September 26, 2011 - The one that didn't get away

Today was an awesome and excellent day for Jason and I both. We went fishing with a few other folks, and caught fish. We were fortunate enough to be invited to go along with a small group of out-patients (Jason was the only one still "in-patient") and there were two boats chartered for this event. I guess I was a bit on the anxious side as I woke up at about 4:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. I finally got up and was over to see Jason before 6:00. Actually I would have gotten there sooner, but it seems there has been a change in the parking rules and I had to go to a different garage, and as a result the move from one garage to the other took a few minutes and then I had to walk farther and that took a few more minutes. I wish they would let us know when a change like that is going to happen.

Jason was awake and waiting for me to help him finish getting ready. Most of the medical staff was about as anxious as I was to get Jason out. We were going to be out from about 06:45 to 14:30 (2:30pm), and Jason hadn't been out for that long in the past. The great thing was that his chair has the new seat on it, and though it needs a little work still, it was much better than the previous seat. We rode on the bus, and even though there were a bunch of bumps on the road he wasn't anywhere near bothered as he has been in the past couple of times going out. It was a pretty good drive out to the dock, and I had his meds so that he would remain as close to his schedule as we could, and it all worked out.

About the biggest challenge was getting him down from the dock on to the deck of the boat, and then back again when we were done. The process was pretty simple, though a little scary for Jason. Four of us simply picked up Jason, chair and all, and placed him down on the deck of the boat. When we were finished we did the same thing, on from deck to pier. Getting used to the rolling motion of the boat was a little different, though it didn't take long to become accustomed to the motion. The water wasn't too choppy and the weather was better than we anticipated, and when we arrived at our final fishing spot, the cloud cover broke up and we had blue skies for the rest of the day, while on the water.

While we were fishing, as it happened, I got the first fish on my line. I started to hand the poll to Jason and he refused it, saying, "That's your fish, you land it." Well, actually the fishing started like this; the skipper of the boat got us to our first stop and we put out lines and we just kind of sat there and not even a nibble. Then he took us to the second spot, following the other boat (there were two boats), we again just sat there and only caught a couple nibbles from crabs. The other boat, however, was catching fish right and left, and it was only about 30 meters right in front of us. It was really strange. All the other boats, all around that boat were not catching anything, yet the other boat limited out in a matter of just about an hour. They pulled forward and we pulled in to their spot and then we started catching fish. I ended up catching a total of six fish, with having to through back two of them (one of them being that first catch). Jason caught three and of those he kept two. We were there for a little over an hour and then we also hit our limit.

We just floated around for a few minutes and then sandwiches were broken out and we all ate some of the food. I say some of the food because they expected to have at least twice as many people from Bethesda as there were, so we all had plenty to eat. Then we began heading back in, so we could get back to the hospital. On our trip back to port the deck hand cleaned all the fish and made filets that were packaged up and given to everyone. We had some pictures taken and you can see a couple of them right here, on the blog.

Needless to say, Jason was tired - and so was I. It was probably the best day we have had in a long time.

I'm still kind of tired, so I'm going to sign off now and hit the rack. Thank you, all, for your continued prayers and all the support you've sent our way, it really has made a difference to all of us...