If you read my editor’s log from last week, then you know I made my first trip to ICAST and you have a pretty good blow-by-blow of what transpired over those four days in Orlando, Florida. What I didn’t tell you is that I brought home a particularly stubborn pathogen in the form of my third case of COVID, I’m calling it the Icasticron variant. Each experience with this frustrating virus has been vastly different and this version’s main symptoms have been brain fog and fatigue, even as I write this – almost two weeks after touching down in Orlando – I still don’t feel 100%.
But this editor’s log is not about me being sick, it’s about the way everything else tends to line up perfectly when your situation is less than perfect.
As soon as I plopped down to wait for my delayed flight home, I knew something wasn’t right. But after days upon days of walking the show floor, shooting videos and just being ‘on’ all the time combined with getting very little sleep, I just thought I was worn out. When I finally made it into my house, my daughter ran to me and gave me a huge hug, I grabbed a pillow and stretched out on the floor to watch the end of the movie she and my wife were watching, I was asleep in under a minute… in fact my shoes were only half-off! The next morning, feeling a lot worse, I tested positive.
I had tickets to see a concert with my lifelong best friend on Tuesday and I was desperate to recover in time. I had also committed to speaking at a celebration of life for my friend Stew who passed away in April on Wednesday… needless to say, I didn’t make it to either of those engagements. A friend started texting me about fishing the surf, and of course, I had to say no to that. The next day, I received photos and a detailed written account of a great night of surf fishing with stripers to 35 pounds taking needles. That was the first bit of news I wished I could unhear.
I swear, every day I was sick, the weather was perfect. No wind, very low humidity and lots of overcast skies… just perfect days for kayak fishing. Then I started getting texts from a few other friends who were cashing in on a strong early run of bonito, but I knew I didn’t have the energy for that, I cleaned my pool and couldn’t function on even the lowest level without a nap. Then another group of friends started telling me about a great striper bite that was firing up near Newport, RI. These guys were catching some really nice fish ranging from 20 to 40 pounds, using a variety of methods, and they were getting in on some bones as well. While I was home sipping ginger ale and not tasting it!
I’m usually one of those people who can and will drop everything to cash in on a good bite. But I couldn’t take advantage of any of it. I had to file it all under ‘things I wish I didn’t know’. It’s so easy to take your everyday situation for granted, and even to push things off as something you can do tomorrow or any other day. However, when something comes along to interrupt the rhythm of your ‘normal life’ you really start to see how important it is to take advantage of every opportunity, because you’re not always going to be able to push the ‘important stuff’ aside so that you can get out there. Unfortunately, that fact is all-too easy to forget and it takes something coming along to ruin to your fun to remind you just how important setting aside time to enjoy your life really is.
