WOW! It's been a long while!

 Indeed, almost 7 months since I last came here. The main reason was I tried to set my blog url to Robb's Place. It worked for a bit, but then Blogger (read: Google) changed their rules. I lost access to the blog and just recently was able to get it back.

Did you miss anything? No, not really. The Wuhan virus is taking its toll around the world. I've kept myself locked up in my apartment, using the excuse of isolation from the virus.

Rob & Jenny took me (us!) up to Barry's Bay to lay my dad's ashes up at Tom's Lookout back in August. That was fun!
https://youtu.be/djNj0I0cciI

No fishing at all. Well, no. I went out a few days after my last blog entry here to do some channel catfishing. It was (as usual) a wash out. It was my second official Fishing Ottawa w/ Greybeard trip. It was my last official FOG trip.
https://youtu.be/IbIT6ZwWQmY

And that is about it. The pandemic has folks in my building getting more crazy than usual. Perhaps the colder weather will dissuade them from bringing their insanity outside and all I'll have to deal with is Johnny B Evil above me and the newest nutbars on my floor. {{sigh}} Life goes on, eh.

Keep The Faith*

The End of Writing (sorta)

No, not really. This is more about me being gob-smacked by a major movie... from long ago.
I just finished watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on Netflix. I have avoided re-watching this movie because of a personal... what? grievance? about the premise of this movie. Not to say that it isn't good, or even great, but...

Way, WAY, back in 1977, when this movie came out, I was "working on a short story or novella or whatever the frell you want to call it.
At that time, in '76, I had begun writing about an idea I had. The premise was about a fellow, a Canadian, who had visions about a mountain that held some sort of amazing insights into... whatever. I found the concept to be oh-so very interesting! I even took the effort to read about written short stories and novels. I was wonderfully isolated at the start of this, back in my daze in Winnipeg.
I continued writing when, Oh My Gosh! this movie came out! I was amazed about the similarities of the story line, the mountain-top (mine was in the Canadian Rockies) and the main character's input.
All in all, I was thrown into a pit of WTF??!! Naturally, I dismissed the whole thing to... ummmm... well, I dunno, or canna remember. I *do* know I was utterly pissed off!
Thing is that today, 40+ years later (OMFG!) I can still remember the heartache I felt when I discovered that someone STOLE *my* idea!!

Yeah, yeah, gimme a break! I was young. I wanted to be a writer. But, to be shot down in such a manner... well, it kinda ruined my desire to write. Bummer, eh?

Keep The Faith*

The Covid19 Shutdown

I just read an op-ed piece in the Toronto Sun from 2 May. It was written by Anthony Furey. He talks about the mass closing of society - businesses, city parks, elective surgeries, and the like. And, he is pushing for the so called re-opening of business.

One paragraph jumped out at me as it is the one thing that I have been pushing about for weeks.
"This whole mess stopped being solely a public health issue weeks ago and is now a whole-of-society issue. The reopening is a collective decision and everybody’s voice matters. Speak up. Demand to be heard."

Government is killing our economy by the drastic measure of shuttering companies and small business. People are direct danger of losing their jobs, livelihoods, homes... their sanity! The damage has been done. Even if we could go back  --today!--  to the way things were before this lock down, it will take years to dig ourselves out from the hole we find ourselves in right now.

I am not afraid of this virus. If it gets me, it gets me. My concern is for the greater populace and its ability to rally upward. The longer our society stays shuttered, the exponentially longer time it will take to achieve stability.

Speak up! Demand to be heard!!

Keep The Faith*

VietNam

Damn!
I have watched a multitude of videos on The Great War, WW2, and the (so-called) Vietnam War. My interest in any of those conflicts has been thru personal, or familial, contact.

I can not say much for the first World War, other than my great grand-father - John Erskine Johnston Simpson  -, who fought in Europe in WW1 and died due to complications from inhalation of "mustard gas". I have no familial connection to WW2.

However, the so-called VietNam War is tied to me because I (as in ME!) wanted oh-so desperately to go there and fight! Mainly because I was disheartened with my life at home. But, my cousin Steve left home to avoid that stupid mandatory draft in what? '71? '72? Much as my immediate family wanted to decry his actions, I applauded them.

Then, Steve returned home, enlisted, and joined the Marines! At that time, I was confused and, yes, dismayed. Mainly, because of the vitriol media was giving at the time about this conflict. "They said" this, and others "said that". And I stood confused.

Of course, today, with all the video and TV attention now given to this "war", I realize that my desires in that time were perhaps not so, ummm... confused? I have seen vets from the VietNam  conflict who have emphatically stated that their actions were for their country. (remember Afghanistan and Iraq??)

Bleh. Ever since I heard that Steve enlisted, joined the Marines, AND did what he could do, I relented somewhat. My confusion still remained in wtf was the USofA doing in South VietNam anyway?

My conclusion was that the US was in a conflict, its armed forces did what they were told and the rest be danged.
Me, being 62 yrs of age today, have realized far before now, that maybe kinda sorta (Iraq? Afghanistan?) that the political powers that be might be........???

Blah. Bleh. Blah. Dang. The whole intent of this missive was to tell you that in the dying daze of the VietNam fuck-up was that I wanted oh-so desperately to go there and FIGHT!

 Yeah, today, I know that I had no idea of death, of what it means to face someone who wants to kill you or what the fuck it all meant. I just wanted to escape today... then.

Blip! And then, yup, I found my escape. Drugs.
(excusing the fact that I just passed my 28th year of clean time!) Even now, I sometimes feel like I missed my calling by not pursuing that irresponsible thought of "I should go to VietNam!" 

Regardless of which, I am proud of my cousin Steve for his actions (both con and pro) and who he is today. I am proud of all those folk who went to that war believing that what they did was right -- yes, and even if they didn't believe it! -- but still died for freedom.

I am now filled with a feeling of angst. Because I have met folk who avoided the draft by coming to Canada, and those who did what might have been right.

Me? I wanted to be away from every fucking thing I didn't want to be around (1971 to 1973?) I  just wanted to run away. And still, modern media wants to remind me of... every fraking mudder-frelling yadda blahblah I thought I dealt with ages ago.

Aye, Perhaps it be time for me to go to bed, Aye?

Keep The Faith*

Fishing Ottawa w/ Greybeard. Dead or Alive?

I just read a news article about the trout season opener, which I believe started today. With many USofA states restricting or even closing recreational fishing (WA state?), I can fully understand the concerns of many of the smaller burgs around Ontario about the number of folks who descend on trout waters on opening day.
MY biggest worry about the hue & cry is that the province may just end up closing down fishing altogether. Mainly because:

1) It would ruin my foray into Youtube videos about Fishing Ottawa. But, hey, if we are all still alive next year, maybe I will be able to get around town & show off Ottawa's fisheries.

and

2) My spring channel catfish take. I love my fishy felines! Not as a sport fish or a recreational pastime, but a very important food source for me for the year. Or a few months, at least.

Yadda. I get the feeling that my "need" to fish will be be decimated by the provincial government. Heck, the City of Ottawa has already given me warning about fishing Andy Haydon Park near Bayshore. And that is my prime spot to get my kitties! We shall see, hm?
Read the article here:
http://tiny.cc/ON_Trout_Opener