March Madness

That's a picture of the 67 fishing reels I own. This week in between all the other really important stuff I was doing I had the feeling that for the first time ever I'd go through my tackle and cull some of it out. Over the 15 years we've been at Mile 14 its all came in and none has left, I have stuff I didn't even know I had and way more stuff than I'd ever use. So, if you're around the first week of May we're having a 'guys stuff' garage sale. It'll have reels, rods, anchors, original packaged old lures, boots, rain gear....and as they say in Mexico, it will all be "almost free". I know I reported last year on our unique St. Patricks Day parade. We just got home from it and I think it deserves another mention. The first pic is MP waiting for the action to start. March in Alaska here is a confusing season and this pic tells the tale. You'll notice the snowmachine in the back of the one truck and the white truck going the other way was towing a boat, this weekend is the Homer Winter King Salmon tourney. Well, what to do...? We positioned ourselves at the very start of the parade route, it started at 4:30 and was over at 4:40....no kiddin....That's how you can tell its not an election year. But cool stuff was to follow.

The first 'float' of the parade was the American Legions train. I'm Catholic enough to recognise Latin when I see it and although there aren't enough words here I think it means ...we're good people that served our country and have alot of fun at this club....please come by for Karaoke on Friday night".

You know me....all that quest deal right? Well, the very next bunch of kids from the local Martial Arts Club had just the message I needed to see, that's my goal in life as well and it doesn't hurt to be reminded now and then. Not all our kids are cut out for the traditional get your @#^$ kicked football, the politics of basketball or even the endless fund raising to play hockey, some of our kids do just fine with different life skill sports.

Then as the parade was winding down along came this float. My old friends Ray and Gina Debardalaben who's guide service is associated with the local equipment rental company. Ray and Gina were married about 5 years ago and although older than me and MP were when we had kids, they now have 2. At their wedding they gave all the guests a CD of all their favorite Love songs, of which one was Kevin Fowlers ' Hard Man to Love'. Well, this song I fell instantly in love with and now I'm a Kevin Fowler expert. Thanks guys. Like most of us here in Alaska Ray is from somewhere else but Gina is full blown Alaskan and they're living the sport fishing dream. you'll notice his boat says ' Long Live the Kings'....and them kids they're holding tell the whole story why.