St. Vrain Angler News & Muse December 13, 2005

Greetings!

Hello. Merry Christmas. Season's Greetings. Happy Holidays. Happy Hanukah. Feliz Navidad.

For us, it is Christmas. No X.

It has warmed up along the Front Range of Colorado over the past few days. The parade on Saturday was delightful - Longmont's gets better and better each year. Floats, kids, music, bands, color and fun. There were lots of folks carrying hot chocolate and so on. After the parade was complete Jessica and her choir friends came to shop and sang songs! It was lovely. They also ate lots of cookies and drank hot apple cider. Kids. Cool kids, too.

Tonight is our St. Vrain Angler Open House and we hope to see lots of you. There is still much to do to prepare, so I'm going to make today's missive short and sweet. I hope you enjoy what's here. Thanks for reading. I do hope this finds you well, enjoying the music, color, joy and happiness this time of year brings. Celebrate!

If you'd like to shop for a loved one - or get a loved one to shop for you - the time is now. We have lots of good stuff in the shop - 418 Main Street in Longmont, Colorado - and set up for you!

Also you can shop on this site and pay with a credit card via PayPal - safe and secure. Here are some links. We'd love to help!

A Tale

Once upon a time there was a small insect. The insect, who's name was Bug, lived along a river bank in the mountains. Bug liked his home and was sensitive to the surroundings in which he lived. He had lots of eyes that could see many things in many directions as as he flew from one place to another, usually hunting for food. He had the chance to observe many things.

One day, as Bug was merrily dive bombing emerging mayflies, Bug noticed a large being sitting on a rock next to his stream. The being was dressed differently than many of the other beings he observed. Bug had to be careful about getting to caught up in this being or he might be eaten by Bird.

Bug kept thinking. He knew Bear, for example, because Bear was large and had fur all over his body. He got a kick out of Squirrel because it was so funny the way that guy jumped from limb to limb, especially when he lost his feeting and fell off into the water. At dusk Fox, Skunk and Raccoon visited the river for awhile and then there were Chipmunk, Deer, Bighorn and his family and so on.

Bug knew to watch for the flying animals, too. There were all sorts of birds that played havoc with his kind. Just last week he'd lost poor uncle Bug to a sparrow. (Ed. note: dragonflies all have the same name; even though they are pretty smart, they are not creative with names.)

At first Bug confused the being with Bear due to their similar size, but Bug knew this being was different. It was just sitting on a rock next to the good feeding ground, it's head in a paw. Bear didn't do this. The other paw held a long thing that had something running along its length and held there by little loops. Being had a hat on its head, glasses that were dark and covered its eyes and odd looking legs that were baggy. Every once in a while Being would reach into little bags attached to its torso to - wump!; a good dive bomb and nice bite to eat waylaid Bug's attention to Being. Yum! That mayfly was delicious. Still, Being's presence summoned Bug's attention.

Let's see; oh yes, it was the little bags on the torso...Ah. Being would reach into the little pockets and bring out boxes that had lots of little stuffed insects in it. Then Being would pick one out, tie it by its head to the thin stuff that was on the end of the other stuff in the little loops. There goes another bite to eat - wump!

Bug always noticed there were wet critters under the water and that the wet critters ate insects, so he kept his distance by flying over the water and only eating food that was flying over the water. If he could catch it, he would eat it. Once, he caught a stink bug and vowed never to catch one of them again. Why the stink bug was flying was beyond Bug; it just didn't seem entomologically correct, that's all. Bug was smart. He just didn't have any names for relatives, that's all. Still, he meant well.

Suddenly, Bug was aware that Being was not sitting with its head on its paw anymore. What made him aware was that Being was waving the long thing around in the air and the stuff that was in the little loops was flying around. Once he almost got hit by it as he dove for a fresh bite to eat. He turned, looked at Being and hovered under the willow tree limbs watching. What he saw was a surprise.

Being waved the long thing around for awhile, then let the stuffed insect land on the water where the mayflies were emerging. Bug was tempted to go down and eat the stuffed bug because it looked delicious and could not fly off and try to escape; his intellect made him stay where he was, hovering and watching. The stuffed insect drifted along on the water. Then something amazing happened. One of the wet critters ate the stuffed insect! Being pulled back on the long thing and the stuff that went through the loops got tight. The wet critter pulled back hard, then jumped out of the water toward Bug. Was this some sort of devious ploy by wet critters and Being to devour Bug? He was scared again. He flew into willow's branches up and away from the raucous activity down below, stopping again to hover and watch. All of Bug's attention was on the scene below.

Other than when they made quick jumps into air Bug had never seen a wet critter up close. He was amazed when Being drug the wet critter that was trying to swallow the stuffed insect close and then grabbed it with its paw. Bug was not sad about this; in fact, he would be perfectly happy to see Being eat the wet critter on the spot. Then he was more amazed when Being looked at the wet critter and smiled. Being pulled the stuffed insect out of wet critter's mouth, put wet critter back into the water and held it facing into the current until wet critter swam off and back to the depths below.

Bug wondered about this. What sort of Being would do such a thing? There seemed to be malice aforethought to get to this spot, sit on this rock, bring all of that stuff along, tie on a stuffed insect and make the long thing put the line on the water to catch wet critter. Bear sat along the bank and grabbed wet critters, then pushed them into his mouth. Raccoon did the same thing, but with smaller wet critters. Being grabbed wet critter and let it go.

Odd, thought Bug. It was his last thought, though. The next moment a lovely Robin grabbed Bug and ate him.

Our friend Tim, Frank's son, caught this lovely rainbow in Cheesman Canyon last week during the cold snap. Lovely fish, huh? Frank wouldn't go; too cold. That's the first time I've heard of him turning down a fishing trip, so we'll let this one go.

I know. The story was silly. I hope it was also fun. I love that rock, and seeing the dragonflies feeding on emerging bugs is interesting to observe. I wonder - if they could think - what would they think of me hooking a fish and then letting it go. I don't think feeding critters practice catch and release.

We're above the critters, you see. We can love and make choices. We can decide for Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards our fellow humans. We can be kind.

We can observe and know high country beauty. We can hear and appreciate beautiful music. We can enjoy a tale, a fable and laugh at bad jokes.

How will we live?

I hope you are well, and look forward to hearing from or seeing you again soon. Hope is a good thing, after all. They say hope springs eternal. Perhaps it springs from The Eternal.

Thanks for reading.

Dale Darling