Alaska might have been nice this time of year

I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I opened the gift Russ gave us for Christmas. It was a pair of airline tickets bought and paid for to Alaska. Everyone who goes to Alaska says it’s great. My sister even lived there when her children were small. I was so thankful it made me cry because fishing in Alaska is on Roy’s bucket list. Last year was a difficult time for Roy health wise and I knew Russ had done it for him.  I proudly announced to anyone who would listen that I was going to Alaska ‘fishing with the boys’ and that my son Russ had given us tickets.

A couple of week’s later, word of the trip got around to my friend Mollye, and she called. We’ve been friends since we were in the first grade, so to say we know one another well, is an understatement. I knew she was up to something because she was almost giggling. In a whisper she said, “I’m probably the only person who knows you secretly hate the gift Russ gave you for Christmas. You don’t want to go out on a boat and fish.”

Hate is a very strong word but I’m really not the outdoorsy type.

When I was in my mid to late 30s and lost a bunch of weight, I for some reason, thought it was time for me to learn to water-ski. What an awful mistake that was. I blame my back surgeries on that time in my life, torpedoing through the water flipping over and over and not having the sense to let go of the rope.  I still have nightmares about it. I’m no dare devil that’s for sure. When I was a kid, I wouldn’t even jump off the high diving board at Dellwood Park in Mount Pleasant. Mollye could jackknife off the high board like a pro and her dives were perfect. She also picked up frogs and crawdads in the creek at the park. The only bugs I ever picked up were June bugs and threw them on my sister just to make her mad. And that was a struggle, not making her mad of course, just picking them up. I’ve been fishing with Roy maybe three times and we’ve been together for 43 years.

Roy has spent months telling everyone if a bear got after us, the only person he had to outrun was me, assuming I would be dead last. During my research on Alaska, every one of my friends told me never to go to the bathroom alone or anywhere alone while you’re there. Roy kept rubbing it in and laughed and made fun of me.

You know what they say about Karma?

For a few weeks now Roy has been nursing one of his feet for some weird thing. He thought it was a Planter’s Wart and used over the counter stuff to cure it. Then it turned blood red on the top. He’s limped around like Chester on Gunsmoke. He said the pain was excruciating. Then his mother said it was contagious. (Better not be.) Whatever is wrong with him landed him in the hospital last Friday. He’s been a pretty sick boy so we thought it best to cancel the trip.

I was apprehensive about going to Alaska. I’ve never been out on a large boat but I’ve seen the Titanic. That didn’t end well either but we weren’t going on a cruise. I was just going to arm myself with Dramamine and board that fishing boat like a professional. All I had to do was catch one big fish, and get my picture, and then shoot pictures of the scenery. All I really cared about were the boys fishing together and listening about Longhorn and Cowboy football.  It’s amazing what you miss when your son grows up and moves away. For me, I miss the endless conversations about football and seeing the looks on their faces when they get passionate about how the upcoming season will be.

Thankfully, Russ bought trip insurance so we’ll be going somewhere, maybe even Alaska, but we need to get over one hurdle at a time. Actually that might be a great father and son gift. That foot is going to take some time to heal. 

After last week’s news hearing about the possibility of Russia shooting off a missile, Sarah Palin comes to mind. I think she said she can see Russia from her house. She might need to make a trip to Texas.