The One that Almost Got Away

Each summer finds us camping in the Adirondacks. This year Richard joined us for the first time in five years. Day in and day out we fished. This particular morning my dad and I were in one boat and Brent and Richard occupied the other. After hours of fishing we decided to go meet up with their boat around the corner of the lake. Richard is standing up in the back of the boat seeming to be searching for something. To me it looks like they are drifting through lily pads and his 12' telescoping pole (with no reel) is behind him because I can see his bobber floating. As we get closer, the bobber is moving further and further away from the boat. When we are about 200 ft from them I call out and ask if he lost his pole because his bobber is moving away from them. He nearly falls out of the boat as he says "where!? where is it?"

Turns out he caught a 4.5 lb Largemouth Bass which snapped the line instantly. Luckily it broke above the bobber so we could chase him around the pond. It was really neat to watch it dive down 10 feet and pop into view 30 feet away. Incredibly enough it kept coming to shallow water instead of diving down into the middle of the lake, and once we cornered it in a downed tree, we were able to scoop him out of the water with a net.

This story had the makings of a comic strip running through my head from start to finish. = ) 

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My sister received her report card today and it made me think of this. 

A Dad passing by his son's bedroom, was astonished
to see the bed
was nicely made, and everything was picked up. Then, he saw an
envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed,
'Mum.'

With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and, with
trembling hands, read the letter...

"Dear, Dad. It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you.
I had to elope with my new girlfriend, because I wanted to avoid scene
with Mum and you. I've been finding real passion with Stacy, and she
is so nice, but I knew you would not approve of her, because of all
her piercings, tattoos, her tight Motorcycle clothes, and because she
is so much older than I am.

But it's not only the passion, Mum. She's pregnant. Stacy
said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods, and
has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream
of having many more children.

Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't
really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves, and trading it
with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and
ecstasy we want.

In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for
AIDS, so Stacy can get better. She sure deserves it!

Don't worry Dad, I'm 15, and I know how to take care of myself.

Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit, so you can get to know
your many grandchildren.

Love, your son, Joshua

PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Jason's house. I just
wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the
school report that's on the kitchen table.

Runs in the family

Runs in my blood

Learned from the pro

Junior - Inspiration at its Finest

Nuts. This kid is nuts. Inspirational would be my one word to describe him, but I've got many of them. I've been around Junior for the past 4 years and 4 months. Optomistic, friendly, happy. Nothing stops him and only one thing I've seen has let him down; Mamma Fevanga's absence from the U.S. for the past few years, but who wouldn't be sad about that?

Moving into an apartment with a great roommate Austin Mulleneaux, who had already befriended Junior (as had everyone in the building). I got to see a lot of Junior at activities and frequently just hanging out at our place. We had a building intramural basketball team and Junior was our mascot and most loyal fan. A rowdy group of freshman, we would always pile into Junior's van and blast some Bob Marley on the way to our game, as we were The Wailers.

We went to:
volleyball games

basketball games

rugby games


soccer games

kickball games

parties

visit friends in Tooele

Vegas

shopping

emergency Room

lifted

went skydiving on his 30th birthday

ATE ATE ATE

 

 concerts

  swimming

seven peaks

skiing


chilling outside




watched movies
watched movies while eating (Walking Dead)
laughed, talked, joked, laughed some more
took classes together

studied stats together

bowling and bowling class


garage sales




I feel like I know Junior pretty well. I can usually finish his sentences for him or relay his thoughts just from a look in his eye. He certainly knows me better than anyone because we did a lot of talking and got into deep down mushy gushy crap.

Here we are graduating together. Glad I was lucky enough to be at Convocation with him! Junior had a standing ovation from thousands of people when he walked at his commencement. I'm positive he was the only one. I'm now sitting in a car looking out the window at a green, beautiful landscape. Junior, I won't miss Utah but I will miss seeing your face all the time! Go get a job, work your butt off, and spend some monies you inspirational, hard working fool.

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-"The just wung it" (Derek speaking in the past tense for winging it)

-"I'm not yelling at you because I'm mad at you! I'm yelling at you because you're mad at ME!" -Scruff @ Mom

-"Scruff, does my breath smell?"

 "...not bad"

 "but does it smell good?"

 "no"