You Do What You Have To Do

 To Have and Have Not, is my latest Ernest Hemingway's book.  Again, the booze drinking makes me sick.  No matter how broke the characters are, they always find the means to drink!

In To Have and Have Not, Henry Morgan is a captain of a fishing charter.  He's married with three daughters and is always conscious of his responsibilities as a husband and father.  It keeps him searching for the means to support them, and this leads him to take on illegal jobs.

The setting is depression era, Florida.  To Have and Have Not started with a good charter, but the customer skips out without paying. Henry needs money. His next job is to smuggle people into Cuba.  Unfortunately, Henry kills the ringleader who was double-crossing the poor people needing help.

Henry sneaks illegal rum into prohibition Florida.  He almost gets caught and does get his arm shot.  He loses his boat, too; it was confiscated by federal agents.  Henry's arm had to get amputated.  

Lastly, Henry agrees to transport four Cuban revolutionaries to Cuba.  While waiting for these passengers, a bank is robbed.  This was all planned and Henry's boat is the get-away boat! 

Away they go and go.  Henry's friend and first mate, Albert is shot, by these revolutionaries.  It was really unnecessary and Henry is enraged.  He goes below deck and gets his gun and shoots all his passengers.  In the melee, Henry is shot in the stomach.

When the coast guard find them, they see everyone is dead and Henry is dying.  Henry's family is so bereft, that his wife can't get herself together to go to his funeral.  The novel ends with her resolved to carry on, just as Henry always did.

Fishermen and Their Lies

He who laughs last, laughs best.  That's an old saying.  Add to that one; he who learns last, learns best.

Today we learned never to ask a fisherman where the best fishing spots are.  We asked the man in the bait store and he told us that stripers were biting off Elizabeth Islands.

We fished all day.  How many did we catch?

Zero.

Others were fishing with us.

Since we all caught nothing we realized that the man selling bait lied to us.

Think about it.  Why would a fisherman tell you where to catch fish?

He wouldn't.  He would send you as far away from his fishing spot, as he could.  Hence, all we tourists were sent in the wrong direction, on purpose.

Live and learn.

Swans, Snakes, Turtles, Oh My!

Today was such a beautiful day.  Hubby and I went biking.  There's a bike route known as the Upper Charles Trail.  We rode the length and stopped to picnic.  I took a couple of photos, too.  Since most of the area schools started today, only adults used the path.  There were plenty of dog walkers, some runners, a couple of roller bladers, and other bikers like us.

We had a picnic on Lake Louisa.  There was a family there fishing.  The kids were toddlers and their little tackle boxes were so cute.  I remember fishing as a child their age, myself.  My sister use to take me to the Spicket River.  We never caught anything because we never used bait.  She took a stick, tied a string to it.  On the end of the string, she tied a large safety pin.  I don't know why I never questioned her about it.  Kids nowadays are a lot smarter than I was, that's for sure.

I stopped to take a picture of a couple of swans and had a fright.  I tiptoed as quietly as I could across mud, roots, sticks, and leaves, down to the water's edge.  Then just as I was positioning myself to focus my camera, something darted across the lower part of my vision.  I inhaled a gasp.  A big, thick, water snake was coming at me.

I looked again.  It was awfully thick--the size of an arm.  The colors were tan, brown, and back.  What kind of water snake is that?  I noticed how long it was, and then I notice that it branched off.

It was a branch--more of a small log.  And all around it were small turtles sunning themselves.  I think I frightened some of the turtles, and their jumping off caused the movement that caught my eye.  Whew!

Let's pray for more days like this.  Amen.