Reading: "Tea With the Black Dragon" by R.A. MacAvoy
Music: Flogging Molly and Gael Sli
TV/Movie: Family Guy (season 4!)
Link o' the Day: The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource Guide

For some reason, I've been having this odd fascination with the idea of taking up fishing.

Why?

No idea. All I know is that whenevr we walk into Walmart (or somesuch) and we pass the fishing aisle, I always have to stop and look. Fishing gear is surprisingly cheap. I could probably get a decent startup for around $25 (that's including rod, reel, hooks, lines, sinkers, various lures and other odds and ends). A freshwater fishing license in this state isn't too bad, and saltwater fishing needs no license at all.

But still... why fishing? I fished flounder with my grandfather off Castle Island when I was a kid. And the old boyhood years saw various spurts of freshwater fishing (perch and sunfish mostly) here and there. But I never really tackled it seriously. I always threw the fish back. I was probably 18 the last time I picked up rod and reel. Twenty years ago.

As impetuous as I may sometimes be, I very much doubt I'll run out and get a rod and wheel anytime soon. I don't even know any good fishing areas. I don't know if I want to do saltwater or freshwater--and I've got enough things to keep me occupied. But I think one day I'd like to give it a whirl. It sounds peaceful and relaxing, and a little boring maybe--but not so boring as to make it a bad thing.

In the meantime, I'll content myself with just looking.

* * *
This weekend will continue some of the busy work. The SFWA Bulletin is nearing press readiness, and I continue with the grand encyclopedia project. It looks like there are just a few changes on the Edgar Kennedy book, but I also have a number of cover layouts to work on. Lots of stuff. It's going to be a muggy weekend tho. I expect Pretty Maggie and I will get out for a bit tho.

I'd like to continue some writing, and there's the new tune I'm teaching myself on the mandolin. A busy weekend, but mayhaps one in which there will be some relaxing as well.

But Friday is here at last! I'll take Pretty Maggie out to a nice restaurant tonight to celebrate her birthday (yesterday). Come home and do a little bit of work. Take the weekend as it comes and hope it doesn't go by too fast.

* * *
Today's link goes to The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource Guide, a freshwater fishing-related site I found recently--particularly the section devoted to beginners stuff. If anyone's interested, it's a pretty comprehensive sort of site. To those writers scanning Journalscape, you might even consider it potential research material.

Cheers!