Dec 25 - Fishing for Christmas Dinner

Success, but not without exercise !

Over and over I ran outside to check the fishing rig, flag up to tell me that something's going on down there.  Once there was a fish on the line that leg go after pulling it in part way.  Once or twice the hook came up with no minnow.  A half-dozen times the minnow was still there.  They ... or it ... was biting on anything.  Perhaps Art was right and I could have used a hot dog.  I did use three dead minnows and eventually caught a pike on a dead one.  Reg Gohm (fellow who sells minnows in town) was right -- pike are scavengers.  I wonder what else I could use for bait ?  A piece of steak ?  A weiner ?  Chicken ?  Leftover turkey ?  Fish guts from an earlier catch ?  -- now that's a thought, talk about re-use and re-cycle !

So we had fresh-caught pike for dinner.  Marginally big enough for a meal by itself at 10 oz of fillet, but that's because we're used to eating too much.  There's one in the freezer that's 8 oz of fillet ... since I'm not catching crappy at this time of year, it'll have to be eaten by itself or perhaps with another once David is here.

Our White Christmas somewhat turned brown over the course of the day as the weather stayed warm.  That trend is supposed to continue today through tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and then the temperature drops down, down, down to 0F as we get close to New Years Eve.

We heard from Angelika (PA) and Arlene (CA) and Kim (Edmonton).  I wasn't sure if Arlene would be in California or Mexico but she said that they go to MX for New Years.  Apparently Kerrie has some schoolwork to catch up on and this may be incentive ?  You never know with kids.  I didn't try Philip as he would be flitting about with Diane, his girls, Sarah's family ... who knows.  He's always on the move on Christmas Day, as are Jeffrey and Sara, who opened presents in PA and then headed to MD.  Stef and gang went to Port Credit to celebrate with Aaron's family.  We heard from Bonnie via email who was at Pam's.

Sandy caught up with Sheryl live.  I'd talked to her on Christmas Eve, acknowledging that we'd seen her message regarding their cousin Deryl, who had just passed away.  Sandy's Aunt Kay, who just turned 100 in November (we were at the party in August), had two sons -- Glenn and Deryl.  Deryl has been fighting some form of cancer for a long time, regularly taking blood transfusions for red blood cells etc.  We saw him at the 100th birthday party.  We aren't sure what arrangements are being made, whether we'll head down to the Quebec Eastern Townships or not, what Sheryl and Jim will do ...

Life goes on.  Yes, it does -- for those who are left.