Counting the Dead

Going to try and fish Bedminster Pond with Matt after I post the following. It's not very mild out, so the chance of any catches is little. I haven't ruled out rigging up fly rods and fishing the river instead.

About a week ago, someone at the supermarket pitched me the idea that the pandemic could be biological warfare, planned and executed in the interest of worldwide authoritarian dictatorship, beginning with Putin. I don't believe this is the case. Pandemics happen naturally. I noted the Spanish Flu in a recent post, from which a third of the world's population died. This pandemic won't be as severe, if I have the death percentage correct, but many of us will die, and all the likelihood is that it will have essentially been due to natural causes. It would have helped if tests were widely available, but agency set in place to deal with a pandemic--put in place by the Obama Administration--was gutted by Trump.

If everyone were tested, why lock down? Those who tested as carriers could have quarantined. At the least, we would have had more control in combating this disease from Day One of its emergence in China.

"2.2 million people in the United States could die," news flash just now. In 1918, 675,000 Americans died from the Spanish Flu, but the population was much less, so even if two million of us are soon dead, the percentage isn't quite as high. Rather than to quibble over that, the news now is staggering.

The news also reported Trump as saying he always believed this a pandemic. Yeah? He was reported only 11 days ago or so as saying it's a conspiracy of the democrats to lower his re-election chances. Not long thereafter, I heard him mumble on TV like a druggie that this would soon pass, as if it were nothing.

I will be posting. My mood is somber, and for all I know, it may tend to remain so. I wonder what nation we will re-emerge to find? How many months or years from now?  I am informed there may be a vaccine available in a year and some months from now, so possibly it won't be much more than a year. We suffered a fairly serious economic downturn not much more than a decade ago. This one, I think, will be much worse, but markets will return, of course, if any of us is to survive. America is resilient. America is the toughest nation to ever stand on the face of this earth.

If you catch a whiff of death's stench, remember who you voted for in 2016. If you really are confident in that vote, you know you made a good choice. Confidence is not evasiveness. As we witnessed Republican senators not long ago, we saw them dodge.

America is great. Great enough to suffer damnation. And come back.

I wish I could find more confident words than those, but I don't have them now. What I face is something I know I may not recover from, though I believe I will. I just feel very put out. I worked very hard to get my life back during what has been a most chaotic winter for me. True--good thing I got my equipment in order before the lock down. I would have been screwed. But no sooner was I finally feeling hints of normality, than this pandemic came down on us.

Part of what sucks so much is that even with the economy as good as it was just weeks ago, who among us was full of confidence and life?  I'm speaking for myself; maybe you were full of confidence and life: I did see some photos of outstanding catches on Facebook. Are we to give up and not even care to return, because life sucked anyway? Maybe we'll explore the depths of depression in the interim, and find life calls us back in spite of ourselves. Not very appealing, no, but speaking for myself again, I sure know I can't get cheerful over TV ads, and rarely have got cheerful over them, anytime. If I controlled the TV in our household, it wouldn't be on as much, and in any event, maybe people will wake up about how childish and ridiculous so much marketing is. Not to talk down children, but ads behaving like 13-year-olds jacking off for the first time aim at adults. 

Lenny, Hope You Read the Blog from Home

I'll be posting. Don't know if the state, etc., will send any press releases, but I'll come up with some content.

Take it the club is closing?

How Can We Call These Men Leaders?

Above that odd log, deep in the background, a couple of anglers fish. They caught nothing.

I spent a couple of hours last night preparing for Tilcon, but I abruptly stopped when Matt called upstairs to tell me he had a fever of 101. (No, not nostalgia for entry-level university courses.) He had just finished getting Lightroom up for me; all that's left to do with the computer is work out a few remaining loose ends; the camera works fine; apparently there never was a problem with it, so I'm embarrassed before Nikon USA for sending it in for warranty repair--I told Matt to sleep and see what the temperature is in the morning. 

It was 101, so we cancelled on Tilcon. Anyhow, I got gear in some order for any coming outings.

Morristown Memorial Hospital screened Matt over the phone. Very little chance it's the virus. New Jersey Department of Health told us it's OK I go to work. The prospect of two weeks off did not feel right. I like a check at the end of the year for all of my sick days, unused. And I do not like to deal with the state for unemployment insurance. You don't get your full paycheck's worth, anyhow.

We're far from the end of the pandemic. More than 675,000 Americans died from the Spanish flu in 1918. Approximately one third of the world's population was wiped out.


With temperatures in the 60's, I expected Bedminster Pond to be on fire. I did catch some bass. Little ones about six inches long. Three of them, like last time, though I fished a full two hours. Lost a crappie bigger than the bass. Used in-line spinners again. Fished the sunny side. Water's warmer there. The best moment was getting a camera shot I especially like. I felt for a moment as if I might return to normal, confident reality.

But of course, just as I get my life back in order, mass death descends upon my countrymen.

What does fishing matter in the face of impending disaster? KC at the supermarket insists life goes on. It does, and it's important to maintain normal activities like fishing. But to turn a blind eye to what's happening to our country is not patriotic. Fishing is a way to gather thoughts.

I will survive. I can't promise you more than that, but I'm confident I will, and my wife and son. But if America has any value at all, other people besides myself and my family matter, too. Some I don't like. For example, I didn't like the demeanor of national leaders on TV today. OK, OK. They were being somber. But frankly, something all too clean about them, while they misled us about facts on the ground, appalled me. Nothing about their behavior fully convinced me they care. And this is the country they supposedly lead.

Facts on the ground. Pence said you can go to your doctor and request a test. But that is what I mean by misleading. What's the point, but to learn you can't get a test? My wife spoke to the New Jersey Department of Health. There is no availability here.

How can we call these men leaders, when they will not speak to us?

Providence

Two Trips Planned

Tilcon with my son Friday. Tilcon with Oliver Round on the 24th.

Friday depends on the two of us getting Lightroom up and various problems I have with this new computer sorted out, including printer connection. Plan on doing all this by night. I told Matt he gets my old computer--he sells mother boards and such--and gets a new jigging rod for Florida as his reward.

Looking forward to these outings. Salmon are the main concern. But so far, I feel as if life is too complicated to get there. You don't give in to such feelings, if you want to move ahead. You get the gear in order, go, and find it's the best thing you could have done. Even today's short stint at Bedminster Pond reminded me that the best thing to do for anxiety and depression can never be contained in a pill, but will always be getting outdoors.

Bass Astir

I had time to get out and fish Bedminster Pond for about an hour. I had gone to my study while my wife tried to connect my Optimum email to Microsoft Office 2019 Outlook. (It took her three hours, but she did it. Optimum sold out to Altice Mobile, and we now find the service awful. Optimum service used to be golden. My wife got my email up. I have very low IQ for that sort of thing.)

I figured it was a good idea to be gone so she could work in peace. I took Sadie along, no hesitation, but Trish did say, "If you don't take her, I'm not doing this." Earlier, we took a hike at Round Valley, and she wanted to go all the way to the ramp and back. I was halfway miserable after these nearly two months of chaos since Florida, since apparently my Nikon D850 needs to go back for warranty service again, as if they did nothing after I sent it back to them two weeks ago. (I might be wrong. It might be that I'm so mentally freaked out over everything, I couldn't judge the reality, when perhaps nothing was wrong with it.)

All said, though, Round Valley this afternoon resonates well with me as I write now, because on the whole, it was a good time. Especially remember the sound of a pileated woodpecker hammering a hollowed tree. That was amazing.

I took my D7100 to Bedminster Pond--it seems to have the same problem as my D850, which is absurd. I'm wondering also if my eyes have got really bad. Mostly, I must be a little nuts from all the anxiety of these months. I also said stuff at work I definitely should not have said, but at the time,  it seemed right. Problem is, it wasn't right. Hope things go OK there tomorrow.

So I went fishing again. And it kind of felt as if reality is still somehow there. I had gone to my wrecked study, which I'm beginning to put back in place, sat down, strung up my favorite St. Croix, tied on a ball bearing swivel (I found only one, somehow only one, in a bag in my plug box, where snap swivels are supposed to be, at least that much checked out), and then I snapped on a knock-off CP Swing I made when I was 17 years old.

At the pond, I realized it was really a good opportunity to fish a Rebel Minnow on the surface. Calm. Warmed. Some fish swirling. But I fished that spinner slowly, and caught three little largemouths from about four to six inches long. I missed one hit from a bass that might have been nine inches.

Got a photo of my first bass. But before I left the pond, I realized I had shot it in RAW, figuring it would have been wise to select RAW+JPG so I could load the image files and simply upload the JPG here on the blog.  I'm a long way yet from getting Lightroom up.

Not in mental shape right now to get things like the right file selection on my camera right. Just the same, it was nice fishing.

18-Inch Largemouth

Why I Own Canoes and no Boat as Such

This keeps poking into mind, but I dismiss it, because my mind is made up. So go figure. Maybe it's telling me I should share it. But it's not as if I have any advice to help you, just a slice of my story for entertainment. The previous post today might be helpful, if you buy from Amazon.

Years ago now. A decade ago and more. I had a deep, deep longing to buy a boat. I would even keep it here in the lot. We have a Condo Association that forbids the likes, but back then, no one bothered. (Now they fine you if you put a tarp over your bicycle on your own porch.) Problem was, the highest amount I had in my savings those years was about $700.00. I had got back into getting articles published, but as yet, I was spending most of the earnings on outings. I remember paying as much as $135.00 for boat rental and bait at Dow's.

Since the middle of the previous decade, I've advanced my finances considerably, just by freelancing. Even so, it remains like a separate micro-economy. I get articles published for earnings as little as $30.00, and only a relative few pay as much as $700.00. Low figure payments matter essentially, though, because earnings build over time. But we're still not talking about very serious money.

But buy a boat? Since I buy $1500.00 lenses and the like, it's easy to see I can afford one, but I depend on my two canoes. And continue to rent from Dow's. And when we go to Florida, rent a big one. I like to go out in Fred's 14-foot V-hull, too. Storage fees would be outrageous and the distance from home a problem.

I prefer to spend money on photography. The three books of photos I've been planning on for at least the past six years--Lake Hopatcong, the Raritan River System, Round Valley--these may be no more than a pipe dream, but they motivate my picture taking. The way I see it, if I can recapture the words that sailed into my head while on the job at Shop Rite, investing more than 5500 dollars now in D850 photography--this figure does not include my many lenses--puts me on a adventure full of mystery, because there's really no telling how I may or may not profit, but at the very least, it does satisfy my addiction to the images I produce.

My wife's realism--I will not profit one iota. It's all for my own pleasure. My old Nikon D7100, which I haven't sold,, is good enough for the highest-end outdoor magazines. I paid 800 for that.

But I am obsessive. That answer just doesn't satisfy me. I've seen my own results from the D850, so I know I can get shots even editors of lesser magazines have salivated over,. I can never get close to  these with my D7100. I have to pay high price to satisfy what I see, but why not? I earn the money.


Adventure in the Underground Economy

Everyone Buys Amazon so Beware

Tuesday night, I weighed choice between buying a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 or buying Office 2019. Two choices, the latter. A download or a key. In the process of search, I clicked on "key" in Amazon, which I later recognized was a mistake. I was simply curious about what Amazon might inform me. Well, not enough. I drove to Best Buy to talk to real people.  I had bought my new Asus laptop through Best Buy. There I saw 2019 with the key for $249.99, (I would have just installed my old 2013, but I hadn't uninstalled it from my former computer, now partially dismantled.) On Amazon, the key version was $218.99.

I regretted not buying from a real store. Giving them my business,. But 32 bucks. To me, that's a lot.  I got home and told my wife all about my encounters and the price, and she said, "That's why Best Buy is going out of business. Everyone buys Amazon."

In the meantime, I joined a few photo forums and posed questions about any advantage of One Drive 1T for D850 photography. (Office 365.) I judged the advantages are dubious at best. The Publisher feature might have come in handy if no commercial publisher cares about my book, but I see I can buy it separately for like $59.99, and besides, other applications for sale might be better.

So. I went to Amazon to place my purchase, saw the price had gone up to $249.99, and immediately remembered that moment I clicked on "key" the night before. I felt certain they had raised the price on me. I searched and searched for a better price. I certainly wasn't gong to fall for a knock-off or malware "tech" support, but I did find one seller that seemed aboveboard, though I would have to wait on shipping. (We have Amazon Prime.) I judged that I've grown up enough not to rely on a seller I can only judge seems OK.  I play it fast and loose with inexpensive fishing tackle, and so far, have not been ripped off, though I've waited as long as a month to get items. It's different with software. I really want to be certain what I'm installing on my computer is good. (I once bought a $1500.00 Nikon lens from a Manhattan seller Ken Rockwell does not recommend for $1199.99, and it works perfectly OK, but my days of taking chances like that are done, I hope.)

I tried to switch to my wife's account. Didn't have her password. She was asleep. It was not worth $32.00 to wake her.

I bought it. Recounted this to her minutes ago. Immediately, she said, "They raised the price on you. You need to go to a computer with a different IP address. Wouldn't have mattered, had you switched to my account."

"I could have gone to the library."

"Yes, and accessed your account there....But you would have got it a day later."


How's the WH?