to fish or not to fish? A question of economics when there should be no question at all. The creatures of the sea were put there for all to share and have and I find that some have to pay more for the privilege and not in the least bit fairly. It's getting that time of year here, really it is always that time.
Fishing was my father's favorite summer venture and I think when we came to Florida it made it all the more sweet for him to be able to fish year round. He doesn't go much anymore and I haven't actually been with him since I first married my first husband and we spent a day at Ft. De Soto with him and my step family and siblings. It was his idea of a reception for us to have a cookout and fish together and I didn't mind because any time my dad volunteered to spend time together was "the" time. He passed on his love of fishing to us as I have to my little wolf and tonight I spent the evening making macaroni salad, just as he has so many times and prepared in my mind the sequence of things to prepare and do. Some of my gear is here at my new home and some is still in storage. The hard part is deciding where to go as my brother favors my dad's old haunts and I am limited by disability as to where I can go. I have evolved with my fishing to accommodate my unusual lifestyle and to our advantage, Lobo and I can stay out for long hours and such with minimal amenities. To me a minimal but required amenity is a bathroom. I need to be in close proximity as I cannot walk long distances with broken bones. It's lucky I can walk at all and I complain little, but because I don't I think people forget I am disabled. I don't want to scream it but it is one of those situations that you're damned if you do and, well...you get the idea. My dad's old favorite fishing hole down by the fort has bathrooms and they are clean but it's a long walk on a long pier if I have to "water the roses" or "till the soil" when the need should arise. It's not enough that the restroom exists so much as the proximity needs to be close. My economic state is such that I cannot afford one of those geriatric buggies or disabled person carts and I am bound to "keep on a trucking" on foot. I'm not so stuffy that I can't piss in the woods but I am in need of "woods" and privacy to do so and despite what most think and feel, there is no privacy in this state anymore. So the squat at will idea doesn't apply here, though still on the table for hunting and camping situations.
At the cost of sounding like a cheap or extremely poor shit of a mom, I am-both. The distance between both fishing spots is little enough to warrant that it isn't a deciding factor so it comes down to amenity and cost effectiveness. Dad's old spot is cheap with only a minimal under two dollar toll total to get there. The place I go costs me a car fee and a person fee and can be expensive if one doesn't have the gold to lay on the table. To the tune of fourteen dollars in total, just so the disabled can feel normal and take their kid fishing. Unfortunately for my brother it will cost more for his vehicle, possibly, and he and his wife and possibly three of his six kids will amount to twenty to twenty-eight depending on if the toll people on the pier feel his average SUV is too big to be the normal car cost and be charged triple. I do not want to nor will change his plans with his kids and told him I still want to go but I cannot accompany them where he wants to be. My dilemma is Lobo. She wants to go and we haven't done much but stay home as we are not of above the means to afford such leisure and pleasures. The bonus for us is we go at sundown and stay till an hour or so after dawn which means an all nighter and an eighteen hour adventure, always creating a few days of recovery from sun/light exposure to our kind, but well worth the long overnight visit and quality time spent. So, with a tank of gasoline and a few dollars and the frozen bait in the back of my freezer and my tackle, we will probably head a little farther south than the bro and be to ourselves where the disabled will be able to hobble the short distance to the little girls' room. Otherwise we will have to stay home and eat macaroni salad and watch old movies and goof off together quiet and happy and poor. It's a shame though, and I feel like I'm letting her down and the nieces and nephew down and my brother too for he wanted us to go so badly.~mobe's love to her all and her all to her loves.
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