By Simon Ambit
With the alarm clock barking out its morning reveille, my body slowly lifts from the pillow while my mind stays in the soft bed. Like the pain of slowly pulling the Band-Aid off a fresh wound, I peel the bed sheets back and rise to my feet at the side of the bed. Without opening an eye, the furniture forms a brail pathway for me to stumble along as I find my way to the bathroom sink. Once a little cold water is splashed on the face, life enters my corpse again and I am able to begin the day.
I go to wake the three boys; unlike me, they shoot out of bed and are fully dressed in seconds! When you tell three little boys that you will be waking them up early in the morning to go ice fishing with friends, the morning wake-up call is an easy process. Heck, I think the youngest one slept in his jeans!
We met our friends at the gas station, adventure’s first stop, and set out for the lake just ahead of the sun. As we drive the 95 minutes, the boys and I had a great time talking about what is going on in their lives, spotting elk, counting semi-trucks and telling stories about the past.
Upon arriving and after bundling up the boys to comply with mommy’s detailed specifications, we set out on the ice to fish for the delicious Yellow Perch. Snow is cleared off, auger holes plunge through the ice and meal worms land upon hooks and begin their descent into the cold water abyss below. Fortunately, it took only a few minutes before the fish start to latch onto the hooks and the boys were pulling up the little Perch left and right.
With fathers and sons, fishing and friends, perch and peanut butter sandwiches, it proved to be a very plentiful day of fishing with the boys (young and old) having an absolute frenzy of fun! We then came home to dine upon filleted and fried Perch and ate like royalty! It was a perfect day.
I am so glad to live in a place like we do. I’m grateful to have the freedom to meet up with friends and take the boys ice fishing and to enjoy the simple yet critical things in life. I appreciate the opportunity to take a basket full of rowdy little he-monsters on a frozen adventure and have them go home worn out and sleep soundly and safely in their small town beds.
I can watch all that is busy and at times unsettling on the television and can then turn around and watch my elated little fishermen fly to the top of the world as they haul in another little catch. I am reminded that LIFE IS GOOD. Keep it simple!