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.
Write comment (0 Comments)Every once in a while a documentary comes out that makes you think about things in a different light. Patagonia has just released one that does precisely just that; make you think about the ramifications of mankinds actions in regards to sustaining fish and the effects on wild fish. I strongly recommend you all watch this video and donate to Change.org to help defend wild salmon and orcas. You can do so very easily by texting PROTECT to 40649. The theme here has much greater reach than the effects of farm raised salmon, you could apply much of the same to the stocking of trout and other species as well.
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In the quest to try and simplify my life, I have come to a few conclusions; conclusions that will hopefully allow me to be a better husband, father and person. Many of these conclusions revolve around eliminating the unnecessary things in life and focusing on what truly is most important. Eliminating or minimizing these distractions has allowed me to creatively think more efficiently, and stop and think more clearly. One of the largest distractions in our modern times is the advent of Social Media. I will take it a step further and say that the invention of the smart phone has been the single most societal changing distraction I have seen in my lifetime. A majority of us including myself have been sucked into a virtual world where we are constantly swiping, typing or pecking away at some bit of information that we feel is just ever so much more important than everything else that is going on around us. Just take a second each day and look around you and you will see for yourself that we have become a society dependent upon on these tiny little computers.
One of my favorite things to do when I am stuck at the airport or killing time between periods at my two daughters soccer or hockey games is watching people. We as a human race are rather interesting creatures, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t get a laugh at someone else's expense, let alone my own for that matter. What I have noticed over the last decade is you see less people actually interacting with one another, and more people staring into the screens of their smartphones or tablets. We as a society are now tethered to these mini computers everywhere, all the time. So much to the point that we are missing out on many wonderful things in nature and our surroundings. One could argue we are multitasking and maximizing our time, but I would argue that we are so fixated on replying to posts, liking other peoples pictures, checking out the latest gossip, or what happened on that last episode of “not reality tv”. The electronic juggernauts have created an obsessive compulsive society where humans have become so fixated and dependent on these devices and “whats going on in the world” that we all at times just can’t seem to put the damn things down.
In this digital aged created drama, the concept of real genuine human interaction and awareness of our surroundings has been thrown out the window and replaced only by a world where people have difficulty interacting with one another face to face, yet have all the courage in the world once behind that mini screen or keyboard.
Some use these devices and platforms to say whatever comes to mind without recourse. There is a counter culture that has been created as a result of social media where many have engineered a persona on false pretense. All one needs is an email account and a smart phone that takes a decent photograph and one can create the perception that they are something they truly are not, never mind having the platform to voice one’s opinions with little to no respect or recourse. Have at it, I’ll be on the water where the only thing scrutinizing my actions will be the species of fish that I am targeting.
I’m not going to lie, I desperately hope that social media is just another fad that will eventually fade off in time. I know the smart phone and other devices are cemented into culture, but you can choose to put it down. This is something that I have consciously been making a concerted effort to do more of; it’s simply not that important.
As a child, I grew up in a world without the smart phone, now we lose our mind and can’t leave the house without them. Almost as if we are being suffocated and can’t breathe if we can’t find our phones. Trust me when I say this, you can live without it, humans did for thousands of years before us. We now live in a society where these devices are commonplace. and our children know no different. Look around the next time your out there, more people are fixated on their screens rather than just completing a menial task such as grocery shopping (people in the grocery store are the biggest offenders).
Now, more often than not I make a conscious effort to leave my phone in the car when ever I go somewhere. Instead of leaving it on all day and being distracted by that next vibrating text or email, I simply shut it off. I used to leave my phone next to my bed at night as my alarm clock, but I found myself having difficulty putting it down. Instead of going to bed when I should have, I was fixated on all sorts of things that really weren’t that important as I scrolled my social media “feeds”, only to wake up the next morning exhausted after I finally went to bed. Simply put I began to realize a pattern, one which was making my attitude toxic as this device was changing my attitude. You can’t argue that electronics can alter behavior, I see it in my children when they get too much screen time, and I don’t think it is healthy.
My revelation occurred during our summer vacation to the Adirondacks. Once I realized what was going on, I immediately deleted my Facebook account. I sat there at the dinner table that morning sipping coffee scrolling through my feed rather than spending time interacting with my wife and kids. I am in the process of writing a new chapter in my life and I feel I could do much better job at it by eliminating the unnecessary distractions.
If people need to contact me, you all know how to, I will still maintain a small social media presence for the business through Instagram and a parent Facebook page (at least for now); but the personal pages are gone.
So in closing, If you are looking to purchase my flies, you know how to reach me, and in the spring you can book my services once again as a guide. And if you see me at one of the regional flyfishing shows, take a moment and say hello as I’d much rather speak with you in person and see how you’re doing than send an email or text.
One of the last things I posted to my wall on Facebook before I deleted my account was a rather compelling speech by Matthew McConaughey titled Absolute Motivation. This video resonated with me and was probably the catalyst to my aforementioned decision to disconnect a bit. I’ve posted this below and I hope that it resonates with you too. Have a great day and good luck on the water.
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