Have You Heard Loose Lips Sink Ships, or Have I Seen Those Lips Before...

We had friends over for a nice evening of fried catfish and conversation. In fact we talked so much we never even got around to discussing our shared grandchildren but some of the topics we covered were fishing, travel and facial recognition software and how good it has become. 

On the porch not far from where we sat was my old red wagon. Actually it's one of those new red wagons, pretty stout frame and canvas sides that serves me as a tool carrier, a grandchild transport for donkey walks and when I'm bank fishing it's a gear hauler. 

In the course of telling fishing stories I remarked to our friends how when we were launching the boat that day several people were on the shore unable to use the walkway to the old marina because of high water. It's a popular fishing spot and I related how "they loaded a wagon like that," on an aluminum boat and with a rope that was tied to the bank and the marina hand pulled themselves river ferry crossing style out to unload the wagon with fishing gear on the marina walkways. 

I did not have my phone in my pocket when I told this story. It was about 15' from me on a table all evening. I don't have one of those "Hey Google" things. Since I have a wagon there is no need to shop wagons on the world wide web. Today my ad feed for the internet is full of "shop wagons like this" ads apparently because I said "a wagon like that." 

I have not checked on my friends today. The information they provided about the facial recognition software part of the discussion was second hand from a good source. 

If I tell you I liked this house boat I photographed on the lake will I be under consumer pressure to shop similar craft?         

And while we are on these seeming coincidences here's my third great uncle Charlie Ledbetter, a ferry man on the Tennessee River. Seems that one evening in 1906 a man by the name of R.H. Ward had been drinking and caught a ride across the river to visit Charlie. This seems to have been a custom on his drinking days. Later his body was found about 10 miles down river. Charlie was arrested, tried and acquitted. Probably good thing there was no facial recognition software in those days. 

I believe that's Charlie with the dog. 

 

New Fishing Spot "Los Brazos"...

Cathy names all our fishing spots. There's the dogwalker, the wizard, the horseshoe, the elevens and that is all I can think of offhand. Most of those places are either underwater and we can't tie up or the depth is just not right to hold fish as we move into summer catfishing patterns. After a bit of looking around with the electronics we picked a new spot. It had some rolling bottom drop-offs where fish could move from a feeding place to a hiding place and some good solid tie ups. Cathy named this spot "Los Brazos" or "the arm." Maybe you can see why.   

With the underwater structure spotted we threw out a few handfuls of soured maize for chum to concentrate the fish. Fish have to be there and be near to be drawn in. That's why the structure is important. We used our old favorite JPIGGS punch bait and fished about 1pm to 3:30pm. For some reason the last few months that middle afternoon time has been the best. Fish eat when they are hungry but all fish do not eat at the same time. They can't because there is too many of them in the lake. They must take turns and when you find the structure with feeding/hiding places the schools will move in and out as they take their turn at the buffet. This buffet table was located in 35' of water with Cathy finding them 4 cranks from the bottom on her Zebco 606 and me with my smaller Lew's spincast locating them about 15 cranks up in 35' of water. As the afternoon progressed I started just flipping out about 20' of line and taking a few fish as my bait sunk with enough tension to feel a bite on the line. 

Good fillet sized channel cats and we probably threw back a bucket full of undersized blue cats. Sept 1st there will be no size limit on these small cats on Lake Sam Rayburn. Might see me occasionally frying some of these fiddlers whole instead of filleted. 

Actually we went fishing the day before but soon after launch at Cassels Boykin a storm blew up from the big part of the lake south of us and made it impossible to fish deep open water spots exposed to the wind. We tried some of our shallow water slip corking spots that were hot six weeks ago but only caught two fish before we decided it was safer with the boat on the trailer instead of in the water. 

We launched at Jackson Hill for this trip and fished an area we rarely fish to catch these cats and as you can see in the photo of Los Brazos we only caught a sprinkle from the edge of this afternoon storm and were sheltered from high winds. 

Final total was 30 cats. We are a bit behind on the catfish count for the year and are trying to stock up some for grandson Cullen's 1st birthday party fish fry. That did not stop us from inviting our friends the Finans out for fried catfish and hushpuppies with a side salad and a tart lemon meringue pie. The fish were swimming in our bellies about two hours after we got home from the lake.   

 

U.S. Tico and the Stephen F. Austin State University Rugby Reunion...

 U.S. Tico is in the USA. With numerous goals to accomplish and orders of business to take care of after 17 months of  pandemic assisted venturing the adventure in Costa Rica the first thing to see to besides family was a reunion of Stephen F. Austin State University Rugby Team Alumni at the Houston SaberCats game. It's sad to note that the SaberCats lost but I am sure they played the third half well.

There's U.S. Tico standing third from the right. Maybe we can put some names to these guys and The Man might actually know some of them but it's been a long time sice he played a third half with them.  

Rugby at SFASU is a Sport Club. Like other sport clubs such as bass fishing, judo, rock climbing and more it's a student run activity with most funding from donors. These clubs provide leadership opportunities and competition with other schools at the state and national level. Alumni donors offer one rugby scholarship each year. 

The Man never joined these guys to play rugby but as you can see from this group it's a friendly sport. After the game anyone not on the team has the chance to play the third half. It's a tradition to play the third half  around a keg of beer with everyone joining in the singing of bawdy songs, usually to the tune of well known nursery rhymes that must be finished flawlessly or you chug a beer. I note that now a days rugby songbooks can be downloaded and printed. That kind of takes some of the challenge away from your third half playbook.       

Of course there are other traditions such as the elephant walk as well as some that may not be named yet. There is also group of girls that follow the team called rugger huggers. See the girl in the top left of the above photo? That's a rugger hugger.

That's U.S. Tico on the far right standing. This photo from the Oct 3, 1978 issue of the Pine Log student newspaper celebrates the SFASU Rugby Team State Championship. 

Ok time to compare. Look at the SaberCat photos. Look at this one. Now chug your beer and name names. 

Here's another Pine Log clipping on a defeat of the Sam Houston Bearkats. It's always a good day when you beat Sam. Note the story below the game report, if you like SFASU Rugby donate here. 

I also note that there is now SFASU Women's Rugby. Research is underway to determine what they call team followers and if they need any. 

Happy Anniversary, 32 years...

Happy anniversary Cathy! This makes 32 years. It's been a good 32 years and I think back on all the funny things that surround this date in history and I have to laugh.

If you don't know and many people, especially more recent friends don't know our two oldest kids Rose and Katie and often think the two youngest, Morgan and Mary are the only ones. Don't try to do the math on the kids ages. Cathy had three when we married. A few months before her passing my mom confessed that my dad had asked, "What's he thinking?"

We were married at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lufkin. We did the Pre Canna classes and when we went to meet with the priest he had forgotten our appointment. The priest that greeted us, Father Linehan, who later became a great friend said we would have to come back later. Cathy exclaimed, "But we got a baby sitter!" I thought Father Mo's head was going to spin around. 

That priest that married us is no longer a priest. The old church, a new one was built, is now the parish hall. 

The day after our wedding we had already left for a honeymoon trip. Our friends Nancy and Bryan had stayed at our house overnight and before their drive back to their home in New Orleans they pulled the car around back to the the water faucet for a radiator fill. It had rained the evening before and if you know my yard the grass may look pretty good but the soil, depending on moisture may swallow small riding mowers in mud or be hard enough to allow Death Valley California style desert drag racing. On this day it was not that hard and they left incredible ruts getting unstuck. Later my parents visited with the kids to feed the old dog who suffered the indignity of staying there alone and Rose, who was all of 7 years old placed her hands on her hips and standing over the ruts said, "I can't believe they got so drunk they tried to drive around the house." I did not get that drunk but my mom certainly asked me about it. 

And finally there is the question of the missing wedding album. Some of the kids think that it's terrible we can't find it, not that the photos were all that great anyway. I think the few pictures that exist were made by friends and capture the moment better than the official photog did. Event photos have come a long way in 32 years and I noted the Quinceanera we played music for the other day had two very professional people working it to capture the memories. When I took the photo for this blog out of the frame to scan I found it to be a print from a long discarded printer on better that average printer paper. The picture below is probably by my best man and old college buddy Quince. 

I don't know where that wedding album is. It's not we have gone anywhere. We have been in this same old house 32 years. Hopefully we still have time left to laugh and look for it.       

   

 

That's What I Get for Bragging...

I been telling everyone about the good bream fishing over at Martin Dies Jr. State Park on B.A. Steinhagen Lake on the Walnut Bend canoe paddling trail. So I make the trip over, about a 45 minute drive from my house and that section of the park is closed for road repair. I talked to another fisherman and he said it's closure is predicted to be several months. 

Heck. With Sam Rayburn at record levels and parks closed to boat launching some of my quiet canoe spots are unavailable to me there also. I always hate it when there are fish out there dying of old age. 

I launched on another paddling trail in different part of the park and not so good on the fishing there. I caught one big bream and a small bass. Fishing was better on our family swim at Ratcliff last week where we caught several bass, bream and I even got a good size catfish up but lost him on one of those noodlie fiberglass fake cane fishing poles.

Maybe the secret was that day I had grandkids beating on the bottom of the canoe with boat paddles. Ok, stand back while I reveal a top secret fishing tactic. Beating on the bottom of the boat attracts the fish, or at least the curious ones which are usually dumber and easier to catch. You should try it. We do it all the time.     

I would have got out on the bank and stretched my legs, it's seems I might be getting a bit stiff after several hours in a canoe these days but this bank in the Big Thicket ecosystem looks like it might be a good place for a Bigfoot encounter. Maybe that's who caught all the bream.  

 

OK Boomer Melds Old and New Tech...

I still have an old school type stereo. AM/FM receiver amp thing, dual cassette deck, turn table and big old speakers mounted on the wall. Those big old speakers are the only original component left from 1978 which was the year of purchase. 

!978 was a year where I was a single guy with a good union job making long green buying big stereos  and seemed like things were probably never going to change and then just like over night things are all different. One of the things that got different over the years besides the fact that we got a piece of plyboard, hung it from the ceiling with swag lamp chains and put the turntable on it so the needle wouldn't jump around when we did was music and the technology to listen to it.  

I'm pretty good with that Bluetooth technology where you link a speaker up to your phone and listen to music. Most of the time I use it to listen to my favorite radio station WWOZ. I had another portable speaker, battery powered or plug it in that had a radio transmitter antenna that would broadcast a signal from the home stereo for outdoor listening of records and cds. At least I used it outdoors and it was not a good weather proof apparatus but it did service for an embarrassing number of years. Before this I had wires tucked here and there running all around to outdoor speakers. A hardwired system. 

So I gets to thinking, can I convert this old system to Bluetooth? Can I listen to all my Jo Stafford and Chet Baker records outdoors? You can with this little thing in the darkened photo by a company called Misscus that plugs into the headphone jack of your AM/FM receiver. It costs $40 and transmits anything played on the home stereo, records, cds, cassettes, Astros games and so on to the Bluetooth speaker.  

Here's the Bluetooth speaker. Weather proof, water proof, indestructible, rechargeable, leave it outdoors it embodies the reasons I don't buy expensive Martin or Gibson guitars. Be aware it does seem to do it's best about 20' from the receiver. I don't know if being in contact with the house itself has anything to do with broadcast but in addition this location is 20' from where I stand to fry fish so like back when I had that union job seems like nothing needs to change at least for right now.  

A camera shot from the backdoor where the speaker resides into the music room to give you the idea of range. At least I call this the music room. I don't know what the grandkids call it. They spend a lot of time in here because this is where all the various drums are kept and those not yet big enough to sit on a stool and pound the skins can at least amuse themselves with pulling all the cds out of the racks. 

With the kids jumping around in here maybe I need one of those hanging turntable things to keep the needle on records from skipping but with the price of lumber today it would probably cost more to make than the $40 Bluetooth transmitter.  

 

Hot Pepper Sauce While it's Still Legal...

Remember back when me and Ft. Worth blues singer Creek Bottom Smith speculated that in an authoritarian society the pleasures of hot sauce might be made illegal?

It's coming to pass. Creek Bottom aint in Ft. Worth much longer and they are starting to tell you how cold your air conditioning can be set. It only makes sense that they are going to regulate how hot your hot sauce can be.      

Today I worked on a batch of sauce. It's the third time I have made some like this and it might be the charm. The two previous batches were nice but not hot. This one might be the one. Here's the recipe:

A good double hand full of dried arbol peppers from the grocery, a good handful of fresh super chilis and sweet peppers from my garden boiled and seeped in a small sauce pan.

About three good pinches of sea salt. 

A good spoonful of chili powder.

about 10 table spoons of vinegar.

One table spoon apple cider vinegar. 

Good spoon full of minced garlic.

Juice of one lemon.

Liquify in a blender. 

Pour into bottles.

The sauce is still warm but a taste tells me I'm getting in the ballpark. Three bottles is enough to keep me entertained for awhile.    

 

Let's Go Ahead and Start the Summer...

We made a catfish trip on Friday. First time out with the boat in a few weeks as we have been busy with a new grandchild, older grandkids and lots of rain in this area that has caused our favorite bat ramps to close. We launched at Cassels Boykin for this excursion. 

Cathy tried out a new fishing hat and gives it an A+. She caught 6 catfish to my two keepers. Bout time my streak ran out. I have had a hot hand lately. We also had a lot of small throw backs. The spot where we had good luck last time which was about a month ago at 8' deep was 15' deep this trip. There was some 8' water way back up in the woods and we tried to fish there but with a lot of hang-ups due to the flooded timber made a good bait presentation difficult. If you can't get the bait to him, he's not going to bite it. That's fishing in a nutshell. 

We tried a deep spot but we could not find our favorite stump to tie to. It must be submerged and where we tied was 47'. There were fish there suspended about 15 reel cranks off the bottom but this was where all the throw backs came from. 

Cathy took a dive in the lake. Water temps showed to be 83 degrees and we are both confirmed warm water swimmers so I was surprised she went for this. She was back in the boat so quick I don't think her hair got wet.  

We had lately taken a swim in the pool of a sun baked courtyard of a local mid century hotel and the pool water was nice and warm. This afternoon we have a Ratcliff canoe trip planned with a host of grandkids. Should be warm. 

 

Todd Snider at The Heights Theater...

Way back in those heady days when I was still working but planning retirement activity for the year to come we bought tickets to see one of our favorite dudes, Todd Snider at the Heights Theater in Houston Texas. Of course schedules change and pandemics happen and on the newly scheduled date over a year later Cathy had to work so her old college room mate, Anne and I made the journey south to see the show.   

I think Todd was first on our music radar way back in the early 2000s. He seemed to be trying to crack the country scene as a young bright singer who had an occasionally funny, witty song pop out that made you say, hey there is something special going on with that one. We caught him at a small SXSW showcase and kind of like one of his story raps he tells between tunes he acted a bit like "I Was Looking For a Job When I Found This One" or maybe hey I got a ride why am I hanging around? I guess we all have a bad night now and then and some of my own bad nights have been at SXSW. 

But the songs got better and the raps between them got funnier and we saw Todd with Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires with Jerry Jeff Walker joining on the ACL stage, Todd in  Chicago with Elizabeth Cook opening and Todd with Widespread Panic. Maybe even another time or two that I can't recall. 

If you don't know Todd he sings about characters who are not living the American dream. They are not swimming in that old mainstream. They wear cooking hats and aprons, carry num chucks, which they might use, are getting too old to sit down while wearing handcuffs and if those he sings of are part of the square corporate world the question is asked why, after all they have achieved do those acting so irresponsibly seem like they have it all? 

None of those lines are mine, they come from the songs but if you catch me and Cathy playing out as a duo you can probably bet we may play a Todd Snider tune. 

This concert was mostly Todd's older material with a fair sampling from all albums except the last two. I consider the last two maybe not his best but certainly masterworks as far as the social commentary contained in them goes. There was a banjo on stage that had me primed for The Blues on Banjo. Just as well, I think it was the man himself who said you can't play the blues in an air conditioned room. 

I was recently in on a discussion of whether it was cool or not to use a music stand on stage. To settle it and settled divisively it was when some one produced a photo of Johnny Cash using a stand on stage at the recording of his live at San Quentin album. Todd uses a teleprompter. His songs and stories are pretty complex with torrents of words that must have a smooth delivery just right to be effective so I can see how it would be handy. When we see Bob Dylan and Kanye using teleprompters we'll all want one.   

I hope you go see Todd sometime and give his latest release "First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder a listen. I think it's great. 

 

       

 

Hey! I Like Bedlam Too...

 I recall once when my son Morgan was in college I paid him a visit at his place and as we sat talking his music played from a laptop. It was a nice evening enhanced by the vibe of good tunes and I was proud my son had such great taste. I asked about where he was hearing and acquiring his music and he said, "I ripped it all from your cds." Well I do have an extensive library of records and cds and sometimes I forget what's in it. One thing for sure, my soon to be four year old grandson Ezra is not going to let me forget that I have a copy of Bedlam Ballroom by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. 

If you don't know the Zippers they are a band formed back in 1993 and combine 1930s swing with a weird old America carnival atmosphere and older musical forms such as blues, gypsy jazz and klezmer. The band is led by Jimbo Mathus and has had some on and off periods but a reconstituted combo has been back releasing new music since 2016. We saw the Zippers with Scott, Ellen, Suzi and Charlie on New Years Eve 2016/2017 in New Orleans. Me and Cathy have also seen Jimbo on his own twice. He's a national treasure. 

Bedlam Ballroom opens with Gene Krupa style drumming. It's a heavy swinging jungle beat with thudding toms that gives away to a bossa nova swing. It's nice we have the drum set in this room as Ezra can work on his feel for that kind of riff. When the singing starts he then begins lip syncing the words like he was in Milli Vanilli. The brilliant neon colors of the cd cover are an eye catcher for him and he's had Cathy make a couple of copies to go. 

Reviews of this cd were a bit lukewarm when it came out and the band broke up afterwards but we only care about what we think and me and Ezra think this album was good. 

Also playing on Bedlam Ballroom was violinist Andrew Bird. Jimbo and Andrew have out a new release as a duo and I will be watching for tour dates. 

So one of these days Ezra will be all grown up and I'll be a feeble old man and I'll marvel that he listens to great music. Music is a seed planted that continues to grow. 

 

  

Chinatown...

I have probably driven to Chicago at least four times in the past year or so to visit Katie, Peter, Wallace and now their new addition to the family Hamish. While the pandemic was at it's height of infection dangers and death I often felt safer on a visit because most indoor activity was shut down and mask compliance was 100%. Back home in Texas, at least rural Texas, mask wearing could be spotty and the right to gather in groups seemed to take precedents over life itself.  

It seems things are opening up in Chicago as evidenced by this shot of a Chinatown street with many people, some wearing masks, others adhering to new CDC guidelines advising vaccinated, healthy adults that it's ok, especially outdoors to remove the mask. This is quite a difference than our April visit when even Millennium Park down along the lake front was quite empty. The Park, like these Chinatown streets, was full of people enjoying the sunshine this past weekend 

I think I might slip into town sometime and lay up at the Chinatown Hotel. It is described as a two star place, quiet and low key with a suite renting for $84. Parking is an extra $15 with only one entrance permitted but even though it's not mentioned in the amenities if you come to lay up with a pipe of opium you could probably get to them on this fee.   

The streets are lined with good looking restaurants. I've eaten at some of these during other visits. Katie and Peter live near here in a largely Asian neighborhood and this time we ate there before our Chinatown visit. I had pork and shrimp with curry rice noodles even though hand pull noodle seems to be a favorite.  

There are lots of dixieland tunes that mention China in the title an they are meant to rouse our curiosity in exotic cultures not of our own. 

  

 

Urban Fishing or Do I have a New Nickname...

One of my Texas grandsons, Ezra often greets or says good bye using a personal term of endearment. He fondly addresses the person as "Catfish" as in "See you later Catfish." After fishing the pond at Palmisano Park with my Chicago grandson, Wallace and catching google eye perch there is a risk that the next time I see him I will be greeted as "Hey google eye."   

The lake, stocked by the Illinois DNR claims to be the home of bass, crappie and catfish. The google eyes are a good choice because with an aggressive attitude and a bass like mouth they often will strike lures the same size as themselves and bit well this trip. The recipe for catching them on a cloudy 50 degree day was meal worms fished under slip corks about 4' deep. I did not really count but we caught at least a half a dozen with me doing the hooking and Wallace reeling. All fish were (caught/photographed/released) CPRed. (caught/photographed/released.) Bait and a few items of equipment required were purchased at a neighborhood place in operation since 1951 called Henry's Sports and Bait Shop. Henry says about his baits that if he would not fish with it you shouldn't either.  

The lake at Palmisano Park is the former site of a limestone quarry that operated from 1830-1970. The limestone was formed by a coral reef dating back 400 million years to the Silurian Age. That's a significant age for those of us called "catfish." It's when the first bony fishes appeared.

This has been a public park since 2009. Info says there is a wetland trail that feeds the pond and I hope to check that out next visit. Lots of geese, mallard ducks, goslings and chicks on the water. Completely uncrowded on the weekday when we had the best luck and not too many people for a city of 8 million people on Saturday afternoon when we returned.  

It was just Wallace, his dad Peter and me on the initial trip but once she heard the bite was on this "catfish" had to check it out.

Get outdoors, fish, make a memory, acquire a nickname. Do something where you will never be the same.