A Lifetime of Wednesdays

I was supposed to be off work this Friday, but some unavoidable minor crises arose which forced me to adjust my schedule and be ready to grind. Fortunately, I have a great boss, who suggested that I take off Wednesday instead. I didn’t tell her that was actually preferable – because while a three-day weekend is always nice, fishing mid-week is even better. By Friday everyone’s finding a way to be out on the water. It might as well be a weekday. Only the truly privileged, lazy or self-indulgent are regularly out on Wednesday. I aspire to be one of them.

I arrived at the park that holds the boat ramp, which has multiple ramps and two giant parking lots, and saw that no one else was in the first lot. I launched, parked, returned to the boat, and had my silence interrupted by the sounds of six or eight boats launching from the other ramp for a mini-weekday-derby. I didn’t so much resent them breaking my peace as I envied them for being able to be there. Unlike for me, it probably wasn’t a special circumstance for them.

That’s my goal in life: not to be wealthy beyond measure, or to live to be 120 or to own multiple homes. I just want to be able to fish whenever I want, without a special circumstance, without feeling guilty that I’m missing something. Even better, I want to be in a position where I can hear that they’re biting on Guntersville or Rayburn or Havasu, and make a beeline for that particular lake. That would indeed be living large. I pity you if you don’t have similar goals.