Thought I'd post that photo, since I'm hoping for ice. The climate is different now than it was a decade ago when I got this shot, but a prolonged ice season remains possible. It just isn't happening every winter as it used to in North Jersey. Even Lake Assunpink to the south used to be a reliable ice fishing destination.
And I wish I could've got out for river trout. I checked on the North Branch here in Bedminster and it's deeply stained. Not running very high but too off color to fish a jig. About time we got some real rainfall, but the river level shows it's obvious it can use more.
Tomorrow I go back to my job. A ritual of supply and demand. Me caught in the middle. Creating supply I meet demand, and I fill demand in turn, after it critically diminishes my supply of food items...an exercise I readily admit has its charm but limits me in a way I wouldn't have chosen, if my wife and I didn't need the money.
It's interesting, though, how fast the six-day weeks go. I get out of bed, take my medications and supplements, dress, and leave directly to arrive at the supermarket and punch-in at the earliest I can, which means I can punch-out later as early as I can by being fair about that. And there's no compromise. I know what I have to do, and I do it.
After I leave in the afternoon, I forget the place, and I have five or six hours free. Soon I have a day off, and then the cycle of day-in, day-out repeats. All the while I know I'm much better talented as a writer than as a food worker. But very few writers fully make their living at it, which means I'm among the majority who work day jobs.
That will change in April. I'll be writing and doing photography full time. It might be possible to make a whole lot of money, but I can't tell if that's real or only a wish. I can try and find out. I feel fortunate to have worked all my life while writing on the side and to soon have time open to experiment, rather than time wasted for a wage as usual. I had time open when I was in my 20's, as I not only had to work no more than four or five hours a day at commercial clamming, I didn't have to work at all--and sometimes didn't--since I was self-employed. But during my 20's I got published very little in newspapers, whereas I'm publishing constantly now. I know what it is to write for an audience, so when I experiment at writing a novel, I'll have a better sense of what might work than I would have in my 20's. Whether a literary novel is also mainstream depends on the ability of the author to give the people what they want in a story, in a way that doesn't compromise literary quality. One example of such a book is A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. Another two are Islands in the Stream and To Have and Have Not, both by Ernest Hemingway.
Before I write the novel, I will finish my book on trout fishing. Getting any book published is a difficult and unlikely event, but I'm confident I can make it happen. I feel that way because fishing stockers has led to so much realization in my life. I doubt I would have quit Lynchburg College--which amounted to spending years at the shore--if I hadn't spent years fishing stockers every spring. I identified with the outdoors rather than the convention of college. I believe there's an inevitability to the book's success.
Next Thursday is Thanksgiving. I work until 1 p.m. Won't be going fishing. The week after that, I hope to go for stripers.
