I made a conscious decision today to make this a non-fishing day. In hindsight it looks like that was the right decision with the rather nasty weather encountered today - northerly winds up to 40 m.p.h. with rain.
Yesterday was the infamous day known as Black Friday. Ah yes, Black Friday... the day that some shoppers get too excited and caught up in the frenzy and decide to pepper spray their fellow humankind, or trample them at the entry, call in a bomb scare, and even worse shoot someone.
Always having removed myself along with my rather not-so-temperate mood in crowded situations, I've always started my Christmas shopping the day after Black Friday, and therefore a trip to the big city was on the tab today.
Miss Carol is an outdoorsy kind of girl and likes outdoor-fashioned clothing - clothing lines such as Bob Timberlake, Natural Reflections, and The North Face. In the big city is Bass Pro and they handle every needful thing that Miss Carol requires, so it made sense to start my shopping there. In addition, I didn't see anything wrong with combining a Christmas shopping trip with a trip to re-supply a badly depleted fly fishing/fly tying arsenal.
As far as the fly fishing and fly tying stuff, I had two goals in mind - things that these days are considered essential gear in this fly fishing life. Since this body doesn't do the things it use to and the balance and coordination no longer allow for rock hopping, a wading staff was on the top of my personal shopping list today. Secondly, I wanted to replenish material to tie flies for the upcoming carp season.
Now, I knew that wading staffs could be pricey little devils, but, through self-talk and great visualization on the trip up, I could see myself opening the wallet and as the moth's ascended and hovered above the deepest and dark recesses of the money holder I would pluck a good number of Jackson's to purchase said wading staff.
Bass Pro didn't have any wading staffs. First disappointment of the day.
Now, at the fly tying section, there were two main items the carp-by-fly lives of Charlie and myself required. You would think that a fly shop would handle more than two sizes of curved caddis hooks, but, that wasn't the case today for me.
Then, I started searching for krystal eggs that can be slipped on a hook. I come up with an idea for a new twist on a carp fly recently, but... no krystal eggs either.
So, I bought some fly line cleaner, a bucktail, blood quill marabou, and a few other things and then went to the ladies apparel section.
The Natural Reflections line of clothing seem to put Timberlake and North Face to shame today. Miss Carol will be receiving a good and varied wardrobe of Natural Reflections this Christmas.
On the way back from the big city it came across my mind how poorly I had done in my shopping quest today. Poorly I say, and that's not mentioning the thirty-five dollars in pony feed I had to buy to keep the schooner ponies at full gallop.
I would have been better off to stay at my prairie home, save the thirty-five dollars in pony feed, while most likely being able to get everything I needed or wanted and get free shipping by shopping on-line.
In the competitive market of retailers these days, a good number are offering free shipping. L.L. Bean is one that comes to mind and I've always loved L.L. Bean products.
Sometimes... I really have by head up my arse. From here on... it's on line shopping.
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