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I am learning with each day's passing that God has a way of fitting just
enough time in the day for me to do what needs to be done. I haven't
always seen it that way, but it is becoming more and more evident at the
turn of each twenty-four hour period. In the past, I would go to bed
each night thinking that I have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, and that
kind of anxiety would keep me from getting the sleep I needed to make
the next day possible. It was a vicious circle. You don't sleep; you
don't perform, you don't perform; you don't sleep.
As a father of four,
and a home-based business owner, I find that there can be some serious
juggling involved to get anything done - much less a full day's work. I
have also noticed that the word done, in-and-of-itself, changes
meaning according to the task at hand. Why, just as I type this, one of
my twins (Stuart) is showing me a drawing that he is working on. We are
about to go get his twin brother (Keith) from Pre-K class. I have to
tell you why Stuart is home with me today, and not at school like Keith.
Then after I indulge this family affair upon you, I promise to get to
some Largemouth Bass fishing on one of my favorite So-Cal lakes - Vail
Lake in Temecula.
So Saturday night, after having some fine fishing guests aboard, (they were catching Bonefish on four pound test line – awesome stuff), we had eaten dinner, watched a family movie, and put the twins to bed, when my daughter (Lydia) convinces me to go get ice-cream. It doesn’t take much to do that, especially since it was a warm day. While I am at the store, my wife (Amanda) calls and tells me that Stuart put a Lego up his nose. I tried to get it out with a pen light and tweezers, only to knock it in further. He could breathe, so we knew it was no real emergency, and said we would take care of it after church Sunday.
We go to our local Urgent Care facility, and find that they cannot help, and they send us to the Urgent Care facility in San Diego. After two hours, the doctor there does no more than I did the night before, and says we should go to Children’s Hospital Emergency, and signs us over a transfer. We spend another two hours at the Emergency, and then the doctor comes in and says she wouldn’t even try it, and makes us an appointment at the same building for Monday morning with an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I call in sick to the Seal Tours, and Stuart and I show up Monday morning to meet the Doctor. After waiting only about thirty minutes, we go into the exam room. The Doctor calls in a few nurses to help, while he removes the Lego, and a few rogue boogers, out of Stuart’s now sore nostrils. Five minutes, and done. The doctor comes back with a senior doctor, who checks everything out, and releases us.
A few years back, while doing what he does so well, 760AM talk show host Rick Roberts made a comment about how we should help returning, wounded, warriors to rehabilitate in a more relaxed; and even fun environment. After partnering with the San Diego Navy League Council, the fine 501c3 charitable organization known as the Warrior Foundation was started. With the help and guidance of Executive Director Sandy Lehmkuhler, the mission of helping these fine young men and women to get back to life, in as much comfort as possible, was coming to light.
For the past three years, the Lake Elsinore Bass Club has hosted a tournament for the Warrior Foundation. The way it works is this; we have 60 boat owners volunteer themselves, and their gear, to take out two (sometimes three) service folk to fish as a team. Each team brings in five fish per boat, and after the weigh-in, Tommy Gomes and the Uni-Butter crew feeds us fish tacos, and Chicken Fajitas until our bellies explode. Well, maybe not so much the last part, but you get the picture. There are prizes, raffles, wooden plaques, fish stories, and most of all – Fun.
Amber and Archie are both Marines. They are also pretty good anglers; especially Amber, (sorry Archie). Archie is married with a kid, and has another on the way. Amber will be twenty-one years old soon. They both have given so much to help us all support the lifestyle that we have. It was all I could do to find time in my busy, not enough hours in the day, life to show these two a good time around Vail Lake. I wish I could do more.
We pulled up to the first spot around 0645, and started throwing reaction baits. When it appeared that we either had to find another spot or another technique, we tried the latter first. Archie switched to a five inch Kamakazee Deep Stix in Smoke/Copper Flake, and Amber had a dropshot with a four inch Western Plastics Crawflash worm. I went with a seven inch Pour Boys Watermelon Purple Flake worm on a Shakey head. Within about a half hour, we had four fish in the boat. It took the next half hour to get our fifth fish. We shared the spot with some other boats, and then left. After docking up to visit the outhouses, we dropped the trolling motor, and started fishing the area around the launch ramp. We stayed with the worms that were catching us fish. Archie switched to a Shakey head like me when the wind grew too strong for fishing the weightless rig. We culled up our limit at least ten times over. The bite wasn’t great, but consistent, and most of all, we were having a great time. At the end of the tournament, Amber had the two biggest fish in the bucket, Archie had one, and I had two. A perfect display of teamwork gave us a limit of 10.36 pounds! After seeing the weights that the last two year’s worth of Warrior Foundation tournaments brought, I didn’t feel strong about our limit, but we all held our heads high knowing that we never culled backwards. We actually took 14th place! And, we never broke off, or lost a nice fish at the boat – a common fish story topic told at the barbecue.
I once heard Pastor Kerry Shook, noted bible professor and lecturer, say, “If at the end of the day you feel you didn’t get enough done, then you are trying to do more than God wants you to do.” As I try to tie in the two very different segments of this essay together, I find the common link of time and faith. The alone time I got to spend with Stuart, away from my computer, away from the other kids, and just quietly waiting for help, dropping everything to get this little boy the right people to assist in his health and well being, that is what God wanted me to do. To spend my day from work, family, and all other outside sources, to get to know Archie and Amber, to see the faces of the people who are putting their time and families on hold for me to enjoy my time with mine, that is what God wanted me to do. There is no greater truth than that.
I hope you enjoy reading these little blogs, essays, articles, or whatever you want to call them. I do enjoy making the time to write them for you; sharing my life, my stories, and my adventures (fishing or otherwise). If you have any comments, please feel free to share them with me. Some of you already have, and I appreciate it very much. You can email me here: James@TheFishIcon.com
Oh, and I have been talking to Sandy about doing a Bay Bass Tournament for the Warrior Foundation much like the one at Vail Lake. If you like that idea, then please someone start a Thread to get the buzz going.
Thank you and God Bless.
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