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| Blogs > RockyG666 > god's servant's blog |
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july 5 It was July the Fifth, the day after the th of July. The park was littered with spent fireworks and beer cans, burned out bottle rockets and the even larger dis rockets were laid in the grass. The papers of blown up strings of firecrackers like confetti the day after a new year’s celebration. The charred remains of paper fire blew in the wind and the smell of burning gun powder still choked the air. The bottlerocket sticks floating in the lagoon at Lincoln Park were at least not smoldering any more. JC and Bear were renting of the paddleboats available for a small fee next to the farm at the zoo. JC was not huge on the idea, it seemed more of a romantic thing for a guy and his girl; but Bear was insistent, and it was a beautiful day and they had nowhere else to be. Bear also had offered to , which was unusual, Bear rarely had any , so JC just gave in, as he always did to most of Bear’s whims; they rented of the seat paddle boats for the hour. They needed to don the provided bright orange life vests, as was the rule for the boats, and they felt a little silly. Bear’s vest was a little small for him, evidentially they were out of extra huge bear size, and so Bear looked especially silly. Even still, Bear was careful to fasten it so tightly that much of his bulk was popping out of the vest at every side. Bear could not swim at all and was terrified of water. Bear lit up a smoke as they ventured out onto the lagoon, and JC chain smoked his own, monkey butt from Bear's lit smoke. They were a little down the lagoon and went underneath an overhead bridge for foot traffic. There were no other boats near them, and Bear reached into his pocket and pulled out a Silver Salute cracker left over from the th. Silver Salutes were stronger than ordinary firecrackers, and they had thicker, waterproof wicks. Silver Salutes were supposed to be equal to a quarter stick of dynamite; and had a much louder boom. Bear lit the Salute on a double monkey butt with his smoke; he dropped the sizzling silver firecracker nonchalantly into the lagoon. JC was intently looking at the beautiful surrounding enery and enjoying the weather and his smoke and didn't even notice Bear messing with a Silver Salute. It ared him half to death when it went off a few seconds later; wetness splashed up in his face and on his shirt as the explosion caused a huge amount of water to displace from the lagoon. When he looked instantly at where the sound came from, smoke filtered out of the water and a dozen little baby blue gills the size of a dime floated up to the surface. They were beautifully blue and shiny silver, and would have been cute, if they weren't all very much dead. A muddy black and grayish shape slowly appeared below the dead baby fish; it was a slightly dazed catfish. The underwater explosion had caused the catfish to lose its orientation; floating up with the other fish, appearing to also be dead. JC leaned over the side of the boat; reaching a hand towards the startled catfish while at the same time causing the paddle boat to lean towards him. Bear very nearly soiled his shorts at the boat becoming unbalanced, and the catfish rebalanced itself and swam away quickly. Bear started cursing JC for rocking the boat, and JC cursed Bear right back for lighting the firecracker; and they argued back and forth for a while, like an old married couple. JC was complaining about killing the little baby fish, and bringing attention to themselves to the authorities, and Bear just kept complaining about not liking water, and telling JC to chill out. On the way back to the car, JC was still thinking about the dead baby fish and it reminded him of the Fisherman's Ranch. He looked through all the little pieces of paper in his wallet and found the address in Park Ridge. He tried the idea out on Bear, and Bear was all in, only he wasn't up for any more boatrides today. JC was quick to remind him that the boat ride was Bear's idea, and he didn't think there were any boats at fisherman's ranch; they started cursing on each other again for a while anyway. On the way home, JC took a little detour that lead to the ranch. He found the place without too much trouble; it was near where the girl he dated lived, but he never remembered the actual place. It was a fairly big pond (lake?) surrounded by a chain link fence that was surrounded by another higher chain link fence with barbed wire attached to the top. There was a quaint little faux log cabin in the front and large round filters spewing water in the pond. JC and Bear learned that Fisherman’s Ranch was closed today for the Holidays from a flyer posted on the bulletin board on the front of the cabin; that business as usual would resume on Saturday, July 12th. They also learned that Fisherman’s Ranch required State Fishing Licenses to participate, and that the Ranch offered Fishing Licences for a $20 fee, besides the $50 state fee for commercial fishing licence. The fees by the pound for fish caught at the pond were more than it would cost to buy the fish at the grocer. Bear was the first to state the obvious although it was more of a question: “We could maybe fish over that fence?” “Maybe...” answered JC thoughtfully. "Well, I aint ing those prices for catching fish that you hafta catch yourself." Bear answered back. |
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