Relatives. Why me?

So some family from out of town was passing through and decided to invite themselves to stay the night. Really not much trouble other than not having enough food to feed them and such. It was my aunt and uncle, and their son who is a sophomore in high school. During dinner he told jokes the entire time, the kind of jokes where they would be funny if you were 5, his parents seemed to think they were hilarious, and I just wanted to leave but that would be rude. Everyone started getting ready for bed, and after making sure they didn't need anything I went to sleep, 15 minutes later I get woken up because they can't find the pump for their air mattress, so I look around and get them a wet-dry vac to blow it up, of course the wait around another 15 minutes before blowing it up so I get woken up again. Woke up early and went fishing, caught some good perch, enough for dinner at least. When I got home, my tooth brush wasn't where I left it, so that was kind of horrifying, then when I tried to turn the shower on I noticed the screen to prevent soap and hair from going down the drain was bent and stomped down the drain, the shower nozzle was on backwards, and the hot water handle doesn't work anymore. Luckily they are going home today, but in less then 20 hours they have already wore out their welcome. 

Making money from junk on the street.

So after the post about seeing furniture left on the street I remember a conversation I had with someone a few years ago. This guy was ~60 years old but every summer he would go the the local university which happens to be pretty large and also fairly expensive. He would wait for the all the 1 year old furniture: desks, chairs, dressers, that people had furnished there dorms with and didn't have a place to store over the summer. He loaded up his truck drove it all to some storage units he rented, at the start of the new semester he would make fliers with a list of all the stuff he had(got for free) and would sell it for half what it would cost new. His best year he made just over $4000 after storage unit expenses. Seems like a pretty good deal, even if you had to rent a truck for a few days you could still make some pretty good money.

Garbage on the street.

Went to work today so no fishing, cold and raining again this morning, kind of depressing to wake up to. While driving around this morning I noticed a lot of people leave stuff on the streets, and not just empty chip bags and soda cans. There were several desks, and few tables with 4 chairs, mattresses all over a lot of pretty good stuff if you wanted to furnish your house with other peoples stuff. I think the best collection I saw was a TV, bed frame with mattress, and a gather large, dirty glass bong. I guess who ever it belong to decided to really focus on something.

Shock Leaders

Well it was so foggy this morning it was pretty much raining and the wind was blowing ~20mph but the tide was pretty good so I decided to go try some fishing off a jetty. After about 30 minutes of fishing my hands were wet from the fog, and so cold from the wind I could hardly feel or move them, and it was really screwing up my casting, either letting the line slip and the lure going straight up or letting the line go too late and the lure dives into the water. On one cast I either screwed something up badly or my line was worn from the rocks but there was a loud snap behind my head, and my lure was gone. If you are fishing with no one around this is okay, but in a group of people a lure flying away can be pretty dangerous. A solution to this is to use a shock leader, basically a heavier line that wraps the spool 5-8 times then goes the length of the rod and back down to the reel. Most people seem to use 10lb test per ounce they are casting. I was casting 2 ounces with 12lb test. You might be wondering why not just use all 20lb test, well on the reel I was using I could probably only hold 100 yards of 20lb test, so with a 25-35 yard cast, then a big fish that wants to swim away you could run out of line.

Annoyed.

So I am curious about other peoples reasons about why they moved away from home. I was living at home, going to school, and working part time.  I guess it was a pretty good deal no bills to speak of but it got to the point where I couldn't stand living here anymore, so I decided to transfer to a school several hundred miles away. Now when I come home to visit, before hand I look forward to it, when I get here it is nice not having to cook, and in general being on vacation from normal life. However after being here for a week I am starting to feel like a live here again, and I think it is a feeling of a lack of independence. Today I woke up early went for a run, and then went down to the beach and went fishing, got home at 1 pm ate lunch and took a nap, but I got woke up and "in trouble" for sleeping rather then helping my dad clean the garage. So for those of you who visit your parents as a vacation, do they let you have vacation or act like you never left?

Visiting the parents.

So I am visiting my parents this week, which I guess is pretty cool because I don't get to see them much anymore, but there are some funny things about it. Even though I haven't lived here is several years there still get mad if I don't show up for dinner. They also like to barge into the room I am sleeping in without knocking, I guess they aren't used to closed doors. My dad also likes to bother me by waking me up in the morning and telling me I don't need to get up, but then turns the radio on in the shower so I can't sleep anyway. So I usually get up and go to work with him, help him carry stuff around and wait in the car if he can't find a parking spot.

Fishin on the Fourth

Got up early to avoid traffic/crowds and for a good minus tide to get out to some different rocks to fish. Landed 5-6 perch and a smelt and had a few more that got off. I had a bigger rod further out hoping for a shark or something that would fight better but no bites, but thats why they call it fishing not catching.

While fishing I started thinking about how people meet, I tend to think I look pretty unapproachable, I kind of have a constant look of disgust while out in public, and for no real reason other than habit I wear all black. When I look at others I always worry that talking to them will somehow inconvenience them, if they are in a hurry, and I ask them for directions or something, they might not want to be rude and help, so I generally don't bother people unless it is obvious they have nothing to do.  Then I started thinking about various people I either met online or talk to online but haven't seen them in many years, or something I don't have experience with but I think about when other people mention it, online dating. So much of what we think about people is based on out first impression of them, and generally that is their appearance. Where as online you might get to know someones personality before you even know what they look like, and at least for me, personality is far more important than appearance. I have talked to some people about this and they seem to think it is an unnatural thing to be friends with people you have never met face to face, almost as if they are imaginary people. What do you guys think? I think with the amount of time people spend online it is only natural and will only increase.