Daily Blues & Views

 Last week I drove high into the Washington Cascades to fly fish a small lake I’d only seen in short video clips. Had I waited one week more, the weather would have been ideal. Life doesn’t work that way so I made the best of the cold wind and rain.  My destination was primarily a ski resort area, but being very close to the Pacific Crest Trail it is equally popular with hikers and sightseers I never the warmer months. The trouble is the warmer months have been late in arriving this year. In the Northwest, we call this situation June u ary   Despite battling cold, constant winds, I managed a few fish. All released to fight another day, one, the best one, of course, released a little quicker than I would have liked. Thus, no pictures of the beautiful markings on brook trout.  The brook trout shown here was not from this trip but looked similar in size and coloration.  By early Fall, the spawning colors will be very much in evidence and the greens will be offset w...

 The President has become a pleading father figure.  Some of his offspring detest him, while others cow down as with all fathers.  His complaints are predictable.  Why can't you just behave?  But he is not talking about appropriate peer group behavior.  He speaks of carnage and compassion fatigue.  He is the leader of the nation that cannot seem to ban assault rifles.  So, we set records.   We go from one mass shooting to another.  3 this week alone.   I've yet to see how anyone needs an assault rifle for anything, in any circumstances.  The public school is being sacrificed on the alter of the 2nd amendment.  As one politico recently labeled #2, the greatest hoax in American political history.  Some of us see a marked difference between a well-regulated militia and an 18-year-old misfit with an AR-15.   The President tells his story.  How the people appear before him with one request.  "...