September October Mega post

A lot of golf was played. Some fishing was fished. Some playoff baseball was witnessed. Some football was watched. Short and sweet but very much enjoyed.  

First fish of 2014 and some golf shots

These are pictures from Forest Park golf course. 18 holes, the back 9 are more fun than the front.  More like a warm up for the fun part. This outing was more like a forced march due to the person we were paired with ended up being like a "golf drill instructor".  Learned some things, but it was work.  We went back a couple of weeks later and had a much better time at our own pace.   

First Fish of 2014.  Much like the fish of every year small and a white Perch.  Oh well it was fun.  

How's this for a title: Lost a Job but Gained a Hobby?

So it's been a few weeks and eventful that's why I haven't posted.  The job loss was not a shock I saw it coming for 6 months plus.  I had been planning for this and have saving and a plan which I may elaborate on.  For now I will say that I am pursuing several parrellel paths and each is promising to get me to the next level in my career.  The weeks I have been off I have felt better than I have for many years.  This is how I can tell I would be a great indepedantly wealthy or retired person.  I have a schedule set for week days.  Work in the morning, walk the dogs, then the afternoons gym, usually followed by cooking dinner.  The lack of the day to day stress of work is a feeling I have never felt before.  Of course a weeks vacation here of there is ok, but there was always that looming back to work Monday.  This is an entirely new feeling that has been so far great. Should I be more worried? probably so, but for now I am enjoying my "faux-retirement".   I also have begun learning a software language which I had on my to do list for years.  I found a class (insert Stanford online link) to learn Java.  I picked it because it is used for mobile app development.  This project is mostly for self improvemnt and now I have the time I am getting it done.  The other part is a small personal project that I will outline on another post when it gets closer to time (i.e. when I learn enough to start writing it).

So was learning Java the hobby? nope!  As if I needed another hobby in this time of financial uncertainty.  Well true to form I have been influenced to take up Golf.  I had hit balls in college at a driving range and it was a good time.  Around graduation set of clubs was given to me and I went a few times, but not having a partner it sort of died off.  In a cleaning mode one day led to the donation of the unused clubs.  Well 15 years later I find myself back at the range and basically as I do with every hobby into it big time.  Thanks to my cousin as he pushed this onto me.  I can't say I regret it.  I am taking a measured approach in that I am only buying a few clubs and the bare minimum to get on the course.  This is not my usual hobby MO of sinking lots of $ into it.  So far I have been to the driving range a few times and plan on my first round in the next couple of weeks.  In the short time back at the ranges I can say I have had some beautiful weather since the horrible winter and I have seen some beatutiful scenes (see pic below).

Other than that I have help my parents with a deck fix up project (see pics below) and done a few projects around the house (flat screen behind the wall install, gardening, got motorcycle out).   I have a big project that it seems I am procrastinating on which is wash, polishing and waxing the boat.  I wasn't going to put it in this year, but as the time came I said I have the time to save the cost of the detailing and frankly I don't think I could live with not fishing at all this year.  So there you have it and more to come.  

Insert picture from Rocky point
Insert pictures of deck
Insert picture of wall mo

Early September

Ok new hobby alert: Paracord weaving. It all started with needing a motorcycle key chain. The old one scratched the bars and tank, so I needed a soft option. Hence the paracord. I had been seeing these paracord survival bracelets many places and then I saw some variations like a key FOB, dog collars and rifle slings. I figured I love tying knots so I would give it a try. I can't stop, I replaced all my keychains and making random pulls. So far I Used 150' of it and I need more.

Fishing first catfish of the year. These were rare in that we were fishing with metal lures. Cats usually come with bait.

Random

A Childhood mystery solved

So when I was young 7 or 8, my grandfather let my family borrow a few fishing rods for use on vacation.  The day we went to get them from their house, he rigged a weight up to a line and showed us how to cast in the backyard.  When he was done he took the two piece rods apart.  Then something happened that stuck with me to this day.  He took his finger and wiped it against his nose and then wiped the oil onto the smaller rod connection.
  

 For years this puzzled me and struck me as odd. The truth is I always followed his example and did it more out of respect for the memory than for the practical utility of the action.  That is until I read this article that talks about the unique properties of Nasal Sebum (my former pop-pop nose oil).  



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_sebum

Fishing trip

This week (the week of July 8th) I went fishing.  This week I was off and planned to fish a bunch; instead I went once due to weather forecasts and not being able to get up some days.  It was good day to be out there.  I caught loads of fish including this 12 inch rock and many perch.  The second picture shows a perch I caught on a bloodworm fly I made. There is something satisfying about catching fish on a lure you made.  Although just before this one, I caught a perch on the hook below this one that wasn't baited at all.  That day I did catch a rock on another fly that I made, but that teaser fly has worked before.  I ended up with dinner for a few days in the form of the perch you see in the last picture.  The largest was 11", not bad. I gave arepreive to the smallest one which I put in the pond behind my house.  I guess I am trying to establish a perch source closer to home or I just fed the snakes, turtles and birds that are in that pond.       

First fish and Verizon fios app is awesome

So it wasn't a monster in fact it looked a lot like the last fish I caught in 2012, but it was the first fish of 2013.  I need to start getting up earlier so i can fish a bit more this year.  I set my daily alarm for 5:30 so I can condition myself but it isn't working real well. 

 

 OK so I finally got my Verizon ID set up after 5 years and downloaded their app.  I really did it to be lazy because I didn't want to get up and change the station and I knew there was a remote function built into the app.  See I was on one end of the sofa with my iPad and the remote was on the other end.  How lazy is that? There is a Samsung app too, but they updated it and made it nonfunctional which is the craziest thing in the world BTW.  Anyway this app  not only has a remote function, but also you can watch live TV on your iPad and set your DVR.  I don't know if you can watch your DVR recordings or if it works over the internet (versus local wifi only).  It works great and I love it.  It actually might save me a significant amount of money by allowing TV watching on our first floor where we don't have a TV at this time. The funny thing is we got another TV last week for the office on a whim and due to a great COSTCO price on Samsung LEDs.       

Mid October thoughts

Bad news for the Ravens after their win against Dallas. Ray Lewis tears his tricep.  I saw a play where he was out there but didnt use his one arm = bad sign.  His injury last season or the season before that was similar. Then Ladarius Webb tears his acl.  That will have a impact.  Webb held together the defense from last year and was doing ok this season.  His absence in the secondary is going to hurt.  Now the ravens built a nice 5 and 1 record so they may limp into the playoffs once again but it's going to go to the last week of the season.  Just heard this might mean Suggs might be coming back way too soon. 

Staycation ended up not doing much, but I did get my cars annual service done and I am having a electrician come out and replace a wire that has damaged insulation.  Both of these things would have been difficult to get done if I had worked this week.  I did go fishing and had lots of action for about 2 hours then it went dead.  Oh well it was better than being at work.




Some fog hugging the eastern shore

August 31st

Got out early Friday morning, check that not really.  I realized I forgot my sunglasses as I started up the boat, so back to the house.  To my surprise my wife wanted to go out.  I said sure and 1 hour later of who knows what she was ready to go.  It's always nice to have another person on the boat but I was all ready for a day by myself.  The couple things I appreciated about her company was A. She could get the net B. take pictures C. Keep me company when the fishing was slow.  Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  See she did A and B but C not so much due to the fact she was asleep 90% of the trip.  The fresh air and motion of the boat has a hypnotic effect on her that instantly relaxes her. I'm glad we don't have a cruiser our she would be out 100% of the time.  The walkaround doesn't accommodate much relaxing space so I have to interrupt her when I drive the boat.  So the fishing started out real promising with a series of great drifts. This decent sized rock in the picture was the represented the potential of the day.  Well that lasted about a half hour.  The next couple of hours Resulted in maybe 6 more fish (5 small rock and 1 blue). The only notable thing was I got the last rock after stopping between places where some random birds were hanging out.  It still was a good day out on the water with my wife. 

Got out early well tried to until I relieved 

Week of August 5th

So I went fishing twice this week.  I took of Tuesday 7th and I got out on the 12th.  On Tuesday I went to the old stand by Man of War Shoal (AKA the perch spot) .  It lived up to its name and I caught a could dozen perch.  I then went back to Hodges (where I had been pretty successful the last couple of weeks) and got into a few small rock and more perch.  On Sunday i went straight for Hodge's but after a drift I decided to head over to the Eastern Shore (about 2 miles east), where I saw a bunch of boats.  I Stayed there for a few drifts and caught a couple of rock and perch.  I went back to Hodges to try out my drift sock I had bought. I had been thinking that the boat drifts pretty fast over the various points i fish and it would be nice to slow it down a bit.  I wnt to Bass Pro Shops in Arundle Mills and got a 54" model.  At BPS my truck was hit, but that is another story.  Anyway the drift sock was rigged up to a rear cleat and I tried a few drifts.  In my unscientific tests it seem to slow down the drift about 10%. Its that good?  I don't know how much more time I actually get to fish because the anchor has to be retrieved between drifts and I was wondering does it scare the fish? I caught a few and decided to try man of war.  Down there I caught the usual perch and got a few of almost decent size but no monsters.  I then headed down the 7" knoll.  There were a bunch of boats fishing when I got there but they soon cleared out. I ended up catching 4 species there, rock and perch (of course) and then a croaker and spot too.  At this point I had been fishing for 5 hours, so I decided to head back in. 

So I come out of BPS and I see a 14" blue line on my quarter panel.  I parked at the end of the parking lot that was a bit busy but it was the end and not really crowded.  I get home and pull out the polish compound and the el cheapo right angle polisher from Harbor Freight.  After an hour of polishing I get it almost 100% out.  It was pretty lucky that it didn't go through the paint, so I got of easy.  Monday morning I see there is a screw sticking out of my brand new tire (on the same vehicle).  I took it to be plugged and as luck would have it it didn't go through the tread.   

Nice sunrise on Middle River August 12

 

Early morning sun over the Eastern Shore

Saw a flotilla of these interesting boats coming into the Patapsco.  They look like some sort of early 20th century cargo ships. 

 

Drift Sock