Only 24 more hours and I get my week off!

My mind is unable to get away from the strength of that damned fish. I am plotting and plotting and scheming and buying lures. I am trying to figger out exactly when I'm going to be able to get back out to Betsy's, and how far Karen is going to let me go with this.

I am fixated on that fucking fish. I have dreams, not of catching her, but of losing her, again and again and again.

I am convinced that, if it's not a state record bass, it's at least huge. In the 12-pound vicenity, certainly. Bigger than anything anyone that I personally know has caught. And I can taste the fame, the glory, the self-satisfaction that will surely come my way when I finally get her in the boat. I want it. More than (almost) anything I've ever wanted before. And I will use all of my resources and time to get it.

Therefore, the quantity of time I spend HERE will decrease. But you, my friends, will still get a daily report. Or maybe weekly, depending on how much time I have left over from my pursuit. When I get her, look for a picture. A BIG picture. Front page. I'll be the one with the smile!

Work. The summer has hit with a vengeance. My legs feel like spaghetti that hurts when I get home. Run, run, run. I've had to call in extra help two nights in a row. I've only had to call in people twice in the last three years, to give you an idea of how bad it's been. Not that I mind working hard, mind you. It's just that ten or twelve hours in a row working like this can kill younger men. But I still love it, and I'm good at it, and I think that I can generally make my patients feel a little bit better, not just from what I do, but in how I do it.

But, damn, this old body gets tired!

I've also been thinking a lot about this journal, and my motivations for starting it and for continuing it. I recently e-mailed Byron Sutherland, who maintains an on-line journal.

> I truly enjoy your journal. I've been reading it off & on for the past few 
> months, along with several others. I have been recently inspired to start 
> one of my own, take a look if you have the time.

I may soon decide to stop keeping a journal and I'm glad that there 
will be others to carry it on.  :) 

**************************************************

            It's a Brave New Web

          http://www.master.net/bryon

I'm not really sure what this means, but it started me to thinking about it. This is a fun thing and my intentions were (and are still) to keep it fun. If it ceases to be fun, I can't see me going through a lot of pain to keep it going. However, a month into it, I've found that it's a lot more fun than I had anticipated. It's become a focal part of my life, and one that I look forward to. Even though my readership is minuscule, I think it's worth it. If I were doing it just for myself, I wouldn't do it at all. If it were the only thing in my life (as in. "get a life!") I would worry. But I think that I can maintain a balance. Karen feels that I spend too much time on my computer, but this isn't computing, it's communicating. And communing. And very relaxing, and I feel good about it. And I'll do much better, once I catch that damned fish and can get on with my life!