Fun and Games

So on Sunday James and Roma asked us to go out for a drink with them. We left about 2 for Bernie's. We had a great time. James and Roma go out fishing in the gulf every nice day from April to November. They have great fishing stories. They catch fish we have never heard of. Not the 5 or 6 fish we eat in Michigan. James held the Texas record for hammerhead sharks for years, and sharks seem to be his speciality. Roma was so surprised that we have never eaten shark. I kept explaining "perch, cod, whitefish." Roma kept saying "how have you lived here for 5 years and not eaten shark?" Umm, they don't serve it at the Spaghetti Works? Whatafish?

We also stopped to see their boat. A nice big 26 foot catamaran with twin 140 motors on it. He can get 60 miles out in the gulf in two and a half hours. James has been fishing down here for 41 years. He has special shark spots, one spot the fish are so big that they can't bring them up. Another always has huge sting rays, six feet across. Apparently they are very strong and hard to bring up. They always cut them free, they are very dangerous to bring in.

I look at the boat, I see the huge gulf in my mind and that boat looks like an inner tube to me. One story Roma told was when she was trying to get a 7 foot shark in and it went under the boat and snagged on something, so James gave the pole a yank and it shot out. Soon the boat was filling with water. Apparently the shark was caught on the drain plug, and pulled it out. He threw the shark in the boat (it was still alive, eek eek!) and they headed for shore. It was so rough and they took on so much water that he couldn't get the boat up to drain it. And the bilge pump didn't work. Happily they made it in and James now carries extra plugs and two big pumps.

It sounds like fun and the fish are often colorful tropical fish, huge two foot long tetra type fish. I can't imagine. Need to go look at her pictures.

So, the band started playing at 5, Tumble Dry Low. James and Roma love to dance and used to go dancing every week when their kids were little. Very good dancers. We ordered hamburgers and bar b que chicken for dinner. Yum. We danced too. Got home about 9. Spontaneous is such fun!