It is interesting to continue to watch how we make millionaires out of complete idiots. Talk show hosts: What a scam they have. I refuse to watch.
2020 in review? I wrote up my thoughts, mostly on the environment.
The election: Over.
Hockey: Over.
Baseball: Over.
Hockey starts back in under a month. Just a couple of weeks now actually. Baseball isn’t far off. Hockey, it will be different than normal. Will it be different for baseball?
Let the Neil Blog linger until a new year starts. I hit it pretty hard all year long. I wrote about the environmental issues for a Year in Review. I started it a while back after it was suggested. It has a following. Surprised that many people want to read what I have to say.
The recurring dream, one of the worth there is: College calculus. I battle through that one. I go home. A roommate is there and says “Well, that was easy.” I look at him and thoughtfully say “Oh yea? Well, at least I’m going to get laid tonight.”
A first for dreams. I was with Katy Mack. We got married. Sadly, it was better in the dream than it ever was in real life. I doted over her for two years and just got nowhere. She’s married with a family. It was strange, such a realistic dream with things going really well. Her father and mother, just like I remembered them 35 years ago.
The fishing: A slowdown. Cold front wiped out three trips. Rescheduled for two weeks later, a waiting game. Postponed AGAIN. It happens this time of year.
Time marches on. Andie McDowell is 91 years old. Tommy Lasorda died at 93. Macauly Culkin is almost 65.
Arizona fires their head coach. Losing to ASU by 63 points, you shouldn’t be fired, you should be shot. Basketball, good but not great. They still haven’t gotten rid of Sean Miller. I have a hard time being excited about any of it with him still there.
Christmas comes early. Miami doesn’t just lose: They get absolutely whipped. 62 to 26? Hahahaha. Should have been 65. The only possession NC didn’t score: Missed field goal. Always good when they lose.
In the football pool, I sucked. This week’s games are easier. Someone may pick perfect this week. Four losses won it. I had six. No more pools planned after week 17. It was talked about. I didn’t act on it. Next season.
Then the final week of the year: I was in the hunt. Then Arizona played. They butchered me all year.
Oddities in life: People who don’t do things right. I mostly just watch and say nothing. One culprit: He is now on the outs. Negative, he finally directed it at me. I put him in his place and he’s boycotting me. Good riddance. I did way more for him than he ever did for me. Recovery on that one would be a LONG wait. Not interested.
Spelled anser, they meant answer.
OJ Simpson killed those people. Got away with it. Casey Anthony killed that little girl. Got away with it. Those two there are enough to not trust the judicial system. People matter. The law doesn’t. It is not right.
Stimulus checks, $2000. Me as an Economist: This can’t be good. It would pay my bills for six months. But do I need it? The days go by and they say it is now a $600 boost. For me, it makes sense. I lost 12 thousand in business.
My money continues to roll in. People continue to want to catch a fish.
MeWe is not strong. I always talked about putting one together. Replace Facebook after they ruined their format. If I did, people would be able to connect better than this company has done it. Like six weeks later, I’m connected to almost no one. Not good. Turned my back on Facebook. Post on the business page and that’s about it.
Christmas Eve a cold front. Nice weather that morning before it arrives but it is going to get lousy for a couple of days.
My spam filter: Doing a job. Thanks to Facebook selling my email address so blatantly. The filter let’s through the good emails and is picking up the trash. I’m impressed.
Another day, another dollar. Amazing how much that one dollar means to me.
Spent 148 dollars at the liquor store. 50 bucks on cigars. Imagine how much money I would have if I never lit a cigar?
Asleep isn’t always good. Went back to bed after a morning cigar. Dreadful dreams. Usually, it isn’t bad. A couple of nights, just weird dreams. Fights. Other negative experiences. Then, a good one. A very long good one. It works out in this one. And so realistic.
Google remains unimpressive. A guy I took fishing is in IT and he talked about it for a while. “These companies don’t care. They don’t offer you any support because they simply don’t care about you.” That is no way to run a business.
The guy mentioned above: Lots of Florida experience fishing but “first time” for around here. I put him in position and he caught fish for three straight hours. He was impressed. He had a very good time. We followed the plan. The wind forecast finally came true but it was dead flat to start. 100 fish later, “this is the best fishing I have ever had in Florida.” Bigger fish would have been a bonus. The action was good. The tip was good.Fighting the weather now, the wind is tough. It is prohibiting certain things. I have “gone down the creek” in response to 30MPH winds.
Another day: Max showed up on time. He brought his own kayak. I Ok’ed it. Well, I wish I didn’t and made him use mine. 30 seconds into the day his boat flipped. Cold, this is a problem. So, I’m a rescue and safety guy so I got him my vest (he was wearing his own). Trying to tow him and his boat to shore going nowhere, I towed his boat in and then took the rope back to him. Got him in and told him to pull his car around and load up. Too cold to still go, soaking wet. He lost a $500 rod and reel and his cell phone. He said it’s happened three times. I told him, it’s time for a new kayak OR he needs to spray the foam in the hull. You get that in there it occupies the space so that water can’t.
Rescheduled: Max got on them good. Big fish. Wintertime trout. He used his own boat again. He made modifications where the seat sets down lower.
Television is bizarre. Who is making the decisions? The best channel now has “Growing Up Hip Hop” on all the time. No. I’m not watching that. I don’t even want it to be an option. An interactive world, why can’t we determine our own programming?
Just generally, stuff like that enters my thoughts. Why? If I ran television programming, things would be a lot better.
I took some time off from publishing the Blog. People were asking when it was coming out again. I’m honored. I don’t do it halfway. I try to make every one have the content. This one: It needs two plus more pages before I put it up. It will get there fast. The Christmas and New Year think should have held you off just fine.
Christmas doesn’t have the appeal it used to now that all the kids are grown. Dawned on me when I saw a photo, there is a baby in the family again. Great Uncle Neil here.
New Year just really isn’t a celebration for me. I really don’t care.
The year of death. Lasorda already mentioned. Dawn Wells from “Gilligan’s Island” didn’t make it to 2021. I met her because she lived on Treasure Island. For an older woman, she still looked pretty good. They talked about her like she lived in California. If she left Treasure Island, I hadn’t heard about it.
Internet talk. The umpires. What were the worst stadiums. I voted Richmond for Triple A. New Haven for double A. Hagerstown for the South Atlantic League.
It was a long time coming. She is married to another guy. Happily I believe. We didn’t have the closure when it ended. I took care of that today. I liked her. It was good. The reason it never went anywhere was all on me. She reacted. Not bad but she definitely was a little excited by this. Then, she had the acceptance thing and she responded very well. She told me I was the hardest breakup she ever had (I said “Oh come on, that’s pretty ridiculous”). She said I was upper tier of any of the guys she ever knew (I said “Now you’re just making shit up.”) She said, “If I had a second chance, I would have jumped at it.” (I said, “You’re making stuff up now or you just aren’t as smart as I thought you were.”) She said, “You always made me laugh. Except right now. Someone else might find these things you are saying humorous. I do not.” It wasn’t bad. It probably just needed to happen eventually.
Pulling back into the property: Unreal what we got done yesterday. The trees thinned out on my side of the fence, it looks really good. The new shell in the front, also looks good. Getting that trip in, it’s back to stuff around here for a while. The wind is going to be blowing for a while.
Miami loses their bowl game. There is a God.
A diet is next. All that weight I lost last year? I erased it. I’m the heaviest I have ever been. Not roly poly big but I’m upward of 250 for the first time.
My usual. Dropping cheese, bread and pasta for a while.
Hours on the phone. My drivers license suspended. Really? Insurance, vehicle not covered Florida to USAA. USAA did their part. In two hours it should be fixed. On with the county. The state. USAA. Progress. Hours at the DMV. They should name that building after me. In the end, Daniel got it done. Turns out he is a fan of my fishing reports.
The new recurring dream. I’m marrying in the Everybody Loves Raymond family. At wedding time, I’m asked to do a play about getting involved with their family. I put it together on the spot. With humor. It is a weird one because Dad is there. Dad says to me “I never thought you could do it.” I wake up and I haven’t ever done it.
The football pool, almost done for the year: I finished in second place for the fifth time this year. Things looked good for me early. The Indianapolis game killed me. I’d be in a tiebreaker if they won. The Chargers and Bengals came through for me but it wasn’t enough. The guy who won the week: Played because I paid for him to enter. And yes, Arizona screwed me again.
Really looking forward to winning the lottery. I figure 240 million. Imagine me with 240 million dollars.
37 degrees and the peacocks stopped by.
Waking up seven hours before fishing. WIDE awake. Killing time requires coffee. I go to bed so early this is happening more and more. It’s fine.
The future looks good. People want to go fishing so business is fine. Book five is done and ready to go. The end future is all set. Time will tell.
Getting older. Making my lists. Like Santa, checking them twice. Didn’t use to need lists but now they are why things still get done right around here.
The dry season: It has been raining the right times where I haven’t had to turn on the hose around here yet. That has been nice. The work on the place: Trees trimmed. They’re not even my trees. But, after this has been done, my house looks the nicest it has ever looked. Completion of the shell in the front yard, the spot for the kayak trailer is all set. Finally. I had that planned for a year.
Lots of time left in winter and spring. Middle of May is when summer comes back. Unreal to be wearing a jacket. Worn one more already this year than I normally do in an entire winter.
It is nice that it is winter. Most of the year is so dreadfully hot, this is nice. And January means “we have months of it left” before it gets hot again. Middle of May. The long, hot summer starts middle of May. Another cold front: It will get chilly again. It’s January. I like it. I will miss these times when it’s July and it’s been hot for three months and there are five months left of it.
The fishing reports all written and posted. The yard work mostly done. It is a quiet time for me now. Not a bad thing at all.
The three days at the DMV. Bordering on insanity. The back and forth. Four times in there in three days. My insurance company, the biggest error. But the rules: They’re stupid. The final conclusion, the guy who did the final entries, I dealt with two days earlier “I would have put it through yesterday. You are one of the good guys. I’ve read your fishing reports for years.” He’s been there long enough; he would have just changed the error. Instead of making me jump through all those hoops, he would have just fixed it.
The ads are showing on capmel.com. They are not paying but they are showing again. The advice I got: Delete the account and restart it again.
I got in trouble for calling it outoftime.com.
Into the new year. Things are still a little screwed up. Will things normalize? My mother got the vaccine. I won’t do it for a while.
I will schedule the Captain Mel Classic. It is time to get that on the calendar. Thinking May but it will generally be sometime around there.
My pick before the playoffs start: Buffalo.
A new contact with an existing sponsor, a new product to use and review. It is more progress. In the future, Ryan will be doing more of the promotion. I will still be there but he will be the head man with Strike Three Kayak Fishing.
I will continue my other battles. Life is good. A new year. New opportunities.
- The Neil Blog… - July 26, 2023
- The Catfish - July 26, 2023
- update - July 22, 2023
