a year.

started because i was irritated with old people. shit, updated this almost weekly for awhile on a quest for free shit which never really panned out. got sick. flirted with death. rebounded. trying to understand fishing without smoking...

let's break for that one.

seriously. you ever notice how fucking boring this bullshit hobby is? fuck my face, part of its joy was sitting on a log smoking a pipe and waiting for shit to happen.

denied. fuck you cancer.

...anyways. whatever. been a year. and change. fuckin eh.

spring. occasional fishing. thinking about completing a rod. thinking about starting the new rod. looking at the new shit then picking up 1930's finest. south bend assures me that in 1939, this fly rod was in fact "dry fly action." i'm pretty sure they lied. wishing like fuck i could smoke on the water. barely updating as not really understanding a need. if it wasn't so much work, i'd fish a silk line.

jasper thread wraps sure are pretty.

Why this blog sucks so badly.

Thursday morning I received full nephrectomy of my right kidney.

It was growing an approximate 2" tumor across the top of it. They found it as a byproduct of MRI scans during my bout with bi-lateral Bell's Palsy, itself because of Lyme Disease. They assumed it was a cancerous, Stage 1B Renal Cell Carcinoma because it had the outward appearances of such and because that's the cause of my mother's death, which is evidently considered by some to be a hereditary problem. However, official results won't be back until sometime next week from Pathology.

The good news is that they're confident the whole thing has been removed, and no further treatment will be needed for this incident. My light reading says its a 90% Five Year Survival Rate, and while I'm not exactly a gamblin' man, I'd say 9 outta 10 is almost a sure thing, so I'm not sweating it.  The bad news is they told me to expect pain, discomfort and to "take it easy" until sometime well into the second month after removal.

You can expect an almost useless blog devoid of useful the past amount of even moderately useful information to continue into the future. Sorry 'bout that.

Update, 9/14: Renal Cell Carcinoma was confirmed to the tune of a ~5.5cm tumor. It has been excised completely, with no signs of spreading outside the margin of the kidney, and no sign of spread via the blood. That's it, boys and girls, I'm clean. Fuck you, love me.

A vomiting forth of random ideas.

Its bad when even the desk girl who encodes
this remarks on just how much shit they're
gonna take out of you.

"Fever of unknown origins." That's doctor speak for throat swabs, piss tests, and twenty plus vials of blood, plus x-rays. Its what happens when you carry a fever for 4 days with no sign of it breaking. I'm convinced this shit isn't no unknown origin, though. Its a known known, not an unknown known or an unknown unknown. Its what happens when you leave home and go fishing elsewhere.

I am never leaving the Lehigh Valley again, goddamnit. This is how I get repaid. Sulphurs were coming along nicely, I had ths sweet wet fly swing down for caddis during said sulphurs, and this, this is what I get. I haven't seen water in a week, and I don't think I'm going to for another week or two at most. I'm convinced I have Lyme Disesease. Or Anthrax. More likely the former, but Anthrax was a pretty rad '80s thrash band and its more fun to say... I'm only basing it on the fact that the Cipro they proscribed me was issued for said malady.

OK, so I'm overreacting, but then again, doctor says its possibly lyme. I guess the gallon of blood will tell them answers for that.

So, my words of advise for you: Watch out for ticks, and open wounds if you wet wade. Whatever its origin, this shit blows. I'm worried it might be lyme diesease, but even if its not, its pretty intense knowing you can get fully shut down not actually doing  a damned thing wrong.

Well, fuck it. Now I've done my public service announcement, I'm feverish and I'm tired but I can't sleep, so I'm gonna just talk about loud about stuff. Wanna come along for the ride?

blarg.

This is what serious business looks like.

Eh, wot? A blargh? Why?

Well, why the hell not. I've got alot to say, and judging from the state of America, we've all got plenty of spare time and nothing productive to do. They go hand in hand, dig?

See, it starts when I was going to do this official mouthpiece thing for the Monocacy Chapter of Trout Unlimited, but it wasn't working out. I had many ideas I wanted to use, and others had their own, and there was some minor issues of contention. So, rather than cause needless arguments as minor things exploded into bigger-than-need-be, it was easier and smarter to leave them full control, and allow my stupidity creativity an unfettered outpouring to the Interwebs without having to worry about offendning anyone. The only thing I should be trusted to represent is myself, and I don't even do that very well.

So, all those lofty ideas I had? All to be discarded, right? Lost to the ages, stifled and unavailable to an adoring public.

Until now.