Smallies

      It's a beautiful sunny day in fall, the leafs are quivering in the trees, ripples are shimmering across the water, and the sun is shining bright on my face. Were on the upper Meremec river near Sullivan Missouri in Meremec State Park getting ready to put in for a nine mile float trip. We have the cooler iced down with frosty cold budweiser, honey glazed ham, longhorn Swiss cheese, fresh french bread, and dill pickle potato chips. Fishing poles in hand we are ready to set sail, dragging the canoe, rocks scraping across the bottom, cold water across our toes, cool breeze on my face. We climb over the side and push off a float.We start tossing our little white grub leurs towards the bank and at the little twirling eddies where the fish like to hang out. Then suddenly one grabs my hook, by the sound of my line pulling out of the reel I know its a nice one, I get him in close and then he pulls it back out, after doing this three or four times I get him in the boat . He is a magnificent small mouth bass, brownish blue in color, with little round red colored eyes, and  a sleek strong body. A few minutes later Grandpa cathes one , we are catching them left and right. We allways have a rule of no beer un till one of us catch a fish. I open the ice chest and toss gramps a cold one, he pops the top and it echos across the valley like a shot in the dark, what a beutiful day says grandpa as the sun glares off his round bald head. We float ahead a little ways to where the shore protrudes out in to the river, theres a nice gravel beach, and some nice shade trees, grandpa says lets stop here for a bite to eat. We pull our canoe ashore, get out our honey ham, longhorn Swiss, french bread , and have a sandwich on the beach. After lunch we shove back off to catch some more smallies, its now the heat of the day and the only thing were catching is a buzz, so we set our poles down for a couple of miles and relax. Then grandpa gets up to grab a beer and falls into the river,half tipping the boat taking me with him, the water is ice cold, and only about two or three feet deep, we both stand up refreshed and laughing, reluctant to see the only thing missing from the boat is us. We pull the boat to the side and get back in. It is now closing in toward the end of our trip, the sun is starting to go behind the trees, and it is prime time for fishing. My first cast flys towards the bank and lands in a tree, as i look over at grandpa and he's reeling one in, with a huge smile on his face. He says; there not up there kid. After getting my leur out of the tree we catch about six more, we are ready to call it a day. The water now looks like a sheet of glass.We pull up at our take out, gather our things and get ready to head home, after a beutiful day of fishing.

Back to school

Hello everyone my name is Erik.  I am a thirty year old college freshmen attending South Western Illinois College. I am trying to acquire my associates degree in Industrial Electricity for a job opportunity I was offered. I have not been to school since 1999,and this is all really new to me.Before this I was a forklift operator for a large lumberyard,and a bartender three nights a week for about ten years. It was a good experience in my life, and a whole lot of fun. I now work at Carmines Steak House in downtown St. Louis while attending school. This is only my second week of school,and one of my first assignments. Week one was a little bit overwhelming but expected.  I knew this would not be easy, I am excited to be learning  new things in English ,math for electronics,and a lot about computers. These are all skills I will be using for the rest of my career,and a lot of it is really fun. I am also looking forward to meeting a lot of new people through out the next couple of years,and getting as much out of this experience as possible.When I acquire my degree I will be applying for a job as a relay technician.