What Happens When One Doesn't Want To Go That Extra Mile

I'm off today and up before 5:00 am. This is my first weekend day off since last October and most normal people would still be snoozing and dreaming about a Saturday filled with, well, more sleep for instance. Someone must have revoked my "normal people" status though. I've been kicked out of that particular club.

Now in all fairness I knew I was going to be getting up early today. I'm not wired for sleeping in late and my son, the ice fishing fanatic, wants my company on the ice today. You know, you can raise your children, get them out of the house on their own eventually, and they still want to make your life miserable on occasion.

Yesterday was my granddaughter babysitting day. I asked my daughter-in-law if they had big plans for the weekend and I knew I was trouble. She stated their plans were her and my granddaughter going to her folks on Saturday and my son and I were going fishing, which was news to me. Who'd have thought my normally scatter-brained son would remember the only time I stated I had this particular Saturday off was over a month ago?

I was less than thrilled with this news. Don't get me wrong, I like to fish. I even like my son. I'm just not fond of combining fishing with ice, unless it's ice in the cooler on a hot summer day to keep my diet Coke cold.

My daughter-in-law left for work and I spent the afternoon thinking about all the reasons I didn't want to go ice fishing today. Mostly centered around the fact that it's cold out and the "good fishing hole" is about a 3/4 mile walk hauling about 250 pounds of ice shanty and fishing equipment.

I mean seriously, there's a reason this blog is called "Just Plain Tired." And I'm not exactly a spring chicken any more either. My idea of a great day of fishing is backing the boat in the water and cruising to the fishing hole. This time of year I look like an Alaskan sled dog pulling shit behind me, huffing and puffing, because I smoke too much.

My son arrived home from work and I saw he was well prepared for today. He's got a bucket of minnows and a bag of fishing jigs. There was no talking him out of this nonsense.

I think I surprised him with no argument about going today. He was well prepared though. I'll have to give him that. He stated that he called his insurance company to double check his insurance coverage. My first thought was he thought it would be on his dime if I keeled over today and he wanted to make sure he didn't have to pay any hospital bills for kidnapping me today.

That wasn't quite it though, although me keeling over was on his mind. No, he called his car insurance agent to see if we drove out on the ice and went through said ice, if his insurance covered the cost of replacing his truck. Never mind we'd probably drown. Apparently his insurance company will replace the truck, whether we'd survive this type of mishap or not.

So keeling over has apparently been check mated. The cold has been tempered somewhat as well as it's supposed to be in the 30's as well today. (Much better than the -16F last month when we ventured out.)

I dunno. While not hauling 250 pounds of crap is definitely appealing I'm not sure I'm totally on board with falling through the ice and drowning. I better get off here and make sure my will is up-to-date. I may also have to scrounge around and find a couple of life preservers as well. There's no sense in drowning on a rare weekend day off I guess.

Maybe my next post will have pictures. I am currently charging the digital camera. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll remember to take it along today, but it'll be charged anyway.