END of SUMMER

It is Labor Day and I am laboring, attempting to get the end of the month bookkeeping done for the owners of the cabins that I manage.  They wait with "bated breath" for their monthly checks.  Interesting term - bated breath - is the root "abate" as in QUIT or maybe from bait, as in bait your hook?  I know some fishermen who breath to fish; they are that passionate about their favorite hobby.  We are certainly in a good location to bait your hook and catch the trout that the State Dept of Fish and Game puts in the So Fork of the Stanislaus.  Do you know that they check the temperature of the water before putting the fish in?  I guess that the trout have a better chance of survival if the temperature is in a certain range.  I wonder what the trout think - do fish think? - going from lolling in a feeding pool at the Moccasin Fish Hatchery to sloushing around in the back of a truck to flopping around in a 5 gallon bucket to swimming in the freedom of the river where no one is tossing feed in daily; they actually have to find it themselves or be food for a larger fish!!  Kinda like going from being a teenager to being an ADULT in an hours time!! 

What a shock that must be - it has been a long time since I experienced that - being responsible for myself for the first time.  I do remember being AMAZED how much of our income went for things like toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo and FOOD.  Those were the things that I took for granted when I lived at home; they were just there when I needed them.  Like the trout I wasn't thinking!!  It does require planning and TRUST this being an ADULT.