Here, There and Everywhere

The fishing from shore is slowing down as the water warms up and the fish move to cooler water in the bottom center of the lake, which is the old Republican River Channel. Even though it has been a moderate summer, the fish want cooler water, which means those fishing from boats will do much better than those (like me) who fish from the shore. My buddy, Steve, did hook up with a six pounds or so gar the other day, which we left on the bank as raccoon food. The gar is a prehistoric fish that, like alligators and crocodiles, have changed little over the past several million years. They are essentially inedible, although I've heard of a couple of hardy souls who do find some good meat on the gar. It is really an ugly fish and is generally not found in the western United States. Below is a picture of an Alligator Gar caught in Florida. While Nebraska has the Long Nosed Gar, they also have a formidable set of teeth, and you do not want to stick your fingers in its mouth to dislodge the hook. Cut the line. That thing looks like something prehistoric, that's for sure.
I read recently that a small Alligator Gar was caught in a lake in California, which has a lot of the fish and game people sweating. They hope someone put it in the lake because it got too big for their aquarium. Like the Northern Pike, if there are lots of them out there, it will turn fishing upside down in the Golden State because they feed voraciously on trout, bass, crappie and you name it.

Remember the puppy, "Prince Dude"? Well, he's growing and coming along nicely. When my daughter got him on July 4, he had just been weaned. Now is a high energy bundle of black fur that is into everything and has chewed up a couple of towels, a cell phone charger cord, and uncounted pieces of paper. This week he has been accompanying Eva and I on our morning walks and has turned the walking into an exercise in amazement at his energy level.
















The first picture shows how much he has grown in a few short weeks. In the second, I can only say that on the end of that leash is an overly exuberant black puppy. He loves to go bounding into the high growth and thrash around. He's too young to realize that there are other creatures who also like tall grass and will not appreciate his energy level. I keep expecting to see him come running from one of his tall grass forays with a badger in hot pursuit. Badgers are everywhere out here and they are nothing to mess with. Even a bear will run from a badger.
I have come to the conclusion that the way to solve this nation's energy crisis is to corral every black Labrador Retriever puppy in the country and hold them in one massive pen. The collected energy would power America for a year.

My doves have flown away. Both the little guys have reached flying age and off they went. It didn't seem long enough to me, but when I looked it up on the net I found that doves go from hatched to airborne and on their own in just two weeks. If only teenagers could grow so quick.

It appears that my walking discomfort has nothing to do with my hip. The MRI exam shows that I have a perfectly normal left hip with minimal arthritis considering my age. The same cannot be said, however, for my lower back, where the doctors believe considerable arthritis has affected a couple of nerves. I have an appointment with a neurologist on September third. Stay tuned for further results.