Bait

My usual springtime, getting-ready-for-opening-day-of-trout fishing ritual consists of untangling all the fishing poles and lines from the year before. I always try to enlist my wife Kathy or a neighbor lady, whoever is handy, to hold the other end of the line and keep it tight so I can reel it back in easier. Yesterday, I coaxed my wife and the neighbor lady into holding the ends of the lines, so I could do just that. We now live in a 55 and older community called Trilogy. An elderly man (probably younger than me) stopped and stared for a few seconds. With sort of a lecherous smile on his face, he said, "I don't know what you're using for bait, son ... but I'll take a dozen!"

UW Washington Huskies versus UConn

Well here we go again. You probably received, awhile back, my rant and rave on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl robbery and had put the game pretty much behind me. Every now and then something on ESPN will pop up and give mention of the poor jobs the refs did and that Seattle really had a much better team. It didn'thelp the other day when I heard that Condi Rice was at the game and is from Detroit! Hmm… I wonder? After that game I had decided to not put my faith in our local sports teams, more the attitude if they win they win. That's great and not to get caught up in the thrill of winning, say the Super Bowl or get into the final four of the NCAA basketball tournament. All this sports stuff goes back to my living in small towns in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where you live and breathe sports. More like a religion. If you read other personal stories on my blog http://FivePoundTrout.blogspot.com you will know what I mean. When we moved to the Pacific Northwest in ’71, we moved here for the great outdoors, mountains, hiking, fishing, hunting, clam-digging, swimming in the ocean and so forth. I stopped paying much attention to sports until the Washington football Huskies went to the Rose Bowl in ‘78 and the Super Sonics won the NBA title in ‘79. Also let's not forget about the Kirkland Little League team winning the World Championship in baseball. The Washington Huskies continued to be great up until recent years. When Don James took the team to the Rose Bowl almost every year, the folks in California didn't take to us too kindly. How dare that pip-squeak town Seattle bring those Huskies down here almost every year in front of a huge national audience and play in our Rose Bowl in Pasadena! The schoolhad some minor violations so all the PAC ten teams voted to sanction us on the amount of top players we could recruit, take away televised games and other things. Huskies went downhill fast and are still trying to catch up in football. Then we bring in a new Washington Husky basketball coach, a great guy, Lorenzo Romar, and the basketball team catches fire. Excellent teams the last two years with fine players like Brandon Roy, a wonderful human being andthe best all around player you will ever see play. He will be in the NBA! And then we have Adam Morrison for Gonzaga, another one of the best players in thecountry. Both teams this year were really excellent and I started to watch them play. Even went to a few games and I must admit they were exciting and fun. I had fallen off the sports wagon again and I was hooked. I couldn't put the remote down whenever either of them played. After all, Gonzaga represents eastern Washington and the Huskies represent the Puget Sound region. Of course, when they played each other it was a win-win situation, but I was pulling for the Huskies, and Washington won. When Gonzaga played UCLA Thursday night in the Sweet Sixteen, it looked like the Bulldogs were running away with it and they were - leading by as much as 17 points at one time. They were on their way. I'm not clear on all the details but they were leading by a lot with just a couple minutes to go. It then turned from a basketball game into a football game. Zags were being hammered every time they touched the ball and no fouls were called! As you know, they lost in the end on a lucky shot by UCLA. Well, there goes my dream of Washington and Gonzaga in the final four. I then start to think like a drug addict or alcoholic who has fallen off the wagon and asking themselves ‘Why am I doing this?’ Then came last night. Still hope. The Huskies are playing one of the top teams in the country, UConn with lots of east coast sports media thinking they are the best team since sliced bread. I'm thinking, just you wait, the Huskies are going to surprise you and I knew it was against my better judgment to do so. Instead I came in with the attitude before the game started to just resign myself and expect them to lose. Washington was playing great and I changed my mind. If you saw the game, you know what I'm talking about. Connecticut (they are Huskies too) looked stunned and acted like cry-babies and couldn't understand why the Huskies were beating them so badly. UConn coach must have had a long talk with the refs at half-time and then came the fouls. Tell me if this makes sense: UConn goes to the line for free-throws 47 times to Washington’s 23? Washington had five players foul out of the game with five fouls (Brandon Roy, with 13 minutes left in the game, was called forhis fourth foul of the game that included a cheap personal technical foul.) He had to go to sit it out until just a few minutes were left in the game, our best player. Who knows what the score would have been, if he had stayed in? Just like the Seahawks’ game. There is no way the Huskies would be allowed to win. The game goes into overtime with almost all our players in foul trouble or already out of the game. It ended up with Washington Huskies: five players fouled out ofthe game, and two others with four. UConn: two players with four, two with three and so forth. What is wrong with that picture? I will say, just like the Seahawks, they should have won anyway. A bit of luck was not on Washington’s side either. The three-pointer with two seconds remaining in regulation by Connecticut’s Rashard Anderson was the killer. Huskies should be playing Sunday. Oh, what could have been? Well, no more sports for me unless the Sonics get in the finals or the Mariners are in the World Series. Maybe God wants the folks in the Northwest to enjoy the beauty we have here instead of glorifying human beings and their accomplishments. The good news: Razor clamming is open this weekend, most trout fishing lakes open the last Saturday in April with stream fishing is not far behind. Start getting the flies and fly rod ready! The spring turkey hunt opens the middle of April, also. Where are the referees? Referees? We don't need no stinkin’ referees...to play in the outdoors! Thank you, Treasure of Sierra Madre. I'm back on the wagon. Joe PS Always remember: You take a kid fishing. You don't go fishing with a kid!

Why the old ladies in black still pray...

When I was around 9 or 10 years old going to the Catholic church, The Immaculate Conception, in Iron Mountain, Michigan, wasn't my greatest joy. Back in the early '50s the masses were Latin and itwas hard for me to get a whole lot out it, at that age. All I knew is that my knees and legs ached and it seemed as if the service went on for hours! It probably did go an hour-and-a-half, but that's what it feels like when your are a kid. Almost intolerable in todays world. My Aunt Mary, who had no children of her own, loved to dress me up and take me to church with her. My mother had five young ones to look after andI'm sure it would have been hard for her. My dad, for some reason, and almost all my uncles, including my grandfather (who at one time wanted to be a priest and studied for it in Italy, before moving toAmerica) never went to church. A running joke was that, if any of them ever did step foot in church it would fall over! Anyway, I'm glad I went! I've always been, even at a young age, and now as an older age, curious about people and why they do the things they do. It helps me understand more why I do the things I do, even if you don't understand why I do the things I do. Confusing? The old ladies, mostly Italian, dressed almost in pure black, including black stockings to hide (I assume) varicose veins. Some of the women had small beards or whiskers, common for old Italian women and as a kid scared me a little. They always sat in the very back of the church, not for just one mass but for maybe a couple of masses and all the time in between. They sat and (kneeled when they could) holding rosaries with arthritic hands. They would bow their heads and say the prayers of the rosaries. Up until today, I always thought they were praying to get into Heaven thinking they didn't have much time left on this earth. I now believe I was wrong. Those old Italian ladies were praying for you and me. I think they saw, even in the '50s, the atrocities of the world and were praying for it to be a better place. They were most likely praying for maybe husbands or sons that were killed during the wars or some misfortune in a friend's life. I still don't go to church very often and when I do, they are still standing after I walk out. I suppose an earthquake will hit when I'm inside one someday! If that happens, be sure and take a mental note of what I said. I know there are still old ladies and old men that say the rosary and spend hours in church. God blessthem! Joe