. Plenty of people don’t sleep much. It’s obvious when you see the ads on TV, see all the chemicals on the shelves at health food stores and at the grocery. I used to think sleeplessness was a factor of worry – everybody’s worried about something and the economy gives everyone something to worry about. Then I saw a snippet of an interview with Billy Chrystal on his new book – Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? on a news show recently, and he talks about having trouble sleeping as well. If Billy Crystal has trouble sleeping at 65, and is set for life, maybe there’s more to losing sleep than economics?
CANADA
For those keeping track, I did a family vacation in Bamff and surrounding areas of Bamff last week. Of course I get the incredulous – “AND YOU DIDN’T FISH?!” – from everyone I’ve talked to since, but I learned the hard way that there’s time for family and there’s time for fly fishing, and they mix like oil and water. I’m not interested in sleeping with the fishes just yet.
Those Texas Fly Caster readers who have been to this part of Canada told me to be prepared to be blown away by the beauty, and I certainly was completely blown away. And as you may have read from my short finger tapped post off an Apple iPad 
COLORADO
Not long ago, we would disappear to Colorado for a summer vacation from the Texas heat. Nowadays, I am thinking … screw the heat, I just want to be close to water, fresh running water that isn’t drought dank, mud mucked and disappearing daily. Yeah, I know Lyons, Boulder and Denver have gotten our share of the rain, but at least those folks who were washed out (and thankfully still alive / I am sorry for the loss of life there) can get legally high via prescription (and recreation soon). Having never sampled the ganja, I wonder; does it help you sleep? I do have family in Lyons and Boulder-Denver.
Read A LOT MORE –
I am betting Gierach’s phone is ringing off the hook – to get him to write something from his home water – now ground zero. Heck, he may be standing in water waving a real stick right now. I can’t help it; my first brush with him, as I look back, well … he was a cranky crotch, not deserving of this kind of disaster, but he’ll be interviewed and probably sell a few words along the way.
Please send me any links for legitimate donating resources to the relief efforts for Boulder / Lyons / Denver / outlying areas. It’ll be an interesting study to see how the wealthy, well heeled citizens of the People’s Republic of Boulder respond to this. They believe in big government, and intrusive government starting at the local level. Now, I bet they believe in government rescue. As for the masses of not so well heeled, living on the streets of Boulder, or in the simple service industries (restaurants, retail, bars and the likes) … … washed away I guess, voiceless and washed away. Just think about little Boulder Creek in town going over the bridges, over everything. Well at least a place as glamorous as that part of Colorado will get the news coverage a place like Bastrop, Texas, never got when thousands of homes burned there a couple of years ago – guaranteed – ongoing, continuous and guaranteed. Can you tell I have definite opinions about some Colorado things, and the mainstream media?
MOVING ON NOW
The sheer views of a simple fly tying video – on tying the Coyote Carp Fly – now at more than 21-thousand on youtube, lead me to think that even as much as I disdain the genre of videos, I have to feed that beast. SO, in the interest of “Showing. Not Just Telling” about fly fishing in Texas, there’s a new series of videos that I will produce on effective flies for the Texas Gulf Coast. I am taking suggestions on these flies, but have already assembled a list of the USUAL SUSPECTS; Clouser, Seaducer, ReyRam and probably two or three more. I am looking to do a couple of things that should make this interesting; 1) give proper time to the nuances of common flies we make (steps we shortcut to our disadvantage), 2) show new colors that work, 3) promote new products like Clear Cure Goo that make fly tying more durable and finished flies more tough, 4) begin to delve into a new wave of articulated fly patterns. Now that I look at this, it looks pretty daunting. If you have a fly you want me to “Show, Not Just Tell” about, come on over and I will be glad to record it on video, and put it out there.
END NOTES
To quote from a famous Texas song, Luckenbach Texas, “Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love.” Some steps at Texas Fly Caster are evolutionary – a new website design, new video techniques, and new topics. They improve on the old, and leave it behind in favor of stronger, better faster. That’s pretty subjective stuff. Sometimes, you are reminded of just where you started, and the good things that have been left aside on the steps below, kind of like the dust that gathers out of the foot path on the sides of the old, strong wood steps. I was reminded last week of just how many steps there have been when a local lurker reappeared, behind the scenes, after several years of dormant silence. And that lead me to think about restating the “Mission Statement” for Texas Fly Caster, now that it has its own pulse to the tune of something around 15-thousand visits a month. The NUMBER ONE thing on a mission statement list is a no brainer; 1) Show, not just tell, about fly fishing and fly fishing in Texas. That has never wavered, but it sometimes wanes. In coming weeks and months, I will add to the Texas Fly Caster mission statement, and that will always be visible on the site.
Thank you for reading and enduring this morning! I hope you have a great week, and arrive happily at wherever you want, or have, to be this week.
Category: Culture on the Skids
