Jan 21 - almost on the road again

There wasn't much action at the fishing rigs on our last day ... until about 3pm. I decided to go out and check to see if I still had minnows and by the time I got out there one of the flags was up. I hauled in a pike who dropped off the line just as I was lifting him out of the hole -- but with my free hand I swatted him onto the snow so that he didn't fall back.

I cleaned him and decided to put out another minnow ... and the other flag was up ! The minnow was a little bruised but no luck this time. Later in the day, in the dark, I pulled up both rigs and both minnows were gone. Ice fishing was over for this year. I had bagged up the leftover minnows earlier and taken them to Jim.

Other than packing, organizing and completing my "to do" list from the last blog, it was a quiet day. We did visit with Jim & Bonnie late in the day, bringing over the aforementioned minnows as well as a few perishables from the fridge that Bonnie would use. I did my computer close-up tasks in the evening, rather than leave them until morning.

I'm tired of SPAM. I get 300 on an average day. I used to use the spam blocker at pobox.com but tired of reviewing multiple lists, since some come into pobox and some come directly to my various email addresses and some make it through the various filters. I do block emails from certain countries and don't even review those that are blocked but find it easier to simply let the rest hit my junk folder for review. The only emails that get into my inbox directly are those whose email addresses are in my contacts directory. Most, if not all, of the spam emails are 3k in size so the traffic isn't relevant in terms of download activity, which can be a concern with the satellite. It's a shame that all these nameless purveyors of drugs, college degrees and whatnot can make a claim on your time. Ah well.

This morning we have to be ready to leave by 8:30. Actually we have to be ready before that because from 8:00 to 8:30 I'll be draining the water and putting antifreeze in toilets and traps. I forgot to take some ice-cream over to Jim last night when we made our trip over so I'll do that this morning, once it's light. There's a lot of stuff to take up to the car, made more difficult because the car is up at the barn. I don't bring it all the way down the hill with summer tires.

I have dentist appointments today; Sandy has a hair appointment. We'll stay at Stef's tonight, celebrating Lauren's birthday this evening. We leave tomorrow morning from Oakville, stopping at our normal motel in Beckley WV on Friday night, getting us to Florida in time for Sushi on Saturday night. That's the plan ... many things could get in the way, mostly related to travel woes, but hopefully we'll have a good trip. There is no significant snow predicted along the route but you never know in the winter.

That's about it ...