TennesseeGuy

Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of Wayne's family and the way they have been handling adversity with their major health issues. I'm uplifted by their actions. Please realize I'm not being critical of anybody. Wayne deserves plenty of slack and no matter how he handles his ups and downs he's okay with me. That Irish family is one strong bunch.

Was self employed and thought I'd never retire. Planned to be at work about 20+ hours a week for about 40 weeks a year, but the person I left in charge started following the same schedule I had for myself, even though the person was paid a decent salary, a nice production bonus and a sweetheart profit sharing deal. At age 76 1/2, I figured out that it wasn't working. December 9, 2010, I decided to sell, made one phone call and had a cashier's check in my hands December 31, 2010. It's fully invested and working hard for me, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I had never looked forward to retirement or made plans for retirement. When it was time, I just did it. Made the decision in about an hour. Made the announcement to my employees and offered them an opportunity to purchase. Gave them overnight to decide. No regrets.

Back to the top. Happy birthday Lew. May as well make a week of it.

What about sitting on cloth chairs? If stuff can come out of people, maybe it could find it's way back into the next guy. Might be good to sit on a magazine instead of a cloth seat.

Some mutual funds charge a 12b1 fee. Same thing and over the long haul could really add up to a huge loss for an investor. Not all fund families charge a 12b1 fee.

I'm thinking Ms Border Lady liked your looks and wanted more from you than your money. Maybe looking for a rematch in a venue of her choice.

I left home Wednesday at 4 PM, slept in a rest area from 3:30 AM to 8:00 AM Thursday morning and stayed at an International Falls motel Thursday night. A fresh crop of border agents saw me as a possible smuggler and made a somewhat thorough search of my van, when I crossed over around noon today. They carried several items to their x-ray machine for a really good look at the contents. Somehow I forgot to empty the jug of cold pi$$ held over from my short sleep in the rest area. I was close enough to observe the nice young man pick it up, check it closely and put it back on the floor. I was also close by when he opened the large side pocket of my luggage bag that contained my warm weather travel clothes, including the underwear I'd had on for about 45 hours. Underwear would have been tossed in the fire, if I'd had a fire. Didn't want to leave them in the trash can to be tossed by the maid because they were too nasty. Anybody with decent eyesight could determine that black Oreo cookies were included in my recent diet. At this point I had to walk away to keep from laughing. The boys didn't give me much credit as a smuggler because they didn't look under the hood, didn't look under the van or inspect any areas where a good smuggler might hide his stuff. I recently replaced the rear vent motors and the end result is less than factory, but my work went unnoticed. One more thing. A very nice young lady checked me first and: She: Do you have any minnows or night crawlers? Me: I have frozen, salted tuffy minnows. She: Have you taken minnows on other fishing trips? Me: Yes, many times. This is the third trip to Canada for these minnows this season. She: Are they dead? They're not alive are they? Me: Yes, they are dead. (no smile, no smirk, no mouth noises from me) ...................................................................................................................................... All the border agents I met were good people, mannerly and pleasant. All told, it was much better than the U.S./Mexico border is being handled. I'm looking forward to my third Thanksgiving Dinner with the Geary family at Sportsman's Lodge. I've made many October trips to Little Vermilion, but only three included being there on Thanksgiving Day.

I'm thinking a spooked walleye would head away from the boat. Right, left or straight ahead, according to the location of the walleye when spooked. Another choice might be straight down if in deep water.

We're with you Lew. One of my fishing friends went through the same thing a little over a year ago and he's doing fine these days. Catching it early was great. Surgeons are doing biopsies during surgery to be sure they get it all before closing.

Will be headed home by the time guns come out. If not, I'll be wearing plenty of orange.

Two of us will be the only guests on Little Vermilion Lake for the October 4 week. Life will be good to us. I wasn't sure a float plane ride would be available for us until I saw the sign. Have faith. Look for your sign.

LV is the perfect spot for my birthday. Norma and I arrived last Saturday morning, have been pounding walleyes and picking up some nice pike while jigging walleyes. Norma is having her best ever week of fishing with good numbers and good size on her walleyes. She's brought in several nice pike, not quite 40", but just a couple of inches short. Fishing is great and we're looking forward to three more days of catching, before heading home.

Hey Roy. Happy birthday to you from Norma and me in cabin 3 on Little Vermilion Lake. I'll lift one to you before hitting the sack. Chasing pike and walleyes has worn us down.

Consider having it delivered to yourself, General Delivery, at the nearest border town in the U.S. Track the shipment and be there to help unload the truck.

100# Seaguar fluoro has been good to me. I match the OD of fluoro with ID of double sleeves for a firm grip on my loops. I wouldn't consider going back to wire.

Great trip. Beauty of a report. Thanks for sharing with us. You and Bill have at it next week.

Possibly in place to drain ethanol gas before it does more harm.

BillM, no measurements. Fish were out of the water for only a few seconds. Big net, but no cradle which would have allowed for checking length. Most of our fish were released without being netted. Many were unhooked in the net and swam away when the net was pulled away from them. All of our pike were caught on single hooks (jigs and JSM). I tried Suicks, but pike weren't eating Suicks that week. For the 3 photos the fish were unhooked in the net, taken out of the water about 20 seconds for a photo and then back to the net to be sure they were fully recovered before pulling the net from under them. Nothing touched our fish except for wet hands. Over the years I've seen several silver pike, but Phil's is probably the largest I've seen. She didn't have any holes in her mouth from previous hooks. We managed to bring in several nice pike every day. I'm missing NW Ontario. Will probably be back up there next month.

Probably running Tennessee plates on the truck.

No problems were found with the first test. Doesn't mean the abnormality wasn't there. My urologist did a prostate biopsy on me and none of the 13 chunks showed signs of cancer. Dr. "Goldfinger" told me he didn't find cancer cells, but that doesn't mean I don't have them. Be happy you found the problem and it's being treated.

Happy Birthday Beans. Reckon you've been at legal drinking age for quite a while by now.

Hope the sun heats up so it can warm your bones. Best to stay away from all those old folks down there with all their bad knees, bad backs and worn out hips. Might be contagious. Don't want you to catch anything from them.

Tohatsu distributor is in my town. Got my 2011 Tohatsu 20hp 4stroke, electric start for under $2700 U.S. You guys could order online, pay by eft and pay no freight or U.S. tax. Have it shipped to you general delivery at a border town near where you live, throw it in your truck and pay duty, taxes or whatever when you cross back into Ontario. Credit card purchase would cost a bit more. They ship only to the lower 48. Tohatsu makes a strong outboard. I researched it plenty before my purchase and it's performed well. Let it sniff gas and it'll take you where you want to go and bring you back. PM me with your email address if you want the website. They sell hundreds of outboard motors.

14 days in camp would give up 12 walleye dinners, and 2 meals of Whopper sauce, upstate New York sausage and sewer pipes.

Phil, we need to get you on one of my two week trips before you're too old to join me.