Christian Sci-Fi Fantasy

Author: buckjones1951 Page 3 of 4

Mother’s Day Memories of a Devoted Mom

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Last Sunday was Mother’s Day, and I started thinking that I had spent several blogs talking about my father. But my mother was just as important in forming my character as my dad. Though not always as fun as fishing and hunting, she held our family together. When I spoke at her funeral in 2010, I talked about her devotion to her family.

Young Mom
My Mother as a teenager

She demonstrated this devotion in many ways that I remember. As a boy growing up, I remember she always got up early and fixed my dad’s breakfast and packed his lunch before he left for work. Then in the afternoon, before my father got home from work, she would clean up and put on nicer clothes. It seemed she always wanted to look nice for him. She cooked our dinner wearing an apron and cleaned up afterward. She set a high standard for my future wife as you can imagine. I was in for a surprise.

My Parents
Mom and Dad

Dinners usually consisted of a meat, roasted or fried; a canned vegetable, peas, corn, or green beans; a lettuce salad with homemade salad dressing; and potatoes usually mashed. She was a very good cook, which also set a high standard for my future wife. (I was not disappointed.) Occasionally she would fry liver and onions as the meat, though I think I was the only one who liked it. I don’t think she even liked touching it, but she still fixed it for me.

Of course, since my dad fished so much, she could fry fish better than anyone I know. I can remember sitting at the dinner table after everyone else was finished, stuffing myself with fried fish. It didn’t matter if it was trout, crappie, catfish, or other fish. Even today, her grandchildren rave about her fried fish. She also taught me how to cook, which pleases my wife especially as we get older.

My daughters in their Easter dresses with my son.

Though she rarely worked outside the home, she did work sewing at home. She sewed square dance dresses and skirts, and for a long time, she sewed Barbie doll clothes. When my daughters were young, she sewed dresses for them. Every Easter they would get new homemade Easter dresses. She even made my wife’s wedding dress. I don’t know if my wife was happy with it, but it saved us some money at that time.

My wife’s wedding dress

When she got older, after my dad passed away, she developed dementia, Alzheimer’s, and we put her in an assisted living facility. As her dementia progressed, it was like losing her a little at a time. Often when I would visit, she wouldn’t know me, and we would just spend a few minutes walking around the facility. She would talk about getting a sewing machine and setting up shop on Commercial Street in Springfield, Missouri where she grew up. She didn’t seem to remember my dad or much else after her young adulthood.

Before her death, she was taken to the emergency room because she had fallen. She was pocketing her food, chewing it but not swallowing. She was very frail, and the hospital is the worst place for someone with dementia. They don’t understand what is happening and they are being forced to do things they don’t want to do or have done to them. I went to visit her one morning soon after and found her lucid. She knew who I was, and we sat and had breakfast together talking that morning. Less than a week later she died.

I remember that morning and feel it was a gift from God, a reminder of the mom I knew. It is hard to write about her passing because she was such a special person in my life. I am sitting here typing with tears in my eyes remembering her.

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April Milestones I Celebrate This Year

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Writing Up-date

April is a month of milestones for me. As I have mentioned before, one year ago on April 2nd, 2021, I retired from working full time. I am enjoying retirement and have settled into a routine that helps keep me out of my wife’s hair. She has said she thought it might be difficult having me around all the time. But the decision to treat my writing as a job and devote my mornings to writing keeps me from interfering with her daily routine.

Writing is more work than I anticipated. When I retired, I had written approximately half of my first novel, and thought I would have it ready for publication by the end of the year. Little did I understand the amount of work required to edit and rewrite the book once I got to The End.  Now it seems it will be at least another year before the novel is ready to publish.

Selfie
C Buck Jones

Rewriting the book based on the input provided by my local critique group is in process. Once I am happy with the manuscript, I need to send it to a developmental editor for a high-level review by someone who understands manuscript construction. Someone who can point out things I miss in the normal editing process. Then I will rewrite it again before it can be formatted for publication.

Based on the information I’ve garnered from various sources. It looks like I will try to self-publish the book. Though I may incur higher initial costs, the reduction in lead time to publish is significant, particularly at my age. Some estimates show it could take four years before a manuscript is published even after it is accepted by a publishing house. By self-publishing, I might be able to have three, four, or more books published in that time frame. I am learning many things about the business side of writing through the writing group I joined and various web-based seminars I have attended.

Please pray for me to be able to navigate and afford the process.

Dad’s Fish

Fifty-five years ago, on April 1st, 1967, my dad caught an 11-pound-five-ounce German brown trout out of Eleven Mile Canyon. I remember the day vividly; it was warmer than normal for April and there was no snow even in the canyon. Like so many days on the river, we separated. He dropped me off upstream and I fished down. He would drive down and fish up until we met. That day I was fishing down the river and when I needed to climb to the road to get around a rock, I saw several cars parked along the road downstream. As I walked down the road to get to where I would go back to the stream, I saw people standing along the side of the road outside their cars. I walked down to see what they were watching, and when I came close, my dad let out a long yell. He was standing across the river holding the fish. The people along the road cheered as dad sat down on the rock holding the fish.

Dad’s 11 pound German Brown 04/01/1967

 The river that day was flowing lower than normal and allowed him to cross above the hole where he caught the trout. We took it to the general store in Lake George and weighed it on their scale. The store owner took a picture to put on the store’s wall and we went home. We didn’t fish any longer that day. When we got home, since it was April Fools Day, we told my mom that I caught it. I still haven’t caught anything that big, and today with the increased fishing along the river, there are fewer fish that size.

Dad’s 11 pound German Brown is mounted above the desk where I write.

Birthday

Finally, this year is one of the occasional years when Easter Sunday falls on my birthday. I think I am happy to be a year older, but I am extremely thankful for the event the holiday represents. It signifies the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My relationship with Him adds so much to my life and I pray you may have that same kind of relationship with the one who died to pay the price for your sins. God Bless You.

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ProWriting Aid Fantasy Writer’s Week

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ProWritingAid

On a couple of occasions, I have talked about the tools I use as a beginning writer. These include various books, web articles, software, and writer’s groups. Perhaps the best tool I use is the local critique group. This group helped me understand how difficult it is to write well. Approximately once each week, I send off a section of my manuscript (2500 words maximum) to the critique group. The group distributes the section to the other writers who have also submitted that week. They read through my section and provide feedback to me. In return, I read their submissions and provide feedback to them.

When I first started using the group, I received a lot of feedback on very basic grammatical errors. Unfortunately, there were so many errors, I don’t think they could concentrate on the content. One critiquer suggested I try some editing software. Honestly, I did not know they were available or how they worked. But I researched them and tried some. All of them reduced the number of grammar errors in my submissions. Free versions of the software are available online, but I eventually purchased a license for ProWritingAid. (ProWritingAid: The AI-Powered Writing Assistant)

This enabled those critiquing my submissions to concentrate on the content, characters, pacing, etc. in my writing. Now I need to learn how to insert emotion into my writing by showing, not telling. I need to learn how to provide enough descriptive information without providing too much. Also, I need to create tension in every scene. There is still a lot for me to learn, though my grammar is better.

Fantasy Writer’s Week

The ProWritingAid software provides more than just grammar editing and suggestions with various tools and reports, which I won’t cover here. However, one benefit of the software that I didn’t expect came last week. The company sponsored a four-day webinar, Fantasy Writers Week, (ProWritingAid Presents: Fantasy Writers’ Week) with presentations from successful writers, editors, marketing experts, and complimentary software providers. Topics included, Story Types, World Building, Author Platforms, Magic/Science, Writing Scenes Not Chapters, Finding Fantasy in the Real World, Marketing, Writing Romance into Fantasy, and others.

Participants could also join the ProWritingAid Fantasy Writers Facebook Group which provides opportunities to expand their connections and opportunities. The free webinar was as professional as any I have ever attended. It provided a lot of good information I will use as I continue to write my second manuscript and edit my first.

The one downside to the week was that most of the successful authors doing presentations appeared to be in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. At seventy, soon to be seventy-one, they made me feel old, but not too old to continue with my stories.

R.I.P. Dad

I’m going to change topics now since this blog is read mostly by friends and family. Thirty years ago on March 13, 1992, my dad passed away after a battle with cancer. He was my hero and I have so many fond memories of the time I spent with him. I was reminded of times spent on the river in Missouri during our family vacations with my uncle Bill Anderson who turned 93 this month. We got up early and seined for crawdads to use as bait, then went to one of the many rivers around Springfield. We waded in old clothes and tennis shoes because of the warm water. We caught smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and goggle-eye.

Dad’s 11 lb. Brown trout, not caught in Missouri

My aunt Betty made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The sandwiches were made on buttered bread. The butter melted while the sandwiches sat in the hot vehicle as we were fishing. I can still remember how good those soggy sandwiches tasted. I miss those days, and I miss my Dad.

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Science Fiction and Imagination

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I love science fiction. Most of what I read is science fiction or fantasy. I enjoy being transported to another time or place and taking part with the characters in overcoming their imperfections. Whether it is long, long ago, or in a galaxy far, far away, or in an alternative universe, I become a part of the story because I identify with one or more characters. I am Captain Kirk, saving the universe from destruction and overcoming the no-win situation; or I am Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi using the force to defeat the dark side; or I am John Carter, saving the beautiful Martian princess from a fate worse than death with my unbeatable swordsmanship.

Selfie
C Buck Jones

One problem I run into is that a lot of the available science fiction has inappropriate sexual content for Christian readers. This can turn an otherwise intriguing story into something I need to put down and not read or slog through. It would be nice to find more science fiction and fantasy novels written without this type of content. Fortunately, much of the classic science fiction was written before the sexual revolution and is, therefore, free from sexually explicit content. Finding Christian sci-fi and Fantasy novels is difficult, but there are some out there.

This difficulty may be because some Christians find it difficult to accept the idea of alien life-forms or other worlds or realities. Even if that is the case, fiction is something that is imaginary, invented, or untrue. Fiction is a device for putting characters into situations where they must overcome difficulties, even catastrophes, to reach their goal. Whether it is a story of romance, mystery, or fantasy, fiction uses imaginary circumstances to draw us into the story.

The great thing about fiction is the idea of it being imaginary, invented, or untrue. For the science fiction writer, this allows for alien races, travel to distant planets or galaxies, and ships capable of faster than light speed, FTL. And to achieve travel over immense distances. (In fact, the distances require travel speeds many times greater than the speed of light.) This is accomplished through ‘warp drives’, singularities, stargates, or other methods with varying degrees of scientific probability. But it is fiction, so it doesn’t matter. One of my favorite Christian sci-fi series is The Lamb Among the Stars series by Chris Walley, (Chris Walley’s site » Lamb Among the Stars) which uses a type of stargate.

Science fiction allows the writer to create new worlds or times. Time travel can be forward or backward using machines like H. G. Wells used in The Time Machine, or through other supernatural methods. One method I like that the Christian author Stephen R. Lawhead used in the Bright Empires series is Ley Lines. (BRIGHT EMPIRES | Stephen R Lawhead (stephenlawhead.com)) These are areas of supernatural energy that provide a means for certain individuals to travel through time or to alternate realities.

I have two novels in progress. One is a space travel novel that uses a gravity drive to create the singularity that allows almost instantaneous travel between points in space, and the other is an alternate reality novel that uses ley lines to transport the hero to a different time and place. I hope you will enjoy reading them when I complete them.

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The Only Kind of Writing Is Rewriting

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Those of you who follow my blog, know it has been over a month since I last posted. I feel like I am in a creative bog. Ideas for new posts are not coming to my mind. This time of year, the cold and snowy days limit the outdoor activities I can do. The lakes are iced over, and I am too old to climb around on the rocks along the river. All I need to do is fall and break my hip. I don’t even walk the dog as often or as far as when it is warmer.

When I was working, I never seemed to be bothered by Seasonal Affective Disorder. (NIMH » Seasonal Affective Disorder (nih.gov)) But now I am home most of the time, and it is affecting me. My wife has been struggling physically for some months with various issues which puts a little more stress on me. Enough so, that she told me I need to take a couple days and go fishing, even if I have to go South where it is warmer. I really appreciated the thought, and though I can’t go right now, it did help my mood.

Until this week, my writing had slowed as well. As Ernest Hemmingway said, “the only kind of writing is rewriting.” (Quote by Ernest Hemingway: “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” (goodreads.com)) Currently I am in the middle of rewriting my first novel. Half of it has been submitted to my critique group and it looks like it will be several months before all of it is critiqued. Each week I edit and rewrite a section for submission to the group. This usually takes a day or two. I try to rewrite one of the critiqued chapters each week as well. That leaves about one day to work on something else.

In November when I posted my last update, I mentioned starting on a new novel using the Snowflake Method. (How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method (advancedfictionwriting.com)) This is progressing. I have my character definitions and an outline with scene summaries. This week I also wrote the first draft of the opening two chapters. Though I did have to rewrite the first chapter when I decided to change to a first-person point of view instead of the original third-person point of view. The first-person seems to fit the story better, though I will have to modify my outline and change some scenes.

I found the Plottr outlining software, (Plottr – Plan Your Books Like a Pro), to be very helpful and am happy with the progress. My writing seems to be improving with fewer grammatical and style errors. Though I still struggle with punctuating dialog tags.

With the continuing critiques and rewriting, it looks like I might have a second draft of the first novel ready this summer. Once it is ready, I still need to format it and get it ready for beta readers. I will be looking for individuals to be beta readers. People who can read the completed manuscript in a short period of time and provide feedback. If any of you would be willing to participate as beta readers, use the comment form to let me know.

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Thank you.

This Christmas I am Grateful for “This Baby”

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So, this is my third attempt at writing the latest blog post. I keep changing my mind on what topic to cover. Initially, the topic was that this is the first time I can remember when my wife and I have been alone on both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

All three of our kids are grown with kids of their own and some of those kids are grown as well. For Thanksgiving, our two daughters and their families went to Kansas to be with one of our granddaughters. My son and his family planned to go to Nevada to be with another granddaughter, but one of them got the covid virus and they stayed home. Then for Christmas, there were other plans to travel with one daughter spending Christmas in Durango, so we could not all get together again. We held the family Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas Day.


The next topic concerned the week before the family gathering. There was a severe windstorm on Wednesday of that week. It blew a large tree limb onto the roof of our house. With wind gusts of more than 90 mph, it also downed trees and powerlines around the city. Just after the branch fell on our roof, we lost power which meant we were without heat. We managed to spend the first cold night at home but went to a hotel for the next night. Fortunately the power was restored Friday morning.

However, my daughter who lives two blocks away still didn’t have power on Friday. She was scheduled to host the family gathering but could not. My other daughter graciously agreed to host, and we had a great time. Though I think my son was still without power. I wrote two blog posts based on the events of that week but scrapped them.

Crane Removing Tree
Crane removing the tree from our house


Today’s post is about Christmas. I love Christmas. I do enjoy Christmas music just not nonstop for weeks on the radio. Fortunately, one of the Christian radio stations in the area interspersed Christmas songs with their regular contemporary Christian music. This year the Christmas song that stuck in my head is “This Baby” (“This Baby”: Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas Video – YouTube) by Stephen Curtis Chapman.


Though it is not a new song and I have listened to it many times before, this year it stayed with me throughout the Advent season. The chorus says, “This baby had come to change the world.” This baby was the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham thousands of years before this baby’s birth. God told Abram, (Abraham), “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen. 12:3 NIV)


CHORUS
But this baby made the angels sing,
And this baby made a new star shine in the sky.
This baby had come to change the world.
This baby was God’s own son, this baby was like no other one.
This baby was God with us, this baby was Jesus.


Later during Jesus’ adult ministry, he told Nicodemus,” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17 NIV) This baby came to give us hope. The hope of a restored relationship with our loving heavenly father.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:6-8 NIV).


I am grateful for all the blessings God has provided me this Christmas season. I am grateful for homeowner’s insurance to cover the damage caused by the tree falling; I am grateful for the financial provision that we might be warm in a hotel when the power is out; I am grateful for my family and that they have grown and matured, and that they are still fun to be around. But most of all I am grateful for “This Baby”, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. May you be blessed the remainder of the holiday season and have a happy and prosperous New Year.

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Writing Progress and Tools

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Today, it is exactly eight months since I retired. During that time, I settled into the routine I established. Most days I spend my mornings writing or editing my first novel. The current word count is roughly 77,000 for the first draft, which is basically complete. Now I spend most of my time editing and rewriting. Approximately one-third of the first draft has gone through the local critique group, ACFW Colorado Springs (acfwcosprings.com).

Here I am in front of my computer

Once the editing of the first draft is complete, the second rewrite will start using the suggestions from the group. My original hope of completing the book this year is no longer realistic and next year may be difficult, but I plan to persist until it is complete. When I complete the second rewrite, I will need to decide how to proceed. Do I submit the manuscript for additional critiques? Do I use beta readers, or do I pay for a developmental/substantive editor? Perhaps the local writer’s group can help with that decision.

In the interim, I started outlining a second novel. When I started the first novel, I wrote strictly by the “seat of the pants” method. But about halfway into it, I got stuck. I needed help and purchased Writing Fiction for Dummies,Amazon.com: Writing Fiction For Dummies eBook : Economy, Peter, Ingermanson, Randy: Kindle Store, by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy. This helped get me unstuck, and some tools helped to keep me on track. Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake, Advanced Fiction Writing, By Randy Ingermanson, The “Snowflake Guy”, method intrigued me, and I used some of his techniques to organize my thinking. But, since I was so far into it, I didn’t fully use the method.

So, when I started outlining the second book, I decided to try the Snowflake method from the beginning. To do this, I purchased Plottr, Plottr – Plan Your Books Like a Pro, software which has outlining and other developmental templates for the Snowflake method. When I have downtime from editing or rewriting the first novel, I work through the Snowflake method on the second. This has provided me with the start of a good roadmap with the characters and plot.

Some of you may ask, why would I dilute my time by working on another book when the first is incomplete? One of the tips, I picked up from the writer’s group I joined, is if people like your first book, the first thing they will do on finishing it, they look for another one of your books. If you don’t have another, they will move on to someone else. Every writer’s dream is to be a best-selling author, even if he is an old dog learning new tricks.

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Things For Which I Am Thankful

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With Thanksgiving approaching, I thought I would talk about some of the things for which I am thankful. But, because there are so many things, I think I will limit this blog to the things that come to mind for the past year.

On April 2, 2021, I retired from the job I held for over twenty years. There were times leading up to my retirement that I thought it would be hard. I had questions. What would I do with my time? Would I have enough money? What would Carol do with me around constantly? Fortunately, my writing has given me plenty to do, and it allows Carol time to herself to do the things she is accustomed to doing. It turns out, writing is hard work and there is a lot for me to learn if I am going to be good at it. I am thankful that I have the mental and physical ability to work at it. Writing is now my job even if I am just putting in part-time hours. Unfortunately, the job doesn’t pay even part-time wages. But I am thankful that at least for our current circumstances we have enough money. Though, according to much of what I read on the internet, I didn’t save enough to retire on comfortably. I saved enough to supplement our Social Security income which allowed us to make minimal changes to our lifestyle.

I am thankful for Zoom (https://zoom.us/) and other live streaming services. Over the past two years with the restrictions on meeting, Zoom has been invaluable. Both Carol and I were able to attend recovery groups using Zoom even during the pandemic. In fact, the group I regularly attend expanded to include not only local attendees but also people from all over the country. The ability to see the other attendee’s faces provides more interaction than a phone meeting. Even now, the group uses a hybrid format meeting with some attendees on zoom and some in the physical meeting space. This is also the case for the writer’s group (http://acfwcosprings.com/) I joined. The monthly meeting is held with about half of the participants attending via Zoom. Last month, my intention was to go to the meeting. However, things didn’t work out and I could not go. But I was able to join late using Zoom.

Live streaming has helped us connect to a church we really like. Just prior to the pandemic restrictions, we were in the process of looking for a new church. The church we attended was geared to new believers and often the messages left us wanting more depth. When the pandemic restrictions came, we attended church online. We streamed various local churches, and occasionally a church from another state. Over the course of the pandemic, we found a church we really liked with messages that suited our needs at our stage of life. Now, whenever possible, we attend in person. But as happens with older people, sometimes the arthritis is too bad, and we stay home where we can still attend through the live stream. I am thankful for Church. (https://downtown.newlifechurch.org/)

Dad in his Navy uniform
Portrait of my dad in his Navy uniform

During the Memorial Day and Father’s Day period this summer I blogged about my dad. With Veterans Day having occurred last week it made me think about how thankful I am for all our military veterans. Whether in wartime or peacetime their willingness to sacrifice themselves for our freedom deserves our thanks. Though I never served, I come from a long line of veterans My maternal grandfather was a marine and served in the First World War. His son, my uncle, was a marine as was one of his sons. My father was in the Navy, and various aunts and uncles served in different branches of the armed forces. I am thankful for Facebook and the photos shared, especially by my cousin, of different family embers in uniform. God bless those who have served and those who are currently serving.

Grandpa Mack
My Maternal Grand Father in Uniform

I am thankful that I can go fishing in the middle of the week when crowds are smaller. Though my body doesn’t work as well especially when it comes to climbing up and down the banks and rocks of the river, I still enjoy a chance to fish the river I grew up fishing. And now that I am older, I spend more time fishing the lakes where I can just sit on the shore or go out in the kayak I bought. Maybe next year I will be thankful for kayak fishing.

Fishing Kayak
The kayak I purchased’

Carol and I celebrated fifty-one years of marriage this year, and I am very thankful for her. I was reminded again how fragile life is when she had her second minor stroke this year. We have grown together over the years and are closer now than I could even imagine fifty-one years ago. We are old fogies and spend most of our night on the sofa watching TV. But we don’t just sit on our separate ends of the sofa. We spend a lot of time sitting next to each other where we can hold hands or touch each other. We end most days praying together lifting up our family and interceding for others who need prayer. God is very good to us. We have been blessed with a wonderful life together and a beautiful family. I am thankful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Carol's Senior Picture
Picture of Carol as a senior in high school

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I’m an Odd Duck – I Like Soccer on TV

I think that as an American; I am a bit of an odd duck because I watch little football or baseball which is a little surprising since I grew up playing little league baseball and listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio. My mother and father both grew up in Springfield, Missouri. Springfield had a Cardinal’s minor league team whose games my father attended. Because of the proximity of Springfield, the Cardinals would assign the players they were calling up from the minors there just before they got to the majors even though Springfield was not a AAA team. He saw most of the star players at St. Louis and was a die-hard fan. I have vivid memories of being very young, pre-kindergarten, and listening to the Cardinal’s play on the radio. We would sit in the car, at night when the signal was strong enough to reach Colorado and listen to Harry Caray and Jack Buck call the games through the static.

Jack Buck and Harry Caray

When I was old enough to play little league, Dad would occasionally coach my brother’s and I’s the team. He would attend games regularly when not coaching while I played until just before high school when I got mad at my coach for not playing me in the city tournament even though I played every game of the season. I regret not playing in high school.

My dad played fast pitch softball in the local industrial league for his employer, the Timken Rock Bit Company. My brother and I would occasionally be the bat boys for the team. When not working as bat boys, we would chase foul balls and home runs. The league paid us a nickel for every foul ball returned to the announcer’s box and a dime for every home run. You had to be fast and lucky because of the competition from other kids. Nickels and dimes were significant amounts of money for kids our age.

TimkenSoftball
1955 Timken softball Team – My dad is second from the left kneeling

Even after my father quit playing, we would go watch the fast pitch softball and still chase balls for nickels and dimes. There used to be an annual fast pitch tournament in town that drew national championship level teams we could watch. After I got married and was working, I would play on the company team, though it was mostly slo-pitch.

Softball uniforms
Dad, me and my brother Timken softball uniforms

I still root for the Cardinals, but I also root for the Colorado Rockies, and really enjoy watching baseball live. I don’t particularly enjoy baseball on TV. It moves very slow.

I enjoy watching football, hockey, and soccer on TV, though I never played organized football or hockey. My dad introduced me to hockey when I was in school. He worked at the Broadmoor World Arena as an usher for the games. That meant we got in for free to watch the CC Tigers play. Later after I went away to college, my brother started working at the arena as an usher so when I was home and after I moved back to town, I still got in free. I love watching hockey and have season tickets to CC. It is fast and physical and entertaining especially when watching live, but even on TV it is a great game.  But since, most games are at night, except for weekends, I don’t watch many. Evenings and nights are a time for my wife and I to enjoy our time together. Since she is not a big fan, that means not many sports programs, unless it is the Broncos.

While I was away at college, the school I attended had a very good soccer team. I knew several of the players and watched the games. Eventually I joined an intramural team and learned how to play the game. I really enjoyed it even though I got a late start.

When I was asked to leave the school for academic reasons and moved back to Colorado Springs, I volunteered to coach little league soccer. While coaching I decided I needed to know more about the game and the skills involved, so I joined a team in the local recreational league. I played soccer in the league from the early 1970’s until 1999 when I had knee surgery. I played primarily defense or goalkeeper, though I also played midfield when I got older. We won the division one year when I was the goalkeeper. I played long enough to be on the same team as my son who couldn’t join the league until he turned eighteen. I really like watching him play on the field from the goal.

Today at 70, there are times I think I could still play. But if I go out and try to run or kick the ball around, my knees hurt, my hips hurt, and my back hurts. However, I can watch soccer on TV. This week there was soccer on every day.

My wife and I never had cable TV because of the kids, but several years ago we got a Roku stick and started streaming. We eventually paid for a subscription to Sling TV so we could watch the Broncos on Thursday nights. I soon discovered I could watch the English Premier League on NBCSN. A typical Saturday morning starts with EPL soccer at around 5:30 AM and goes until early afternoon. Later, we subscribed to Paramount Plus so my wife could watch Star Trek Picard. Now Paramount Plus streams the Italian Serie A which occasionally has games early in the afternoons mid-week. It also streams the European Champions League and Europa League games. My son got me a subscription to ESPN plus as a gift. It streams the German Bundesliga, and the Spanish first division.

This week, soccer was on every day. It started on Saturday with the EPL and again on Sunday before church, then again on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday and Wednesday the Champions League games were on mid-day and the Europa league games streamed on Thursday. Today, there is an EPL game on this afternoon. My wife gets tired of soccer. Though many in the United States don’t like watching soccer, I love it. I appreciate the technical skill required and like the broadcast view showing larger portions of the field so you can see the player alignment and team strategy. As I said, I am an odd duck.

YouTube Makes Kayak Fishing Look Easy

Sticky post

A couple of months ago, I blogged about being scammed when I was looking to purchase a fishing kayak. After that incident, I continued to look for a kayak I could afford and had sufficient weight capacity for me and my equipment. Eeventually, I found one for sale locally on Facebook Marketplace. It is a Perception Pescador Sport (Perception Kayaks | USA & Canada | Kayaks for Recreation, Fishing, Touring & More) which has a weight capacity of 325 pounds. I looked at it and handled it before buying. It cost me $400.00, which is more than I initially wanted to spend, but was within my budget. It also weighs just over 50 pounds, which I can carry for short distances. The price also included the paddle and an extra rod holder, though I still had to purchase a personal flotation device (life vest) and leashes for my paddle and rods.

Fishing Kayak
The kayak I purchased’

In the six weeks since the purchase, I have had the kayak out twice. The first time out, I took it to Quail Lake, a small local reservoir inside the city limits. The purpose of the trip was to see if I could physically use the kayak. Could I get into it? Could I get out of it? Could I paddle it and move around the lake? Could I fish from it? I discovered I could get into it, but I had to get wet. When I initially got in and paddled, it seemed very unstable. However, I could soon balance properly and paddled around the lake. Paddling is much easier than I expected and after over an hour on the lake, I didn’t get sore. I tried fishing briefly, throwing lures without catching fish. Then, I tried trolling by throwing a lure out and leaving it to trail behind the kayak while I paddled around the lake. I wasn’t really paying attention to my rod when something hit the lure so hard; it broke my line. I think I had my rod holder positioned incorrectly, which didn’t allow the rod to flex properly, and I also had the spool locked. But it was encouraging to get a bite.

After an hour or an hour and a half on the lake, I returned to the boat ramp. It is much harder getting out of the kayak, especially with my old legs, but I managed without getting too wet. Overall, I was happy with the way the kayak handled on the water, especially since I didn’t turn it over. I could load and unload it and carry it the short distance from the bank to the truck, so I planned an actual fishing trip for my next outing.

Quai Lake Colorado Springs
Picture of Quail Lake

Before the second outing, I watched several YouTube videos with instructions for entering and exiting the sit-on-top kayak. At first, I wanted to go to one of the North slope reservoirs on Pikes Peak, since they were close with a mostly paved road. But I changed my mind and went to Rampart Reservoir. Rampart has a boat ramp so I could take the truck right to the water didn’t need to carry the kayak very far. Getting into the kayak was easier than on the first outing, and I was more stable at the outset. Unfortunately, there was a light wind blowing, which made the kayak more difficult to steer. I had learned how to adjust the rod holder and tried trolling around. Because of the wind, I did not go far from the boat ramp area. While trolling, I had a bite. Again, it was very hard, but my line did not break. My rod flexed, and I did not have the reel locked, but the reel spun in reverse, creating a bird’s nest of line. By the time I got it untangled, there was no fish.

I still have more to learn about trolling. As the wind came up, I stayed in the cove near the boat ramp and tried different lures without success. I also learned it is difficult to reach behind the seat to get tackle or other objects from the rear of the kayak. I spent an hour and a half or two hours on the lake before deciding the wind was getting too strong. When I got back to shore, I still had a hard time getting out of the kayak

Richard at Rampart
Boat Ramp at Rampart Reservoir

Though I didn’t catch any fish, I considered it a successful outing. When I got home, I joined the Colorado kayak fishing Facebook group. I posted I tried fishing from the kayak, but it was much harder than it appears on YouTube. I got a lot of encouragement from the group to keep trying and even some suggestions on types of lures to try.

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