It's A Non Report But Maybe We Caught Something...

 

Sometimes I think I've occasionally been remiss in my parenting and grandparenting. My dad made me fish with a cane pole until he was confident that I was not going to cause a ruckus in the boat somehow with tangles, hooked fishing partners and expensive dropped overboard green stamp purchased fishing combos. Hence the cane pole use. I don't worry about all that and go ahead and provide if not the best gear, serviceable gear that they use well.     

That does not mean I haven't had to dredge up a couple of dropped fishing poles over the past year or so. One five year old dropped his, an honest mistake. I'm not sure what came to be when the 41 year old dropped hers but I do recall that I was a full grown man, still tromping around in cane thickets in search of the one with the perfect curve before I discovered you could catch crappie with a rod and reel instead of switch cane and black Dacron line with a cork bobber. 

So with all these memories bouncing inside my head I was glad to take the grandkids to Pioneer Days at Martin Dies Jr. State Park. In addition to providing cane pole fishing they saw some camp cooking (nothing new for them here) old fashion kitchen wares, muzzle loading rifles, and how to fold a blanket in a triangle for ground sleeping.  

While they didn't add to our year end catfish totals today may be they learned something about the old ways that will connect them to the things in my old head. Nothing remiss about that. 

Camping and Fishing Report Hanks Creek, Sam Rayburn Lake USA...

 If I counted up right as I reviewed back through this blog there have been 10 camping trips this year. For #10 we did not range too far from home as we set up at Hanks Creek which is about 20 minutes from our house and the jumping off point to our favorite fishing spots. As blues man Taj Mahal said "many fish bite if you got good bait" and bite they did this weekend. 

Though we camped by ourselves we were joined by daughter Katie from Chicago who was in for a funeral of a friend's mom, the Zamora family (there was fried catfish to eat) and our friends Sherri and Peter. Final total for catching fish was 42 for this three night trip with is right in line with a trip we had 15 years ago this weekend where we tent camped, it was colder, rained and we caught 48 fish. 

By the way, all those fish were eaten.

The lake is almost 9' low as you can see from the large exposed beach in the background of this photo. The fish were holding in the creek channels about 7 feet deep so they are still hanging in the same areas but it's worth a note that we have caught 100s of fish on that exposed sandbar behind these fishers. 

Yeah mama, eat it every day if I could. 

I don't think I got a photo of Katie or Miguel but they might not have fishing licenses and in a surveillance society no need to incriminate.   

Big gator living in the campground cove. This photo taken in sight of our boat docking spot. 

Bikes always fun on a campout. 

Not many campers in the park. We saw maybe 6-8 sites occupied but many are still closed from hurricane damage last summer or spots where you could pull a boat up are not close to the water with the lack of rain and dam repair draw downs. One bathroom is closed. All camper we talked to were catch catfish but I think they were mostly fishing deep so take your pick. Fish are everywhere. 

No trips currently on the books but I'm open to suggestions. 

 

The Terrible Twos...

I'm a proud grandparent. Mine are the best and I post their photos to social media. When I encounter my friends and I'm accompanied by the grandkids they have already seen the photos and say, "they are as cute as the pictures." I say, "thanks, if I don't shave them they look just like me." I think that's a funny line. What's not so funny is that Milo, who looks and acts like so much they call him Brown Carl is in the grip of the terrible twos. 

You may have experienced the terrible twos with your own children and surely had them yourself. It's when you don't get what you want or due to the fact that your communication skills have not expanded enough to keep up with your understanding of how the world works the frustration at all this makes you lose complete control of your emotions.  

We kept Ezra, Luca and Milo this weekend while the parents were off on a trip. The kids were good. They helped with yard chores. We attended Honor America Night and they were good. We saw the Dino Light Show at Temple Theater and they were good. We went to church and they were good. 

But if Milo is denied a "T-Tia" (tortilla), Pinky Panther on TV or if he has just eaten 4 Mandarin oranges (he can peel them) and you refuse him the 5th one he has a meltdown. 

One night at bedtime he lost complete control because he was denied an apple (a tactic to stay up longer) and splayed himself across the floor howling in such existential pain that his brothers felt it and cried too.  

When he does this I just stand there and look. After all it's his pain not mine and while not as cute as some of the photos there is a certain charm and style to these performances. The terrible twos will pass. He won't remember it and I won't either. 

    

Grupo Generacion Mix at the Lufkin Heritage Festival...

 I went downtown yesterday to see my friends from church, Grupo Generation Mix play at Lufkin Creative's Heritage Festival. I had last seen the group at the Fiestas Patrias Festival at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in September and while I enjoyed that performance (what's better than friends playing music?) I believe this group is improving and with it's mix of various generations should be gigs to keep an eye out for at future events. 

Grupo Generacion is made up of family members and participants in St. Patrick's Bilingual Youth Choir. This music is an expansion of that project and I don't really know what you call the style but it's dance music with lots of cumbias. I've known some of the members for years even going back to the 1990s when we had a kids choir at St. Pat's and the early 2000s when we had a bilingual choir so I feel this group has that same spirit combined with more ambition to present itself to the greater Lufkin Community at events like this. 

That's Hugo on bass. I worked with him at the old paper mill another lifetime ago. The mom of one of the singers sang with us when she was a teen in our church groups and still comes for the Quinceaneras, weddings and funerals we play for.  

Check the lady in the boots dancing. Cathy who worked 30 years as a labor and delivery nurse, says she delivered her as a baby. That's her dad, Enrique on guitar. 

There were also traditional dancers in the style of Oaxaca (I think) and I had some real good food truck quesadillas.  I think earlier in the day there were some DAG (dude and guitar) acts and other entertainment. It was a good show and I look forward to the next festival in this great downtown space. You might even see a Drum and Tuba Christmas pop up gig here soon.