I'm at my parents cabin by Upper Red Lake, Minnesota. Walleyes is the object of this vacation. This will be the third year I've done this. We troll with minnows on rods and reels. I have to use the old style closed face spinning reel because I can wrap my affected hand around the grip and use my good hand to reel up the line. The open face spinning reel is just the opposite, my good hand would be on the grip and my affected hand would have to try to reel in the line. That would be an exercise in futility. I caught and landed 3 walleyes the first night, didn't even have to hand the rod and reel off to someone else. Dad thinks the hand is getting better, it is but this year I haven't gotten a large enough fish to test the limits of the left hand. I have to fish with someone else along because I never would be able to get the minnow on the hook. Hey lets get a proposal to NINDS and have fishing be one of the proven hand therapies. And require therapy departments to have boats, motors and tackle.
I love this because the usual case is fishing in the morning, lunch, then an afternoon nap, dinner, a walk down the gravel road, card games using a block of wood with grooves in it to hold the cards, drive to the local bar/restaurant for wireless access to update blog, sleep.
An important part of recovery is having a social life. I hope your dad was as thrilled for you as I am.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful vacation! And fishing would be great therapy - especially for stroke survivors' heads. I used to live outdoors on the summer - not so much now. When I go out to garden I often sit directly on the ground, which wearing my damn knee-high AFO is extremely uncomfortable. And I feel like Christina in the Wyeth painting "Christina's world," which always saddened me because her world was so small. Plus I can't safely carry my weed bucket through the garden. So I often stay inside.
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