ness

When my neighborhood was developed around 2000, every house got a 'street tree' from the developer. Not sure if it was required by the city, or just the developer trying to make the place pretty. They were all Bradford pears. And me not knowing better at the time, I put in a second one. It was non-sterile and made a mess for us every year. I took both of ours out, but most of them still remain in the neighborhood though many have split. We have undeveloped areas nearby that are just blanketed in white in spring. I'm not bothered by the smell, but I know many folks are.

Yes. Good. No. No. Everybody does. 😀

Well said.

Monday night I had dinner with some work old-timers at Jasper’s. Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend at Gates. I think you know the neighborhood 🤪 Seriously, glad you had some success fishing!

My 40 year job anniversary was last Friday. As one of my colleagues said, “He lasted!” 🤪 I really hope you whipper-snappers find something you like to do at a company you can grow with that meets your financial needs. I think hard work, an eagerness to learn and a dose of loyalty will serve you well in the long run. And if start time is 8, try getting there at 7:30. And add ½ hour on the back end too. Working, of course. stay off your #%^* phones!

USPS promised they’d have mine to you today.

First day in the office with the new accounting hire. He blew in at 8:48. The start time here is 8. What the hell?

Flies dun, and just passed final inspection. Rusty likes the pheasant tails. I tied a combo -- Size 10 Stimulator, and a size 16 pheasant tail nymph. Tippet not included but fish these dry/dropper. Pheasant tails harvested by yours truly. In the mail tomorrow.

That right there will get you ahead in practically all circumstances.

Just got off a too-long chat with agent Brie at HF. Got a refund for the meals we got yesterday, cancelled our subscription and restarted it to deliver on Sundays. Just did two meals, their minimum. We just need to go in and skip if we don't want a delivery on any given week. They sure aren't very transparent in their setup and it's easy to mess up. But, now that we have found the secret passageway to skip meals we'll be better off. So, I guess we'll stick with it bit longer.

I'm kinda pist at HelloFresh right now. The first time I ordered, I thought I had just put meals in my cart and would go back and place the order at some point. Well, I was working from home and got a text saying our food had been delivered. What the heck? Oh well, I figured I screwed something up. We did like the meals though. The other day the missus and I were looking things over and decided to order three more meals. They wanted to deliver on Thursday but that didn't work for us so we set it up for this Sunday. I was looking over her shoulder while she did the order. So, yesterday we got three meals delivered -- and they were their 'default' meals, not anything we ordered. The missus left school on her 5 minute lunch break and brought them inside and hurried back to school. What the heck??? And, the ones we did want will be here Sunday still. They always have some fresh ingredients, and a protein that could be frozen, so now we're gonna have to sort this all out, but possibly do 6 days in a row of HF. We're not liking this situation!

Oh jeez. This messes up the math on this whole thing. Can’t you just go to Wal-Mart and pick up a few Mickey Finns and mail them in? 😀

I got my materials in to tie my Stimulators, and had in mind to finish them up this weekend. But …the forecast is saying it’s gonna be bad fly tying weather. Dang it! I hate to be the first guy in history to blow through a fly swap deadline, but if this weather doesn’t cooperate I may be late. 🤪

C’mon spring!

In case you’ve forgotten, the spirit of a fly swap is to tie new ones. Yourself. Recently. One pattern. Unfished. 🤪

February is probably my least favorite month of the year. Football ends, it’s still cold and crappy. But…the buds are swelling, the bulbs are coming up, and you start to get some nice days, usually. Garden planning and seed starting are in progress so there are things to look forward to. But Feb 2025 just flat stunk! March is in like a lion, so… I think I’ll appreciate spring more than normal this year.

I’ve been tying flies.

We haven’t had a good old fashioned landowner-conflict-that-was-unnecessarily-escalated-and-bragged-about post in a long time!!

Pheasant tails are about done. Each one better than the last!🤪Materials for better stimmies came in yesterday. I’ll get those done this week and in the mail next.

Seasonal affective disorder. We’ve been through a crappy winter, on top of the normal short days. I went into a funk a couple weeks ago but have rallied back by staying busy. Sposta get snow tonight. Yippee!

Went to a fundraiser Saturday. Interesting menu and entertainment. Each course accompanied by matching music(?). Only one I knew was Vincent

Pork chop with apricot sriracha glaze and roasted veggies ala HelloFresh. Another goodun.

I can get dying hair a crazy color or wearing goofy clothes. Maybe she was just having a funny time with it. Hell? Our esteemed colleague @Gavin has talked about going there in a gorilla suit! Now the chick that works at our local Wal-Mart with blue tattoos all over her face, neck and arms I truly feel sorry for. And @snagged in outlet 3 no pictures of that either 🤪

I'm on my desktop with a big monitor and I still can't figure out the situation with the blue-haired person.

We've been trying to hire an accountant for several months, and it's been unusually tough even with the internet and headhunters, etc. Great job, great company, great people, great pay and benefits. Why so hard? We finally hired a guy who came from public accounting (think accounting firm doing audit and taxes) a couple weeks ago. Public accounting is a tough row to hoe the first few years. Long hours, travel, etc. The firms weed them out pretty quickly if they don't measure up. I thought, but didn't say anything because it wouldn't help and doesn't really affect me, that this guy we hired must not have made the grade in public. Bailing on his old job in the busy season (year end audits, taxes) didn't seem like a guy that made the cut or had the work ethic or smarts. I guess we'll see. There's some anxiety where I work about all this, and it's particularly important because there's four of us long timers that are all ready and able to retire and probably a half dozen other key people that are within a few years. I'm fortunate in that I've got a really good heir apparent that I'm doing transition/succession work with. But there are some key areas that aren't covered and it's exceptionally hard to find folks these days. And.. the work ethic has really deteriorated the last few years. The whole work-from-home thing seems to have changed the culture. Folks either not being in the office at all or blowing in at 8:30, 9:00, whatever they feel like. Hell, I've peed three times by 9:00! Then there's the way folks dress and the tats. We've got a chick that is covered in what look like jailhouse tats and I've seen her wear tank tops a couple times. What the hell? Maybe it's just the old man in me coming out.