Not ALL about the job, Part 2

So, what do you have to do to change things? Think outside the box...

Can you afford to work fewer days per month, and does your employer support unpaid leave? Take a Thursday and Friday off once a month and get a 4-day weekend. Are you able to work a 4/10 schedule and get regular 3-day weekends? How about a 9/80 and get a 3-day weekend every other week?

If none of these options are available to you, you need to be a bit more creative (unless you're independently wealthy) and look at splitting up your vacation time, maybe take one week of your annual allotment and divide it into days and make periodic 3-day weekends... but plan them far enough ahead that you can be ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

For me, the thing that made me start thinking about it was fishing... specifically, FLY FISHING for trout. That means RUNNING WATER to me, mostly in the Sierra Nevada region, freestone rivers and streams, which are mostly seasonal (first weekend in May thru Nov 15th).

The season is 6-1/2 months, the water is at reasonable flow rates roughly 4 of those months, and so there is a limited number of days where fishing is more than a simple excuse for drinking and not being at work. Knowing that I have other obligations that prevent me from simply going whenever I feel like it, I determined that I could probably go 5 of these 16 weekends- figuring in travel time, setup and tear down camp time, etc that would mean 2 'fishing days' per 3-day weekend.



When I did my calculation, I realized if I could fish in reasonable health, which includes the ability to walk streams, wade knee deep, deal with the altitude, etc. I could probably fish until I was 75-ish. Given my current age, after doing the math I was surprised to find out that unless I made some changes, I was only going to have a few more than 200 of these days left!!! That's less than a year... and to me, that was unacceptable.

So the next plan? When can I retire, and what can I do to push up that date to allow more days to pick from during the limited season. I was on my way to figuring that out until the recent downturn in the economy... and that, coupled with some changes in structure with my employer have provided some additional challenges.

But I'm NOT giving up... and you shouldn't either!

Fishy, fishy in the brook

I loves me the way you take that hook! Well, at least it was barbless and the damage was minimal.


Nope, not going to divulge the location; wouldn't be prudent... it's a place I've gone to for over 40 years for peace and quiet and to periodically re-center myself. Over the span of 4 days, I caught and released over 70 trout here this year, all on flies I tied myself and half of them on patterns no one has seen before.

I guess when I have these moments, I understand the concept that "life IS good".

One of the Most Beautiful Places in the WORLD!!

Doesn't matter how many times I've been here, it never ceases to amaze me.



Tough to believe this happened because of earthquakes, glaciers and water



But whatever the cause, I'm glad I live only a few hours away from it




And I can go back as often as I want and be totally BLOWN AWAY again



And again



And again!!

The Saga of Old Faithful

Well, it actually took place a year or so ago, but I'm finally at a point where I can write about it...

This is something I forwarded on to my daughter, decided to "share" with y'all.

We had ribs and CHICKEN LEGS last night. I had a bbq accident =( Last week, y'know, first bbq of the "new season", I had to burn all the yucky stuff off the grates, so like always, I started some coals, added some cut up pieces of wood, made a fire and spread it across the coal grid so I could put the grates over it to burn everything off, then brush them and re-coat them with oil to season them so nothing would stick... same old routine, do it very year and have been for 20+ years.

Well, for SOME REASON, much different results this year, and notsomuchfun... The fire got sorta out of control, caught some grease on the inside sides of the bbq on fire and started burning over the edge of the hood.... it caught the handle on fire (because it got so hot. it started it on fire from the inside!) and when I opened it up to put out the fire, it burned the hair off my hand and wrist!!!!

Worst thing was, no handle left on the BBQ and the meat grates got so hot they turned pink and lost all of their "seasoning" (which is what keeps meat from sticking). I spent the past week searching for possible replacements and it looks like anywhere between $280-400 to get one like what we have (mine was $180 10 years ago!) because almost all they sell anymore is gas "grills", which as you might like to know, I think are like patio stoves

So, I started a reclamation project on Saturday and think I MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE to bring my bbq "back from the dead".... scraped off all of the char and blistering on the inside of the box and hood (so it wouldn't drop on the food) and steel wooled the grates, then gave them a coat of oil and brushed it into them... started a SMALL coal fire (operative word here is SMALL!!!) and put smoker chips on it to try and slow cook the seasoning back into the grates, and repeated the oil, brush, fire, smoke routine 3 times... then it was on to the handle issue. Had a few branches I had saved from the alder I cut down last year and was looking through those and found one that had some possibilities... measured it up, cut it to size, drilled it out and used some steel concrete screw anchors for spacers between it and the bbq hood, and VOILA! Back in business!!



Still need to finish cleaning up the box (as you can see) and might consider giving it a coat of high-heat black paint (if I can get all the grease off the outside first), but then again, IT IS a bbq, right?? So maybe I'll just leave it looking MANLY.... ribs sure were good!!

Yep, and I hope the song gets stuck in your head

It's BADFINGER!!!!

only 2 notable albums, "Straight Up" and "No Dice", but the musicians did some great sessions work with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr (you've heard of these guys, I'm sure)and Todd Rundgren to name a few.

But I chose this title because the blog is about my life and the things I enjoy outside of what provides me remuneration... no matter WHAT I do.