Old Timers often live in the past. We are full of "Back in my day" stories. This is because the best days are long gone. The spark, the energy and the ambition slowly give way to, well, being old. Old Timers can be pretty jaded, after all, we have seen and done so much, and we have watched new generations grow up and repeat the cycle. Just like it was scripted.
We thought we were edgy and smart once. The Old Timers of our day had plenty of stories too. They would smile and nod when we talked of changing the world, making it better. They shook their heads when we spoke about how they wasted their chance and accomplished nothing. And they smiled.
The Old Timers once thought they should share their knowledge with the young. The young smiled and shook their heads at the foolish old men. After all, what did they do with their chance? Nothing, the old fools did nothing with it. They left all this mess that the young feel such a strong need to clean up. The young laugh at the old Timers as they are convinced that it is all so simple. The Old Timers just smile and shake their heads.
So the young move out and move on, and this is as it should be. They step out with vigor and confidence, firm in their goals. This too is as it should be. Maybe in some small ways they just might make some things better. Us Old Timers hope so. What? Do you think that because we are old we have lost all hope? We spent much of our youth trying to give you every opportunity to make a difference.
This is your world now, what will you do with it? Will you end up in the daily trap of trying to outrun and outperform the other rats in the race? Will you slow down once in a while to appreciate what is around you? Us Old Timers don't know the answers to these questions, we didn't know the answers when it was our turn.
Well, I'm going fishing. Just a little time on the river bank sitting in the sun. AS you go busily about your life, look down once in a while. Some of the footprints you are following are mine.
I am smiling.
Fucking RAH!!!
:mittens:
Quote from: Niamh on January 25, 2011, 07:53:20 PM
Fucking RAH!!!
:mittens:
Thanks. Too sappy I guess. :lulz:
:mittens:
ALL TRUE.
FUCKING RAD-ASS TRUTH.
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 09:25:29 PM
Quote from: Niamh on January 25, 2011, 07:53:20 PM
Fucking RAH!!!
:mittens:
Thanks. Too sappy I guess. :lulz:
Not sappy, heartlifting to those of us who've been there!
Except you made me want fresh fish for dinner!! :argh!:
Like I would eat anything out of any river around here... :x
The Big Blue River is a little over 300 feet from my back door. Expect me to be off-line a lot this summer.
Except i catch and release. Hands cramp too bad all the time to clean fish.
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 10:19:09 PM
The Big Blue River is a little over 300 feet from my back door. Expect me to be off-line a lot this summer.
Except i catch and release. Hands cramp too bad all the time to clean fish.
That's one of those good/bad combinations I don't know how to answer :cry:
Quote from: Niamh on January 25, 2011, 10:26:59 PM
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 10:19:09 PM
The Big Blue River is a little over 300 feet from my back door. Expect me to be off-line a lot this summer.
Except i catch and release. Hands cramp too bad all the time to clean fish.
That's one of those good/bad combinations I don't know how to answer :cry:
Let's go with the good.
Quote from: Nigel on January 25, 2011, 09:36:13 PM
ALL TRUE.
FUCKING RAD-ASS TRUTH.
It is true. Writing it made me a little melancholy.
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 10:28:07 PM
Quote from: Niamh on January 25, 2011, 10:26:59 PM
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 10:19:09 PM
The Big Blue River is a little over 300 feet from my back door. Expect me to be off-line a lot this summer.
Except i catch and release. Hands cramp too bad all the time to clean fish.
That's one of those good/bad combinations I don't know how to answer :cry:
Let's go with the good.
Ok then that is super awesome to have a nice fishing hole so close. I know it's one of your fav past times from your book, so that's a good thing. :D
(http://www.manhattancvb.org/images/pages/N68/Tuttle2.jpg)
This a mile by car from my house. This was taken shortly after it was finished and it's a lot fuller now. We basically live right below the dam.
(http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/tc/gif/DSC_0503aerials.jpg)
Right below the dam is where the Country Stampede is held every year.
Great post cb :)
Wonderful Pics as well :D
Quote from: *GrumpButt* on January 26, 2011, 12:54:31 AM
Great post cb :)
Wonderful Pics as well :D
Thank you Ma'am. :)
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 25, 2011, 10:29:24 PM
Quote from: Nigel on January 25, 2011, 09:36:13 PM
ALL TRUE.
FUCKING RAD-ASS TRUTH.
It is true. Writing it made me a little melancholy.
Yup.
Goes with the territory. Getting old is neither easy nor avoidable. And I'm just starting.
Quote from: Nigel on January 26, 2011, 12:59:57 AM
[...]Getting old is neither easy nor avoidable. [...]
Bullshit, getting old is the easiest thing around. You wake up in the morning, you're another day older. You just deal with it. Its
your life, live the fucking thing. A wise friend once commented to me - "Its not that I feel any older its just that people treat me as though I was". Everything else is just BS and practicalities. So my hair is gray and my tits are heading down to my knees - so fucking what? If I don't take the tablets I will die, well everyone has their problems, don't they? But I don't feel like wasting my time getting maudlin about some rosy dozy past. If I'm alive tomorrow that is my future, my life, and I'm just going to keep living it until I don't.
MMIX
Crone to the Bone
Great post CB. I suppose it's a good job the young never listen to a fucking word of advice from anyone 8 years or so older than they are, or nothing would ever change. I never listened to anything I was told either. (Still don't, come to think of it) Although I am not as advanced in years endowed with experience as you are, I find myself biting my tongue sometimes, when the urge to correct some 20yr old cocky little bastard rises. If tries to tell me "how it is", instead of correcting him, nowadays I just tell him to STFU. Mostly because no old gumby ever told me to STFU when I was his age, and I feel I may have benefited, had they done so. (And because I covet the youth that has so obviously been wasted on the young)
I also am an Angler, and that's one big fookin' river there. The only thing that puzzles me, is where does all the water above the dam go? I looks like the river just stops there, but this cant be the case, unless it's actually capped off at the other end too. Making it a Lake, I think.
Quote from: BadBeast on January 28, 2011, 11:37:15 PM
Great post CB. I suppose it's a good job the young never listen to a fucking word of advice from anyone 8 years or so older than they are, or nothing would ever change. I never listened to anything I was told either. (Still don't, come to think of it) Although I am not as advanced in years endowed with experience as you are, I find myself biting my tongue sometimes, when the urge to correct some 20yr old cocky little bastard rises. If tries to tell me "how it is", instead of correcting him, nowadays I just tell him to STFU. Mostly because no old gumby ever told me to STFU when I was his age, and I feel I may have benefited, had they done so. (And because I covet the youth that has so obviously been wasted on the young)
I also am an Angler, and that's one big fookin' river there. The only thing that puzzles me, is where does all the water above the dam go? I looks like the river just stops there, but this cant be the case, unless it's actually capped off at the other end too. Making it a Lake, I think.
It spills out into the Big Blue River for a couple of miles, then it empties into the Kansas River.
(http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/tc/gif/SitePhotos06072007-102.jpg)
Wow, that's quite a torrent. Wouldn't want to be taken by surprise in that gully.
Quote from: BadBeast on January 29, 2011, 12:51:06 AM
Wow, that's quite a torrent. Wouldn't want to be taken by surprise in that gully.
Well, hard to be taken by surprise as there is always water coming from the dam. Guaranteed flow levels and all that. This is the river that is 300 feet behind my house, never dry.
Do you ever get flooded out?
Quote from: BadBeast on January 29, 2011, 01:03:58 AM
Do you ever get flooded out?
No, because of the dam. It (the dam) was flooded to capacity this year and they controlled the release because the Big Blue merges with the Kansas River and the Kansas merges with the Missouri River which was already at flood stage.
The picture is about a quarter of a mile upstream from me, by the tine it gets here it has calmed down nicely.