Black Widow and the fifth wheel.

Sunday Colby, Teri's second cousin, Katie and her husband Art had a little party at the 1840 house formly the

Clarksville Inn for their son who graduated high school and is going on to Virginia Tech. It was a arm and beautiful day. The party lasted from about 11AM until about 2PM. Everyone hung around outside talking and some of us weere on our phones. I just can't figure out how Colby got so old, so quick.

That night I was going to take in the movie Black Widow with the girls. They'd both asked to bring their boyfriends. I'd made a big deal about Brandon not come by to get comfortable around us (me) so I'dbacked myself into the proverbial corner. I know Teri doesn't like Marvel super hero films, but I asked her anyway. She hemmed and hawed about it and finally said no. I thought, how bad could it be? Brandon and Nastia drive me to the Palisades Center. Elena and Matt are already there. I tell Nastia and Brandon I'm going to eat at the food court. They don't have to follow, they don't. I have hot dogs and read. Later at the theater's concession stand I order a large popcorn and a tray, usual. I pour some popcorn into the tray and get it refilled. I offer the popcorn to both couples who decline it. At the seats, I sit in my usual seat on the isle. Brandon sits next to me and Nastia next to him. These seats have arm rest that go up making two seperate seats into one huge seat. I ask Nastia and Brandon if they want to switch to my seat. The do and up goes the arm rest. Just before the curtain goes up(yeah, I know that doesn't happen any more. It was alway exciting when it did way back when because the movie was about to start. Now you get endless commercials.) Just before the curtain goes up Elena moves to the other side of Matt and their arm rest goes up. So now I'm in th emiddle of two couples. My daughters have their heads in their boyfriends laps and the very unexpected has happened, I very much feel olike a fifth wheel. To make matters worse, I start to get a head ache. The Theater is only mostly full because Disney released the movie also on Disney +. The movie is good. Brandon and Nastia droveme their and they drive me home afterwards. A weird night all around.

Moriches Bay and our second annual fishing trip

This trip didn't start out like the last one, at least the day before. On Wednesday Nastia goes bowling. This night she drives her friend home. It's after dark and she is not wearing her contacts. A little background at this point. New York State law says to drive you need 20/50 vision. With contacts Nastia has 20/50 with glasses she doesn't.

It's after dark and I text her asking if she is wearing her contacts. She also slept over JJ's the night before. She texts back no. Of course I explode and call her yell at her and tell her "to get her ass home now!!" I can be so diplomatic some times. My fury is over the fact that she has had accidents around dusk to dark and each time she wasn't wearing her contacts. Maybe they are not linked, but being able to see better is always a plus. So after yelling at her she gets home and I sort of yell some more at her. She wasnt to become independant and

have no rules, but she doesn't respect the rules that are put in place to stop her from hurting people or getting hurt herself. After my yelling I'm not even sure she is going to go fishing the next. So later that evening I go up to talk to her calmly, explaining to her again why I was so upset. As I leave I tell her we are getting up at six, leaving by seven. She doesn't say anything so I think she is coming.

The next morning I let both of them get up on their own. Teri askes what time we are leaving and say seven. I'm running around collecting things that I didn't the prevoius night. The night before Teri and I went to the long delayed Nanuet fireworks display. It was one of the best I've seen. Everything I can think of has been collected and it is twenty to eight. Nastia calls shot gun and Elena doesn't care because she can stretch out in the back of my 2000 Pontiac Grand Am. I start the car up. The car seems to start a little slowly, but the battery is new and the car is running great. We stop to get ice and head off to the thruway. Traffic is a little heavier this year then last. We cross the Tappan Zee Bridge (Do'nt ask me how to get to the Mario Cuomo Bridge, it doesn't exist) Traffic is heavy, but moving. I expect the Cross Westchester Expressway east to crawel past White Plains, but it's still not bad. Even I 95 south down the coast of Westchester toward the Bronx is not bad.

When I crossed the Throgs Neck bridge years ago with my boat it seems it was under construction. It's under construction again, so traffic is slow. Hard to belive it's over twenty years ago when I'd trailer my boat over this bridge.

We exit onto the Cross Island Expressway and hit some more traffic at the exit for the Long Island Expressway. Once on the Expressway traffic breaks and we make some good time. We're at the half way point of our one hundred and two mile one way trip. Fifty odd miles late we are at Silly Lilly's fishing station and have paid for our rental and some tackle.

We load out possessions into the sixteen foot open boat and we are off. I stay to the right of the sticks where the water is very shallow. We are fishing an incoming tide, which is good. We get to the location where they said fishing is good. I set up the girls poles, put a spearing on their hook (yes, but they will do it for the rest of the day) and as I get my pole together I have to help them with some other problem. I finally get my pole into the water and I look up and have no idea where I am beyond the fact I am in the Great South Bay. The Coast Guard Station is gone and I don't know which direction we drifted. I begin to move and remember last year how I went in the wrong direction. This year I stop and line myself up with a land mark. A few minutes later I head in the oposite direction I was going to head, It was the same direction we drifted last year. We head back to the Coast Guard Station. It's red roof makes it easy to find. Our poles go back into the water. The action is immediate. Nastia lands a Sea Robin. Action is brisk and everybody catches a fish. The day is hot and cloudless. About mid-afternoon I put some suntan lotion on Nastia's shoulders. I see they are red. I look at Elena and she seems to be Ok. Elena bought sun screen 55 for this trip. Elena talks a little about taning, but it's not like it use to be when I was younger, or maybe it still is and the girls just don't make a big deal about it. We fish the same area all day. We drift through the channel and on each drift we seem to get fish. Because of past over fishing pratices the minimum size for a keeper fish is 19 inches. This year we come closer to that size than last year, but there were no keepers. High tide is around 2PM. We don't feel the tide and the action slow down until after 3. When the action stops we all decide to go in a little early. I dock the boat about 3:30 and we are loaded up and ready to head home just after 4PM.I start the car it turns over a little slowly, but starts. I have to find out why. The hundred and two mile trip according to Google maps will take over two and a half hours.And it almost does. We hit traffic going almost the whole way home. The H.O.V. lanes on the Long Island Expressway do help, but they are scary to drive. I was going somewhere around seventy at one point when the traffic comes to a complete stop. I hit my brakes and lock them up a bit, but stop safely. I look in my mirror and watch the guy behind me and hope he can do the same. If I'd been tired or a little sleepy it all might have ended differently. The girls slept most of the way home and some time just after 6PM we arrive home, safe and sound. It was a wonderful day fishing and hanging out with my daughters. I always wanted a girlfriend who liked to fish. Right now I got the second best thing, two beautiful daughters who like to fish. If I had the time I'm sure they'd go more often and fish with me. Next year I might have to bring the boyfriends, yuck! / /