Cabin fever typically doesn't settle in for me until late January early February depending on how harsh of a winter we are experiencing up here in New England. Living within minutes of a good tailwater fishery can help, but sometimes even the weather is just too damn cold to even want to gather up the enthusiasm of spending a day breaking ice from guides and dodging slush in the hopes of connecting with some trout. Although we have had a relatively mild fall, and have yet to experience any weather of the sort here yet this year, I have been confined to the walls of my house after a much needed knee surgery.
Five weeks ago today I went in for an arthroscopic procedure to alleviate some discomfort I had inherited over the last season in my right knee. After several diagnosis depending on which surgeon you spoke to I luckily chose correctly and will in due time be better than ever and once again enjoying the many activities that I have come to love. Although I am doing well, I do however have a long way to go until I am relatively normal; I mean I do have good range of motion in my knee, but I am still experiencing tightness and swelling around the joint, and will for several more weeks. When your born with knees that aren't straight (mine were off by about 15 degrees) once you have that issue fixed, it takes some time for your body to adapt to having that joint in it's proper position. So essentially I am learning how to move around normally again.
Being a person with a high activity level, you can only imagine that it doesn't take me very long before I start to get a little antsy. A normal day in my life typically starts early and ends late with my day kicking off with some sort of exercise regimen. I never imagined that I would feel this way, but watching the numbers on the scale increase and my activity level decrease as I have had to recover from this surgery has been something much more diffiicult to deal with than I had anticipated.
Having time to reflect has however helped me stay focused and really recognize how fortunate I am. I realize that this time next year this will all be water under the bridge and my active life will have resumed, but I also have come to the realization that if I couldn't ever take part in all those wonderful activities I have loved some much again, I have lived a pretty damn good life thus far. So as I sit here with a bit of early winter cabin fever, I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to reach out to me and wish me well as I get my feet back under me. I am truly blessed to have such good friends and customers and I can't thank you all enough.
I have had the time to tie flies for everyone daily while home, and it has kept me relatively sane throughout, but I can't help but pine for the river and the fish that lie within it's confines, and the day that will be here when I can get back out there on a regular basis. I did manage to scratch that itch with a good friend this past week who was kind enough to offer up the front of his raft for the day while I hung my leg out the side in hopes of catching some fish. You could say that we accomplished our goal and I regained a bit of my sanity albeit for a short amount of time. I guess you could say I am already longing for that next step back into the water. I guess when the water of the river runs through your veins you never can get quite enough of it.
I am happy to say that the time at home has allowed me to build up flies not only for my own boxes, but also a very nice cross section that I will have in tow for the FlyFishing Show in Marlborough in January. I hope to see some of you there, but until then I will continue to work hard at getting back out there in the next couple of months.