Grin and bear it
I have had back problems all my life, due to a slight curvature*of the spine.* I was told that had my guardians*taken me to a specialist as a young child, my spine could have been realigned, after childhood the bones are set and can't be shifted.
I have just grinned and bore it, However the past couple of years it has progressively worsened, and over the years pastimes*have slowly been eliminated.
This*week I went to my orthopedist who gave me the news "Avoid standing still, walking is OK."* So there goes my fly fishing, I had to scrap wading*in the stream after*slipping ass over teat*in a stream on a nice winter's day..* Trout love cold water, I don't. So it was fishing from a bank, no wading and not many fish, but it was better than nothing. So now I've got nothing.
Now I'm 86, living alone, but I'm not whinging.* I retired at 47, my late wife and I had years traveling all over Europe and North America, with trips into the Caribbean, Mexico and North Africa,13 years of it, then another 20 odd living lakeside and I could fish, on my dock, 15ft from my bedroom or out on my boat.
*
There wasn't a day that I didn't tell my wife that I loved her, and she didn't respond "I love you too".* Even when we had had a "Blewie". Oz for a row.* She would get*over it in hours, I would sulk for a couple of days, she would spoil me, cook things I loved for dinner, shepherd's pie, steak pie (she drew the line at cooking kidneys) and laughed at me trying to sulk.* "Poor baby, she would*say and laugh".* How the hell could you stay mad at someone like that?
So. I came to the conclusion, I've fished in most of the best trout waters in North America, fished in OZ, NZ, UK, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden and caught heaps of fish, I've skied the best runs in the USA and Canada. Got buggered knees to prove it. Dined in the best restaurants and stayed in the finest hotels and great B and Bs , farms, and a few castles in Ireland, UK, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, etc. and 34 years*with a remarkable woman.
I've scrubbed kitchen decks, washed pots and pans while crossing the line, dripping in sweat, at 16. I've cooked eggs, cracked them one handed, holding a tray of eggs in the other, sweating like a pig over an oil burning stove in the tropics. shared a cabin with eight others and wouldn't "swop*it for quids".
I hated Gravesend, every moment of it, but it was worth it to get the five years of memories I have of the Merch.
So to hell with fly fishing, I love reading and there's heaps of books out there*and more coming into print every day. And I have my memories.
What's your "grin and bear it" tale?
Cheers, Rodney
Rodney David Richard Mills
R602188 Gravesend