Cards, Picnics, and a Smart Aleck Fish

My daughter finally got me to sit down and play some cards the other day. It’s something she always wants to do, but with a rowdy little brother, it isn’t always easy to do, so I have put it off for quite a while. I had forgotten how much fun it is, and how many happy smiles I would get in return for a few minutes of my undivided time.
Grandpa and Tucker caught a big bass this weekend. Grandpa hooked it, and Tucker reeled it all the way in, and boy was that little boy proud of it. “That fish was a biiiiiig one. He was strong, but he wasn’t as strong as me,” he said, flexing his little would-be muscles.
I went fishing this weekend too. It was such a nice day, so I decided to take my shoes off and sit on the edge of the dock and dip my feet in the cool water while I fished. It was very relaxing, for a while. Unfortunately, the only bite I got was a bite to my toes from a smart aleck fish! I can just see that little perch down there under the water laughing and telling his buddies, “So she thinks we’re gonna bite that hook, huh? I’ll give her a bite alright.”
Tucker and I carved out some time to go on a picnic at the ranch too this week. There are lots of super friendly dogs out there who liked the smell of the burgers we brought for our picnic, so before we could eat me and Tucker jumped on the mule and tried to outrun the dogs to a spot where we could eat in peace. We went this way, and we went that way, but dogs have pretty good noses, so they kept finding us before we could even take a bite of our burgers. Eventually we drove near the pond, and the floating dock caught my eye. So we had our picnic out on the floating dock, just a few feet off shore, dog-free. I thought I was pretty smart until one of those golden retrievers jumped right into the pond and swam to the dock to shake off on us. Oh well, at least we got to eat most of our burgers before the dogs got to us.
Note to self: sit down and play cards more often, let the kids reel the fish in, don’t put your toes in the water, and remember, golden retrievers love to swim as much as they love the smell of hamburgers!