Hoss Is Warming to the Task

If this works, this will be the first picture Ol' Hoss has ever put on his site from The Old Folks in the Way Home. Google/Blogger has made it so simple to steal pictures off'n the Internet that even a really smart guy like me should have no trouble. (If the picture doesn't show on your computer, that means this whole thing is a stupid plot to try to make smart people look stupid.)

The picture is of Mirror Pond in my hometown of Bend, Oregon. This is about 3,000 miles from Walden Pond (which is apropos of zilch). The "pond" is actually a small reservoir behind a little dam on the Deschutes River, one of the best fly-fishing rivers in the whole Newnited States and Canada.

The figure in the picture is standing on what we called "The Point," a sort-of isthmus. One day I sat there fishing with night crawlers and caught nada. The boy next to me caught two 14-inch rainbow trout using "dough babies." Dough babies is bread mixed with egg. If you try that on your next fishing trip and it works, remember I probably got a patent on it.

The mountain in the distance is the North Sister. There are several peaks visible from Bend that are over 10,000 feet high. One of the finest skiing sites in the world is at Mount Bachelor, about 20 miles west of Bend. The real name of the peak is Bachelor Butte, a volcanic cone less than 10,000 feet high. The ski place developers wanted a snazzier name, so the thing is now referred to as Mount Bachelor, even if it is too tiny to merit a big title. Of course, if it were in Florida it would look like Mt. Everest. And knowing how weird Florida is, it probably would have its own fleet of Yetis.

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I really didn't intend to post anything today, because I feel like I am spoiling you. But since I had nothing to say, I thought I would get it off my chest. And since I fished a bit there, I think I will call this No. 81 in my list of 8,000 things about me.

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My favorite word today is PMS. n., ladies-only. Def.: A synonym for road rage.