%@##%^*&^!!!

The weekend was a TOTAL loss, and I'll admit it right up front...we absolutely and very completely TANKED in our tournament. Do you think it may have been the fact that we started out by receiving a warning from the local constable about the incoming deadly storms just before take-off? "We've got reports of 75 MPH winds doing major damage just North of here, you may want to reconsider going out in this" he told the entire field of participants minutes before blast off. Or maybe it was the fact that at 3:45 AM it was a balmy 81 degrees out, and by 1 PM I would be BEGGING for 81 again while turning to paste under 99 degree sun.

I think it was more the fact that at 1 PM, an hour before we were due to weigh in, we had just one legal fish in the well. "Gumby and Shane (our other teammates) are going to kill us" I said to Joddi. "You know damn well they have 15#, and we are going to cost them some serious money". It did not matter at that point. We were exhausted...having tried everything we knew to boat some legal fish, to no avail. And it turns out it didn't matter at all. Gumby and Shane were, at that point, saying the very same thing about US! They stepped on their dicks too, and weighed in only 2 fish. All four of us breathed a sigh of relief when reunited at the weigh in...it had gone horribly wrong for ALL of us, and nobody was letting anybody down. Time to drink a few...I'm buying!

Some other things that made the weekend a boner: I suffered heat stroke and a massive case of stinging nettles while trying to trout fish Sunday morning, then continued the bake-off by shooting a round of sporting clays in the afternoon. I shot a 27. A FRICKEN 27!!!!! What a way to bring down your league average, and oh-so stupid on my part. I should have never tried to shoot in that heat, especially after nearly collapsing on the creek earlier. More beer needed. Must have A/C fast!
I spent the rest of the afternoon lying in bed in the air conditioning, nursing nettle welts, and wishing I would have done this very thing all weekend. It would have been a waste either way...but a lot cheaper and exponentially more comfortable.