Friday, November 9, 2007

Fishing

I am obsessed with walking around Piedmont Park at lunchtime. I get a whole hour lunch and I walk to Piedmont Park (huge city park) and explore midtown for the majority of that every day (doesn't seem like much, but after two years of a 30 minute lunch spent walking corporate office parking lots, this is really phenomenal) Honestly, all I have to do is talk the powers that be into raising my pay above poverty level and I think I'm cool with just continuing this job for a while.



Piedmont park is really fascinating to me--there's a pond there and this older man, every day, goes fishing just with a string and a hook. All these ducks and a solitary heron come and hang out with him every afternoon. He'll catch a fish, and if it's big enough, he'll put it in his bucket. If it's small--he tosses it to the heron, or to one of the ducks. Usually to the heron, though. On monday, I just sat and watched him for the whole hour. Whistling, tossing a fish in the bucket, tossing a fish to the heron. It was really cool.



I'm curious--does he actually eat the fish? I assume he does. Inner city fishing always kind of sketches me out. There is an awful lot of trash in any given pond, let alone chemicals and other toxins...

Every city I've lived in, though, I've seen tons of people fishing in the inner city streams and ponds. Kansas City, Detroit, Atlanta... People will survive wherever they are, with whatever they have. Either that or there are more hard core fishers than I realized.

I've never really enjoyed fishing. I remember going fishing with my grandpa and it was too cold in the morning, too hot in the afternoon, and millions of flies and mosquitoes bit me all day long. The fact that I was too squeamish to bait the hooks or remove the fish was a bit of a hindrance as well. Thank god I only caught one. Drinking beer--Milwaukee's Best, no less--and hearing Grandpa's stories were the only redeeming factors. I'm glad I went though.



Cheers Grandpa.

7 comments:

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Aww cute heron :o)

Michael said...

I usually play with the loch ness monster but that move is a litte too advanced for beginners. The wristwatch is extremely difficult and I'm not sure what the weed-snipper is.

Michael said...

I made it up myself. I think it would be cool to come up with a quantitative measurement to determine these stats such as a physical and mental assessment.

If I tried to create something like that I would be among the most nerdiest of individuals which is not one of my goals.

Crabby said...

My Grandpa made us learn to clean the fish too. ICK ICK ICK! MAN! You haven't lived till you've scooped out fish guts and had fish scales flyin' into your hair. I swear it's child abuse. That's what it is. I don't even like to eat fish. I'd rather have cheap Mexican food. LOL!

amanda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
amanda said...

yes, the heron most definitely eats the fish. i can comfortably say this based on experience. my parents have a small fish pond and waterfall (it's a landscaping "feature") in their back yard. a year or two ago, there was a blue heron skanking around the 'burbs, and it used to stop by the pond for fishy snacks. one morning my mom and dad were eating breakfast when the heron stopped by. needless to say, they promptly covered the pond with some netting to keep out both the falling leaves and herons alike.

snowelf said...

This reminds me of the park I used to rollerblade at when I lived in StL. People would be camped out fishing and there were tons of cranes and canadian geese. It was really peaceful and my favorite way to spend a lunch hour.

I also used to go fishing with my gramps when I was REALLY little and it was still fun. These days, fishing doesn't quite hold the same appeal.

Have a great weekend--oh and your dress was gorgeous and I loved the wrap! :)

--snow