Well, Fall came to pay us an early visit yesterday. The temperature didn’t even get out of the fifties and we had an intermittent, cold drizzle. Gorgeous right? On the plus side, between the rain drops, I got the push mowing done without getting overheated. That was the extent of my excitement for the day.

After lunch and an episode of Shetland, I made it to my writing desk where I wrote two of the scenes I needed from my mid-book review. 5 pages total for the day.

I haven’t shared one of my grandfather’s stories in a while so I thought that would be a nice addition given my lack of news. Today’s story is another one from his youth.

He liked to spend some of his rare free time fishing. Of course, being my grandfather, he didn’t fish by the rules. He liked to find a boulder in the river near where a smaller brook emptied into it. In the summer, that would keep the water cool and the trout liked to gather there. From his perch, he’d use a grapple and rope to hook them and pull them out.

For those of you that don’t know, a grapple is a three pronged hook encased in lead with the points sticking out. It had an eye at the top for attaching the rope. You eased that grapple into the water and slowly maneuver it over to your target. The trick, according to my grandfather, was to hook them by the tail and pull them out quickly before they can thrash free of the hook. I prefer a rod and reel myself, but he wanted trout for supper and wasn’t fussy how he got them.

Anyway, one day he had half a dozen fat trout on a stick and as he was sneaking up on number seven he heard someone coming through the bushes. Fearing it was the game warden, he leapt into the river and started swimming for the far shore. When he looked back, of course, it wasn’t the game warden but another boy that lived not far from where he was fishing. Embarrassed and annoyed, he shouted at the other boy for sneaking up on him.

All he got for his trouble was a red face and a good laugh. I suspect he was back on a different rock at the first opportunity. One of the things you’ll find as we continue this series is that he enjoyed danger. I think it excited him. That’s one thing we don’t have in common.

I’ll end as always with a preorder update. We reached 548. Thanks everyone for your support.

Talk to you tomorrow.