Trying to catch up

I once thought that things would settle down as I grew older and I would have more time to spend with my boys. With that in mind I redoubled my efforts to catch up on my honey-do list immediately following hunting season in order to spend more time with Chris, my junior in high school. With my youngest son Patrick living in a dorm and attending the Louisiana School of Math, Science and Arts at Northwestern University located in Natchitoches, La. and the other five boys so busy doing their own thing I think they have forgotten who their Dad is, I just knew the fish crazy Christopher and I would have a fun time bonding.

In order to put the plan in action, the day after hunting season concluded saw me begin to continue the restoration of the old airstream and working on our wood canoe. The storied old boat was fast approaching sixteen years old and had developed two long cracks in the fiberglass exterior. A section of the transom also needed to be torn out and replaced, thanks to a colony of persistent and very hungry carpenter ants. And once all of that was completed the entire exterior would need to be sanded and resealed with polyurethane. All in all, you can see I had my hands quite full. Throw in Nancy's honey-do list of neglected chores for the house and later, the responsibility for mowing the neighbor's yard since his work required him to leave his expecting wife and child here to be in Florida for who knows how long, I felt a little overwhelmed and didn't see how I could pull it all off. And don't forget I still had to labor at my day job at the railroad, to put the groceries on the table.

Feeling sorry for me yet? Well, please don't, because all of that just naturally comes with the territory and is the price one needs to pay to spend the time I do in God's great outdoors. I've learned sacrifices must be made in order to reap the just rewards. But the one thing I really didn't want to surrender was the time I sought to take Chris fishing in the canoe. However, the chore of repairing the canoe was huge and threatened to sink my good intentions. Not long after starting the work, I quickly realized I may have overloaded the wagon and probably wouldn't get it done.

And then, God sent me a gift. Another son, a true compadre, a kindred soul, one I didn't know I had running around in Laredo, Texas. Now please don't get upset with me, it's nothing scandalous, I promise. Why, I've never been to Laredo in my life.

Carlos, laid off from his rail job in Laredo, traveled all the way to Louisiana to temporarily fill in the work vacancies on our end of the railroad. The first day we met, the two of us learned we had a lot in common.

My new compadre soon became bored sitting all day at the hotel with nothing to do while waiting for the call to go to work. During the downtime he came over to visit and I began teaching him how to shoot the bow. It was quite easy. He was a natural and caught on very quickly. There were a few anxious moments I thought he was going to outshoot me. It didn't quite happen, but it was close. In reward for the lessons, my compadre would prepare some delicious Mexican dishes for the family. And perhaps most important, began helping me with my chores!

He soon moved out of the hotel (he didn't have to, it was furnished by the company) and stayed with us. He adopted me as his new Dad (his real Dad had passed away) and Nancy as his new mom (commadre) and we in turn, happily adopted him and his adorable family as our own. He has a talented-beatiful wife named Cynthia and two precious little girls named Yara and Keisha. And yes, all seven of my boys were happy to have another brother and for the first time, three sisters.

Carlos was eventually called back to work in Laredo and had to return. We now speak together on a regular basis and he has come to see me since. We hope to do a little hunting together and put his newfound skills to the test. Perhaps we'll have another story for you then. In the meantime, it's important to know how intstrumental he was in helping me meet all of the impossible goals I had set for myself. But, little did I know at the time, although the canoe had been completely restored to it's original grandeur, my grand plans of taking Christopher fishing every weekend this past summer were doomed to failure. Stay tuned . . .