08.22.25 Hey, why not some more flooding fun for us....

 

     I love water. I respect water. I fear water. And I hate water. And I prefer those waters that are moving over those that standstill. Especially waters that not only move, like rivers, but are also tidal. 

     While we were over in Ireland, and after getting the news of flooding in our home due to a plumbing mishap, we learned about a building storm named, ironically enough, Hurricane Erin. We thought more how it could affect our commute back to the United States more then possible flooding in our house since she wasn't going to be a rain event but more of a storm/surge/moon/and tide event. Hey, we live on the Delaware River, 130 miles up from the Delaware Bay and Cape May, what could happen. 

     Hurricane Erin, a Category 2 storm, wrecked havoc along North Carolina as she made her way north along the East Coast, doubling in size, but losing strength and peeling off to the east. But for New Jersey, last nights high tide, coupled with the August's new moon, meant the highest of high's in tidal surges. 

     In 2020 we purchased our "Shore House" at Cape Island Resort. While I like to say I have a place in Cape May it actually sits just outside sandwiched between North Cape May and Wildwood Crest in a town named Lower Township. For those that's don't know on the bottom of New Jersey there's Cape May, a manmade island due to the construction of the Cape May Canal, and then Lower, Middle, and Upper Townships, moving south to north. 

     Since we've returned it's been non-stop work on the flood damaged spaces within our house. Where there was water there's damage but also the threat of moisture buildup, which could mean mildew and then mold. It's been a race against time and thankfully my brother, Ryan, did the hard lifting while we were away. Our house is 102 years old, built for the ages. If it were to get hit with a bomb it would burn out and not down. We have plaster walls, not plaster over wood lathe, but plaster over metal mesh. And back in the day these plasterers must have got paid by the pound, not for the rooms completed. 

     So I had to decide what to take down and what to leave up. Do I need to gut the rooms and pull all of the hardwood floors? I decided no. Those horse hair and plaster covered walls were solid. I removed the baseboards and ran a fan in each bay to ensure they were aired out. Unfortunately the floors had to be pulled up, one because they were buckling and two they could be hiding all sorts of nastiness underneath. In the end they were dry, but still needed to go. Rather then try and piece replacements in I pulled them from baseboard to baseboard but held off on pulling the hallway and beyond. 

     During a break in the action I took a look on Facebook Marketplace to fish around at the cost of replacing the hardwood floors. It looked like they came in around $5 a square foot for unfinished red oak 2-1/4 inch boards. So, 100 square feet would run me about $500. 

     Then I saw the above add. Extra and unused flooring which could be mine for the taking. I messaged the seller and it was as described. Although not actually sure of how much square footage was there it was four long bundles and a bunch of other shorter pieces. She had it listed for $160. When she told us she was in Sandyston, New Jersey, which is above Stokes State Forest, the price went to $140, and then to $100. So off Theresa and I were for a four-hour there and back with a savings of around $300. But let's get back to Hurricane Erin and the Jersey Shore.

     Governor Murphy declared a State of Emergency along the Jersey Shore and Cape May County was put under a Coastal Flood Warning. I didn't think much of it until Theresa was talking our neighbor down in Cape May. "The tides really high, almost across the road", I heard her say as I drifted off to sleep. I thought alright that's good, but wait, we live across the street from her.

     Our place sits right on the top of one of the branches of Little Mill Creek which runs off of Bennet Creek. If you follow it down you'd cross under the Garden State Parkway and hit the Cape May Harbor. On a good tide, like last night, you could do it in a kayak. 

     One of the things I've done that I'm proud of is building a patio down at our place. Just beyond the last row of blocks is the tiniest evidence that we are on the tidal waters. At times we have went down and seen that the water had crested just about to our coveted white rocks. But what was it looking like now at 1030 pm at the height of the storm, tide, and moon? My neighbor said our place looked fine. But then I asked, "Did you look at the patio?". Soon after we got a text and a photo. 

     I'm not worried about the water. I'm worried about how it will affect the patio. Will it recede and then shift the blocks and make it all uneven? Who knows. It is what it is. After we got the picture we received a reassuring text about the back of our yard.....

     So there you go, my love-hate relationship with water. Hopefully as the tide ebbs it passes along the top of my patio like it did across my hardwood floors up here in Titusville. I don't have good history with houses and water. Remember when I purchased those two homes high above 

the West Branch of the Ausable River in the Adirondacks? In 2011 Hurricane Irene came and parked herself above the Ausable Forks and the river, well, The River Ran Through Them, kinda sounds like that movie, you know the one, A River Runs Through It. That all pretty much knocked out my dreams of owning a piece, well two, of the ADK's. In 2013 I sold them both, the blue one for $6,500 and the green one for $21,000. I know, "You should have kept them", "They'd be worth a fortune". It is what it is and it was what it was at that time. You can't cry over spilt rivers.

It's all just more water under the bridge, and floors, and stairs. Some things never change. 

08.21.25 Saddened to hear about Judge Frank Caprio...

 

     As I get older and people around me start to pass away it really changes my perspective on life, and living. When some people die it can really make you do a hard pause and reflect on your own mortality, and more importantly, asking the question, Am I living the best life I can, and should? A few years back I caught a glimpse of a show titled Caught in Providence. It featured a look into the courtroom of Judge Frank Caprio in Providence, Rhode Island. While it was a reality TV show, the Judge showed a genuine regard for the people before him and an empathy for their struggles in life. 

     Caprio made headlines in 2023 when he announced he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (PC). The pancreas is a gland that sits behind the stomach and does it work in conjunction with the liver, gall bladder, and small intestine. It secretes hormones like insulin and glucagon, which regulate blood sugars, and enzymes like lipase and amylase which aid in the digestion of fats and carbohydrates, respectfully.

     My friend Jim Matson, of Pulse Disc fame, was diagnosed with PC in the spring of 2018 and passed away a few months later. Pancreatic cancer has no cure but there are surgeries and treatments that can slow the disease. It used to have a six-month survivability, but studies have 

shown better outcomes these days. About 10% of patients survive the first year, and now 13% have a five year survival rate. Caprio fought the disease for a little less than two years and passed away at the age of 88. 

     Whenever I hear about pancreatic cancer my thoughts go back to the story of Patrick Swayze, who brought PA into the spotlight. Swayze an actor and famous for his roles in the movies Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Diagnosed in 2008 he survived for 20-months before passing at the age of 57 in 2009. 

     They are forecasting about 70,000 new cases of PC diagnosed in the United States in 2025. Unfortunately the symptoms show after the disease already has its hold on most patients. Symptoms can include, changes in ones GI system from indigestion, bloating and weight loss,

to problems regulating blood sugars, stool that is pale in color and greasy, and floats, or the yellowing of the skin and eyes, or jaundice. Most patients diagnosed with PC have been treated for other problems which leads to a delayed diagnosis. 

     While there are no routine screenings for PC any prolonged symptoms should be assessed. Many times we just shake things off, or try to, which leads to delays in treatment. For a fly fishing blog there is a lot of mention of health screenings and prevention here, although I'm not the best specimen for health out there. 

     If you think about it, how respectful and careful have you been with your body? For me, I've abused my body for now 57 years. From poor diet, to poor choices, to occupational and environmental exposures, how could I complain if it decided to quit on me now. I'm just looking back to these past two weeks and the amount of bread, butter and Guinness I forced into my body. No doubt it had to work overtime to keep me "normal". 

Pancreatic cancer, like all cancer, is a nasty disease that I hope one day we can find a cure for. In the meantime I should do better protecting my body from myself. 

08.20.25 Back from the Emerald Isle...

 

     Well after planning and saving for over a year the 2025 Ireland trip is in the books. While I have said that I could move to South Carolina, or maybe Martha's Vineyard, one thing I am 100% sure of is that I could move to Ireland today. Like, I'm packing a bag and going...now. 

     It was 13 days of driving, sightseeing, eating, and drinking our way around the perimeter of Ireland with stops in Donegal, Knock, Athenry, Galway, Killarney, Kilkenny and back to Dublin where we flew in and out of. It was some trip and we came back pretty much unscathed. Traveling with three women for two weeks.... wonderful, at times the Guinness got me through. We stayed in a mix of a castle, a bed and breakfast, apartment, motel, and hotel. Not sure we would have changed much as we had no regrets. Maybe packing a little lighter and having clothing for the heat wave Ireland experienced while we were there. I'm glad we did it at this age as I can't imagine doing it when I'm older and more beat up.

And now the uglies....

     It was day three and we had made our to one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe called Slieve League. It was there all of our phones blew up at the same time...."SOS flood in your house". 

What happened was this. Somewhere in all that plumbing work I did before we left one of the pipes blew, most likely right as we pulled out of the driveway. That pipe spewed water for three days before the tile guy came in and found the flood. Thousands of gallons in the walls, soaked into the hardwood floors, and down into the basement where the entire floor plan of a near 5,000 square foot house had three inches of water sloshing around like a bathtub. As both my Dad and brother said, "Colin (and Son), it's bad". My brother, who I owe a kidney to, busted his ass with the help of a friend and my father, where they removed the water, tried to save my stuff, and got the fans and dehumidifiers going. Upon my arrival home it was go time opening walls, tearing up the hardwood floors, and coming up with a plan to balance a now new big project while maintaining a "normal" home life, free of the smell of moisture and possibility of mold growth. Fun times, but it is what it is. 

     I think the tile guy was traumatized after he found what was going on but luckily he was able to wade through the water and shut the main down. He asked, "Do you want me to still do the 

floors?". I answered, "Yes, of course". I couldn't come back home to the chaos of the flood and have the two projects, the mudroom and bathroom I had ongoing, go unfinished. He did his thing and it came out very nice. It was a good morale booster when I got home, that was before I saw the carnage. People said, "Call your insurance company", "Um, not a good idea". They'd drop us and This Old House in a heart beat if they saw how we and this 102 year old house operate day to day. I'm talking big 

brass water pipes and screw in circuit breakers. Maybe one day Theresa's childhood friend, or her ex-husband, both electricians, could have a sleep over and help me upgrade the above old panel to one more user friendly and updated (That's an open invitation Neil). But below is how 

the mudroom turned out, much better then it had been and different then what it looked like when we first saw this place in October 2017. It's funny but I busted my ass in there and outside of the floors it pretty much looks the same. 

     So what could I do with that news while over in Ireland? Nothing. I had to hope for the best, and again was lucky to have my brother working hard for me and my family. So a day or so later we were in another part of Ireland passing through a tight road in a town named Rooska. 

     It was on Kincora Road where I thought a picture of oncoming traffic, taken by me from the drivers side which is opposite of what we do here in the states, coupled with driving on the other side of the road, would be good for the book I would make from out trip. So I stuck my arm out of the window and clicked. Well, that car came close causing me to drop my phone out of the 

moving car, and then subsequently, get run over by the car following that one. What's a shame is I purchased an OtterBox Defender case when I got the new phone but took it off at the start of the trip because the case covered the camera lens, which made the images less sharp. I put a cheap case on it, and well, it survived without a scratch, having popped off at impact. 

Yes, I have iCloud, but unless you have it set properly, and are constantly within WiFi range, those photos just don't automatically upload, so, like me in this case, you would be beat. I went back and retrieved the phone and we bought it to a phone repair place in Killarney and was told I might have a slim chance at recovery, but it didn't look good. As and far as insurance, which I requested when we switched from Verizon (21 years) to AT&T, well that wasn't carried over. 

          And lastly, why not just have my new job be over before it even started. Well, that almost happened. I forgot how annoying becoming a new hire, especially in health care, is these days. 

Background checks, physicals, vaccine histories, bloodwork with titers, and of course a urine test. You know, urine, drug screen, or a UDS for short. It all went as planned. My physical was at 1 o'clock and earlier that morning Lauren had asked Theresa and I to accompany her to Washington Crossing's Park as she met a prospective buyer for her classic Ford F-150. The buyer, well bought it, on first sight, and I followed the girls up to Lambertville to drop it off at the guys house. 

     While up that way we grabbed a bagel at Bagel Delights in town. I ordered my usual, a blueberry scooped out and toasted with butter. She was out by the time we had rolled in so I went to my number three choice, with an everything being number two, which was a poppy seed bagel. 

     It was the following Wednesday when I got the call from occupational health asking me to talk with the Doc who did my physical. I gave a call and heard, "Mr. Archer, your drug screen came back positive". "Positive?, for what?", I asked. He answered "Codeine". Right away I figured my time at Capital Health would be over before it even started. 

The good doctor was on the phone with another Nurse Jackie, a Registered Nurse working with an underlying substance use disorder. I went through every move I had made in the days before my test, and then it hit me, it was the dam poppy seed bagel, which I might add, was heavily seeded. The story sounded thin, but it was the truth. I was prepared to fight. Offering another sample would mean nothing, you were dirty last week, this week you're clean. Codeine sticks around for about 48 hours, enough time for me to piss clean if I did a re-take.

     I even went back to the bagel store and purchased a bagel that I was prepared to send off to the NIH for testing as I planned on taking this as far as I had to. When I told the shop owner the story she said, "Colin, you're a nurse practitioner, don't you know better?". In the end it all 

worked out, and I started my orientation the day before we left for Ireland. What was funny was, well not at the time, was the day I got the call from occupational health was my last day, on the books, at Essex County College, so I could have been out of a job, times two. 

     Things will be busy around here in the next few weeks. With Hurricane Erin bearing down on New Jersey no doubt I'll have one of the California redwoods I have in my yard go down or the power will go out and the basement will flood once again. What could go wrong?

     My new gig at Capital Health School of Nursing starts Friday. When we returned from Ireland it felt like fall was in the air. That'll mean soon the leaves will be falling to the ground which means lots of yard work. It also is my favorite season, especially living out here in rural New Jersey. It also means fishing will soon start up after a long, hot, and dry summer. The bait is growing in the various nurseries and I'm sure the bass are starting to plan their migration south. 

One thing I know is I am ready to fish. But first I'll have to spend some time going in and out of the zippered off room and get some work done. 

08.05.25 Off to the Emerald Isle...

     This is it. A year and half of planning, saving, buying vouchers, and working at work and at home until the very last minute to get to this point. We both worked yesterday, me day one at Capital Health School of Nursing. It was one and done as my five-day hospital orientation was cut short by this vacation. When I get back it's week one for the kids at the school in Trenton. 

     This morning, instead of packing, we were taking down and trimming doors to get ready for the tile guy who's going to finish up the mud room and bathroom renovation. We'll be over in Ireland for 13 days, returning on August 18th, Ryan's birthday. Theresa and I will be joined by the two youngest, Lauren and Erin, 23 and 20 respectfully. That's a long time away and in tight quarters. It should be one for the books. 

08.04.25 It's not all about the slot everywhere...

 

     Saw the above photo making away its way around Facebook. Nothing wrong with it as it's all legal. It's from an operation, Boston Fishing Charters, who fishes commercially and recreationally in and around Boston. Massachusetts has a commercial fishery where, if you have a commercial permit, you can now take 15 fish over 36 inches on the allowed commercial fishing days, which are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

     The slot limit now, for most of us on the East Coast is 28 -31 inches. Some states have open and closed seasons, like we do here in New Jersey, with no targeting during Jan. and Feb. In and around the Chesapeake there are a number of openings and closings and it takes a very mindful angler to ensure they aren't fishing dirty. 

     As of August 1st, through December 31st, the Chesapeake is open. Anglers there are allowed to harvest one fish per angler per day from 18 - 24 inches. Remember this week the ASMFC has their summer meeting, so we'll see what bullshit management efforts they come up with next. 

08.01.25 Holy s%$t Batman...

     Can you believe it? Chuck's running the International Fly Tying Symposium (TIFTS) again this fall. I'm glad I didn't run bets after last years show if it was coming back in 2025. No, I'm not a hater and actually have enjoyed the TIFTS over the years, but the last couple of years have been difficult to get excited about and drag myself to. 

     Years ago the IFTS almost looked like halls of The Fly Fishing Show (TFFS). Above is the TIFTS from 2012. Back in the day it was a show that drew a lot of the same heavy hitters that would attend TFFS in January in the same location. If TFFS was a must attend, the TIFTS was a close second. 

     But things have changed. Fly fishing and tying has changed. People have changed. The legends have moved on, from doing shows or to a better place in Heaven. Things just aren't the same and it's the same things these days when it comes to industry type shows. As we have seen in recent years people, let's talk manufactures, just don't make the commitment, in money 

and personnel, to attend these shows anymore. It's risk vs gain. The return on investment just isn't there. Yes, Orvis has started to roll back in, literally with a van, but I think that's just to show face, knowing that at the end of the weekend their attendance didn't have all that much of an impact in exposure and sales.

     Smaller operations, like Buzzi's BuzFly and Cordeiro's Flatwing, get a big draw and do well, but the big guns no longer compete for the space and bodies in the booths. These days there's a ton of smaller rod and reel manufactures and they dot the landscape that once was filled by competing big companies. 

     2024's "show" could have been called The International Fly Tying Room, as it has dwindled down to one room with basically four rows. There was some some booths to pick up supplies, more Bucktail Decievers, Hollow Fleyes, and BEAST Fleyes then you could count, and tyers, more names unknown then known, and, what made my show, was the booth occupied by Mr. Bob Clouser. 

     You have to tip your hat to Chuck Furminsky, and now Ben. While you can say whatever you want about how the shows are run, and where they are run, the costs for the vendors and admission, and all the bullshit and politics that goes with it - TIFTS and TFFS have had a HUGE impact in the fly fishing world, and to the tens of thousands of attendees over the years. The question is how long can and will they survive. My money was that last year would be the last for TIFTS, but I was wrong. 

     In the Press Release for this years show which specifies, "About 100 professional and amateur fly tyers - among the best the world has to offer- are scheduled for demonstrations. To be honest there's more amateurs, good people and good tyers, then professionals. There are plenty of good baseball players out there but when people come to a convention they want to see a Jeter, a Harper, or whoever is a baseball star these days. But one of those names I see is Tim Camissa, who I seem to mention a lot with all of these shows, and maybe beat up on a bit, but that's because he has become the poster child for the shows, because Chuck drags him around the country. I'm sure he's a nice guy and has a following, just not me. 

     The big news is that Hareline won't be in attendance this year, replaced by J. Stockard Fly Fishing "who has booked an extensive space". That will be interesting as there's really not all that much space to occupy. Hareline won't be there, "Because of a prior commitment....", mmmm, maybe they did the risk vs gain thing and pulled the trigger. Maybe this year they'll put Brad Buzzi where he belongs, front and center at the entrance as many, many people attend this show just to browse through his bucktails. 

     Many say that November, when New York and New Jersey are in the start of the meat of the fall run, isn't a good month to hold the show. That many of the people who would attend would be out fishing. Well, let's be honest, how many fly fishermen and women are lining the beaches these days anymore, outside of when they get the calls for blitzes on the beach. The TIFTS and TFFS have both really been leaning towards freshwater fly fishing and tying, which is where the largest percentage of anglers, and the money, comes from. 

     This week the contracts came out for vendors for TIFTS. A booth for the two-day event will run you $800 plus all the expenses that goes with it. For those "professional and amateurs", mostly amateurs, they'll be plenty of space to share to sit and tie and help fill the room. 

     This years show will be November 15-16 and will cost you $20 to get in for one day and $30 for a two day pass. Save the $10 and just hit it one day, you'll only need an hour or so. 

     I checked the show's website to see about the seminars and classes but they are all listed at TBA as it's a few months out. I've always said if they kept the themes local, like local NY/NJ/Pennsy fresh and saltwater fly fishing and tying, with a little destination stuff thrown in, they'd have a bigger draw. In addition I've always felt the "talent" should be paid for presentations and not just "to network and build your brand".