LDKBox

A reason for many of my smiles.  Both in the past and to the future of that I am sure!   I have been researching river boats lately and it has been fun.  I am not interested in the poly glass boats that they seem to push around here in Central Texas.  I just looked at a year old boat sitting in some one’s yard with a little dust accumulated from being on display.  It was a sad thing to see the glass fade from dust and wind of the central Texas area.    Aluminum boats seems to take the beating of intermittent use much better than the poly-glass boats.  Hey,  if I was going to be a three time a week boater plus heading to saltwater to fish three times a year I would consider a poly glass boats.   But then all the miles on a trailer would take its toll would it not?

I would like a 22 foot boat.  Small enough to trailer easily yet strong enough to handle rocky river bottoms as well as some time in a salt water bay.  Something like the Sea-Ark boat series.  It will have to be custom ordered through through a local dealer.  I may have to go to Arkansas to watch it as it is built at the factory.  At the very least I will have to have verbal and written communications with the engineers and the fabrication department.  There is another shop in Colorado that looks like a good boat but it is a bow rider center console and I want a  mid-cabin to be able to fish on both ends.  The kind of boat that I would like to purchase would be a aluminum sea runner of some sort but then I would not be able to trailer it.  The kind I would want would be 12 to 14 feet wide.  Of course I cannot afford a twelve to fourteen foot ocean going aluminum sea vessel in Texas.  I might as well sell the house and purchase a 42 foot Grand Banks then.  Well… that is just not going to happen… now is it?  If I had a picture of a sweet little devil I would insert it here…but I don’t.  So I won’t.

The river boat will cost around the price of a Corvette or Camaro ( I had both cars scoped and priced out prior to heart surgery in July 2010).  So I have will have a pretty good initial grub steak to finance this boat.    I have to purchase land and get a shop built before I purchase a boat,   It won’t take long to do any of these items once I decide to spend the money.  It is not like I have to go to the bank and borrow the money.

So I had to pay if I wanted to play.  With this new heart I have a feeling I am going to able handle a boat.  There are a lot of places to go with a boat and explore, fish and hunt.  I plan on going to a few of them in the upcoming years with my friends, brother’s, son or possibly by myself.  I remember when I would think nothing of loading up the old wooden boat in Galena and heading off to any village on the Yukon with fifty gallons of fuel and oil and not much else.  I made it through those times I think that I can make it through future times.   I will go well prepared with proper planning.  Are there any good rivers to fish, hunt or camp on in Indiana?   I would like to try west river fishing in South Dakota and the Missouri river.  Of course there is the Mississippi but for some reason I am reticent to float my boat on that river.  How about traveling the Erie Canal?  How much do you think it would cost in canal fees?  All things I need to know.  I am going to start researching how to do that very thing… using my computer on my satellite connection in my new boat on a lake near my property with the new shop that will be in Harker Heights while I get it all worked out.  It should be fun!!!  I might even rent moorage at the marina to make it all the easier to research these new trips.:)

I hope all have been feeling well these last few months.  I  will again apologize to all of you my faithful few followers  for my paltry postings for recent as well as long term posting on my blog.  My energy is developing.  I can see some strength coming back.   My zest for life seems to be rising at a steady but slow and controlled pace.   I am as excited as a cat in a room full of rockers to experience life again.  Things are really starting to perk up around here.  Ellen has had some bad days with pain in her hip and its accumulated wear and tear of 20 years of military life..  I feel so helpless with the hip pain that she experiences.  It is hard to remember pain when I do not  have any pain. Yet I would help her in any way if I were able.  In this case I am not.  It is frustrating.   How convenient…eh?

I figure I will be able to spend at least a month each year fishing,  hunting,  and camping.   Plus,  all the Boy Scout programs with and for my son, Kellen.   I have eight years to get ready for my last Alaska moose hunt with my son, Kellen,  a future Eagle Scout in the boat  with me.

To coin a phrase from the TV show the “A-TEAM” …. “I love it when a plan comes together.”  I see my former spiralling life coming into focus with clarity and control.  With faith and trust I seemed to have stayed the course.  It is a good time for me here in Texas.  I am blessed!

Maybe we could work a trip out by combining NASCAR and fishing?  No hurry but if you would be interested it would be my treat.  For the first one… I hope we all live long enough to have many.  Get in touch with me on the lake in the boat by the property I purchased.  I may just want to stay home.  How is that for a big spending fellar?  Goofy is a term that comes to my mind.  There are many others of which I will not mention.  I know I am pretty happy at home!!  What else matters?

I have said this before but I think I am going to be around a little more I have considerable energy and hopefully my enthusiasm does not wane.

Comments (0) Oct 11 2010

When I started this post I had to think back as to when I had last posted.  It was a few days before I went into heart surgery and although I have not re-read the post(yet…I will after I complete this blog post) I think I was very tired when I wrote it.  Of that I am almost positive because it seems to have been the subject of most of my complaints the last year or so at the very least and almost three years if we count the cancer treatments.

Boy,  what a turn of events.  I have five days of my life that I cannot account for.  Five days of rather life changing experiences of which I will never know.  I don’t get to experience the pain of the saw cutting into my  chest.   Not unlike the moose hunts of Alaska’s interior on the banks of the Koyukuk river in years past.  The doctors used an electric saw.  I used a hatchet and a hammer.  Both were quite effective.  I am glad my doctors choose the electric saw.  Hammer and hatchet would be a little messy.

Before I had surgery I was planning on attending my 40 year high school re-union.  After my heart operation I knew that I had to attend my forty year  re-union.  I had been given a second chance and I must  take advantage of this opportunity to relive past times and past friends.  Well,  I can say that the re-union was a wonderful evening of conversation, hugs, and laughter.  I shook hands with every one.  I was happy to see every one.  I think every one attending had a wonderful time.  I am sorry that many were unable to attend because of previous commitments.  Class of 1970 mark your calendar in the year 2015 same time and same place.  It was voted on and approved.  I look forward to it and I confess I most likely will have a little hand in it because my life long friend, Ruth Johnson,  volunteer to help coordinate the next reunion.  Hopefully she will do it all on her own but I am stating now that I am willing to help.  All you have to do is assign me a task.

I think … after I had a lot of time to consider the evening of the reunion the item that I lamented on the longest were the people that were not there.  I thought of the people who had made previous commitments.  I thought of the people that could not attend because of work commitments.  I thought of the people that had more important things to do.  Some of those important things would be living and making it.

Then there are those that attended despite the fact that life had not been kind.  We all have our stories.  I was saddened to hear of Arnie Van Voorst and his wife and the flood damage that they had sustained recently.  Not one mention came out of Arnie.  He was all smiles and laughs.  He always did have my respect because he was smarter than me.  I knew the first year that they moved to Inwood that Arnie was smart.  IT would appear that he is a hard worker as well.  He looked so healthy and happy.  I am glad for I would want it no other way.

I could go on and on about everyone I talked with on our forty year high school re-union.  I could possibly return to this subject again and again for my blog purposes.  One thing I do know is that the longer I wait the better the story will become.  I have always been one for a good story.

Comments (0) Sep 17 2010

On Sunday morning I was returning from a bass fishing trip in Decautor, Texas with friends that my wife and I had made when we last had a cruise out of Galveston, Texas in July of last year.  I had a great time.  I  enjoyed the banter amoung the camping fisherman. The eternal campfire was tended with respect and joy as it provided light, warmth, and sustenance for all who gathered around its inviting smokey glow.  It cooked up beans, bacon, onions, and chicken to suffice us until the bountiful harvest of the lake produced fresh bass, perch, and catfish.  Although the camp provided no ameneties other than the lake, fish, and dead wood no one in our camp mustered up nary a complaint.  It was all about the fishing, eating, and friends both old an new.

I was the oldster of the crew.  One member was a cohort in the same trucking company as the the friend that invited me and the last man was an entrepreneur of the housing market.  All were married and all were in their thirties with families.  One had nine children.  (Boy did I take a deep breath when I heard that one!)  The common link between us all was the fact that we were there.  I did not even grab a pole the whole time at the camp.  Between keeping the coffee percolator going and tending to the fire by gathering wood I managed to do very little else while continuing to have a good time watching the antics of good friends on a fishing trip.  Each had an embarrassing story to tell about each other.  Always the last topping the former.  Guffaws often turned to tears because our sides hurt from laughter and our smile muscles were getting a work out as well.

Because it is a natural camping area with out any services provided each participant brought a truck load of items.  In fact I ordered items from Cabela’s last evening just because of the fishing weekend.  One can never have enough cast iron when working around a fire pit.  It will be nice to have my ordered items for the Cub Scout crossover ceremony scheduled for the 14th of May upcoming.

The events of the last weekend gave me hope for the future.  It has been said that everyone needs something to look forward to. Always have a plan for the future.  Our family had a plan for this years vacation and it started the next day after our last cruise.  Now the new trip is planned and paid for through family involvement and self sacrifice.  I purchased the items from Cabela’s with a plan for the future.   Kellen’s Cub Scout crossover ceremony will only be one of many in the years to come.  I plan on being at every campout with cast iron in tow.  I also purchased the items for the next time that I go on a guerilla fishing trip in Decautor, Texas with my cruise friend, his cohort and the entrepreneur.  I have something to look forward to outside of family but still in a warm and fun atmosphere.  I think I finally found some Texas friends.  I am truly a lucky fellow.

Comments (0) Apr 14 2010