Fishing Report

The following is post that I began while we were in Rockport with Tim and Janet back in January. I didn't finish because no matter how I tried, I couldn't quite find the right words to describe how stark it was that Tim was really, really not doing well. Almost immediately after our car trip to Port Aransas, Tim took a dramatic turn for the worse. Every time I wrote something after this, it sounded melodramatic, even though it was just reporting the facts. So I just kept deleting it. I finally just quit.

I was having a tough time coming to grips with the fact that Tim spent pretty much the entire weekend on the couch feeling like crap. It just felt empty somehow describing taking the kids fishing when Tim couldn't even get up the strength to take a ride in the car or to go with us and watch.

I feel like it's finally time to share it, though...

-James



We got to Rockport on Thursday afternoon when it was a balmy 72 degrees and sunny. Tim and Don had gone out on the boat earlier in the morning, but the wind really picked up when they were about 12 miles out, so they had to come back in. To hear them tell it, it was a really, really rough ride - and I believe it, too. We went on a short boat ride yesterday when the wind was only blowing 10-15MPH, and as we got to the mouth of the canal that opened into the Gulf, water started crashing over the bow and there were whitecaps everywhere. We promptly turned around.

Kristi already blogged about the restaurant where we ate dinner on the first night. I've got nothing more to add other than it is the kind of place I'd love to hang out and become a regular. Although, I suspect that if I lived down here I'd probably just cook my own seafood because there's plenty around. But the atmosphere was cool.

In days of old, I would have been woken up at about 5:00am by Tim, already ready to get going to go fishing. I would have thrown some clothes on, grabbed some coffee and headed out the door. Tim would've already been waiting in the truck. He would have brought some honey buns or powdered doughnuts to eat for breakfast, which we wouldn't have eaten until well after we had gotten on the boat.

On Friday I woke up at 5:30, not really sure what to expect. I was encouraged when I walked into the living room of the house we're all staying in to find lights on, fishing shows blaring and coffee being consumed. But my hopes were quickly dashed when all the the grumpy old men were talking about was how the wind was blowing. It was blowing about 5-10 MPH.

There was a time when we would have gone out, no matter how bad the wind was. I have many, many memories of dreading the boat ride in Tim's aluminum Roughneck boat as we headed to the coast to go fishing (this was before he got his pontoon boat, which took rough water much better). We would put the boat in, no matter how strong the winds, and try to find a place to fish that was out of the wind. I can remember a couple of times going across the bay and being almost beaten to death by the waves. I was literally sore after some of those boat rides. But I always had a great time, so it was worth it.

But not this day. Tim was feeling okay, but not up to braving the weather, so we all went to a local restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, the womenfolk went to the quilt shop and I drove Tim and Don down to Aransas Pass. They were looking for either a place to put their boat in down there so they wouldn't have to make the trip in the water or to see if anyone was catching fish. We drove all over, but didn't find anything going on.

My, how times have changed...


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