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of trout and bruised ribs

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2016.09.20

I headed out for a bit of fishing and landed nothing but some bruised ribs. It started out well enough, on my first cast I spotted a good-sized trout following my lure in. I kept casting, and twenty minutes later I could see from the way the "forage" (shiners, minnows, baitfish) were swimming that there might be a predator hanging around. I took a step down the boat-ramp I'm fishing at these days and leaned in a bit.

And fell.

I take it as a sign of aging. I'm heavier now, and no longer even remotely fast on my feet. With one of my flat-soled converse slipping out from under me, I went down on my left side, hard. I knew instantly that something was unusual; I'd never felt the grinding thump in my ribs that I felt this time, not even when taking a tumble from my bike (or being hit, as last time).

But my problems weren't over. The patina of season's dead algae that had caused the problem was now – with the assistance of gravity and my record weight – conveying me down the boat ramp. Absurdly, I started scrabbling at the cement and saying, "no no no."

And then I stopped. My feet had somehow found purchase below the water line, and I was able to grasp some hand-hold on the wave-smooth cement. With my rod still in my right hand, I powered through the breath-shortening situation with my ribs and hauled myself up on a shoulder that was also flaring with pain.

Perhaps it's the god of drunks and small children who watches after anglers, but I got up that ramp and took stock. I could somehow tell that nothing was actually broken outright. Not even the rod! And what's more, I had my bloody cellphone in my pocket, and it had come through just fine.

But I certainly hurt too much to hop on my bike then and there.

So I kept fishing for another hour.

I racked up another skunk, but it was as fine an evening as you'd want to spend recovering from a fall that almost got much worse. And remarkably, cycling home was no real trouble – I guess you just don't use any muscles across your lower ribs as you ride.

rand()m quote

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson