This image made its rounds on social media a few weeks back. I really have to hand it to this guy for his ingenuity. While the image was posted there was little information that went with it. In the photo we see a beach buggy with a striper sticker on the door with the caption, "Dry Land Tuna Tower".
So I did a little digging and found out some more. On the top of the ladder is Robert Francis. A Cape Cod fishing guide from back in the day. Francis started guiding clients on the beach during high school in an old Model-A Ford. I was able to find an article from The Washington Post from 1979 titled, Stripers Make Memorable Day, featuring Francis.
Seeing that image, and thinking of ladders, always brings me to Martha's Vineyard. I have brought a few different ladders up there over the years and next years will be one I am
designing, well really modifying, for those flats I so love to fish. And speaking of ladders I'm currently all laddered up myself trying to finish up some projects before I head north next week.
What started out as flood damage repair inside somehow brought me outside to repainting part of the house. It's not connected, but it is. The windows in the main room where the busted pipe poured thousands of gallons swelled up the windows so I had to remove them
and while there I decided to burn off the 100 years of lead paint and caulk and paint them. And then my undiagnosed ADHD and lack of focus kicked in. So here we are now.
In the short time I've been at work on a surgical/ trauma floor I've been reminded how the tiniest of missteps can lead to serious injury. We hear about them from time to time but everyday, somewhere, someone is having a trip, a fall, or a twist which leads to fractures and brain bleeds and injuries that require long healing and rehab. And the older you get, forget it. And ladder falls while painting?- they happen more than you know. Now I'm a ladder guy, having
spent several years as a ladder company fire captain in Downtown Newark. But that was then, and my day to day life doesn't involve ladders nor heights anymore. So when I'm up 20 feet and Theresa says to me as she leaves for work, "Be careful up there", I pause for a moment thinking how I don't want to be that guy that falls off a ladder while painting. It's been a while since I've been banged up and don't know how I'd be able to handle it at my advancing age.
Today I am heading over to the Philly airport to drop off my Mom who's heading back to Florida post-wedding visit. I was supposed to accompany her as she was scheduled for a Watchman insertion procedure (more on that later) but it was postponed. Being here will hopefully allow me to finish up, well let's say complete 75%, of some of the projects I got working on around here before I leave for the Vineyard next Tuesday. I have a Wednesday ferry but I'm swiping out of the hospital at 7pm Tuesday night and heading up.
It's been beautiful around these parts for the start of fall but there's some weather coming in. I'm not a weather knower but there's some storms out somewhere over the ocean which will bring some rain, wind, and waves to New Jersey. We all know what those storms can
do to any mullet run we may have going. A day or two before a storm any fish that may be around will chew but they usual blow the mullet out. Some years you'd have a billion before a storm and then the next day there's not a one. I'm not sure what that weather will do to the
fishing up at The Derby on the Vineyard. My buddy Joe's up there now and posted the above picture. No doubt there's some Crown Royal in that flask which was Bob's go to cocktail. This will be my first time up to the Vineyard in the fall and while the drive and the ferry may be annoying, as Bob said the best part of the trip is stepping foot onto the island. It's T-minus seven days, if I don't fall off the ladder.