Gone Fishing

2:30 PM - Half a day before their government emergency small business loan was about to expire, I received the dreaded call. Apologetic, R told me he was folding the firm. Perhaps I made a wrong choice. Perhaps I should’ve chosen to work at marvel or SHoP, 2 larger firms with more diversified work. You finally find a great project with great designers and it’s squashed by corona – I couldn’t believe my misfortune in finding a great job and losing it.

Before he called me, R spoke with the municipal project manager regarding the library I was working on. It probably wasn’t the best time to check the project’s status as the manager was attending his mother’s funeral. R has no idea when the city will start municipal projects again.

“There is a possibility all the designs will have to be revised for corona and social distancing rules,” R lamented.

“Having gone through designing communal spaces for a library, I can’t imagine how we compartmentalize it to make it corona safe…. the design may be completely altered,” I respond. “Do you have any work lined up?” At this point I felt bad for R, and offered to help him pro bono to support their efforts any way I could.

“You’re so kind… hopefully after this corona thing, the project will restart and we’ll give you a call to resume leading the project.”

8:30 AM - After our early morning hike I bought a couple fishing poles for J and B at the hardware store. Fishing is something that I’ve heard of but never really tried. We relied on the hardware clerk for instructions “first, I would recommend these small poles for kids. They’re also good for camping. There’s bait that looks like a frog and worms… these are good for catching bass, which are plentiful in the ponds around here.”

“how do you take the fish off the line? Do you hold the fish?”

“no,” she laughed. “a bass will swing wildly if you hold its body. If you hold it by its mouth, it will become motionless. At that point, you take the hook out carefully. If you let it bleed too much it will die.”

“can we eat it?”

“yes. If you don’t want it, you can release it back to the pond if it’s dying. Other animals will eat it.”

I can cook lobsters no problem, but imagining myself taking a fish off the line, and killing it was too much. I didn’t have weed or a makeshift fish bong to sedate the fish like Charlotte. I remember my friend told me in the swamps of north Carolina, they would fish off a boat and knock their catch’s heads against the side of the boat to kill them. for myself, i imagined instructing B to swing his baseball bat at the dangling fish from the line like a pinata to kill it.

“do I need a license to fish?”

“yes. Even though kids can fish free, if you touch the pole, you need a license. It’s a $100 dollar fine if the park warden catches you fishing without a license”

Great. I invested in a weekly fishing license… and kept worrying about how to unhook all the potential fish from our poles.

7:30 PM - After I spoke with R, I told J and B to head to the car to go fishing. They were excited. At long pond sunset, we strung the poles, tied our bait and cast our lines. Something was amiss however, as our fishing lines became a tangled mess at the spool. Unable to untangle linear feet of fishing filament, I just dangled the fake worm with hooks in the water. Surprisingly I saw a couple perch interested in the fake worm, but they didn’t bite. At the dock of long pond, J went for a swim. B sat in the car to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. I laughed at myself because all my grand plans for showing the kids a good time fishing and my worries about unhooking and killing fish were for naught. 

morning hike companion. rana clamitans

dragon fly

gone fishing