Priorities and Battered Parts

Today was the first day of Handsome's summer vacation, and it was a hot one. When I got out of work, I took him to a pond that is relatively near the house (read: only 15 minute's drive) that has a boat ramp that the locals swim off of. I told him we were going to be there for an hour, hour and a half maximum. I had stuff to get done around the house. We pulled up at about 6 PM, and we were the only ones there. Handsome went straight in the water while I took out one of those fishing rods that are my constant travel companions. I had some worms left over from yesterday, so I threw on a bobber and made a cast.
Bang!
First cast, caught a pretty little bluegill.  Yay me! I made a few more casts, but I had a big hook on there for sunfish. Too big, it turned out. They kept nibbling the bait right off the hook. I put the rod aside and jumped in the water with Handsome.  We swam. We wrestled. We splashed and played full bore for about an hour. Handsome hit me in the nuts, as he seems to be required to do whenever we play in the water.
Not once, not twice, but thrice.
Ouch?
At about 7:15 I hobbled out of the water to dry off and start getting ready to get him home.
"You have about 15 minutes, and then we have to go, right?" I said, my voice slightly higher than usual due to the testicular trauma. "I have stuff to get done about the house, so we can't stay here all night, okay?"
"Okay, Dad!"
Excellent. I gathered all the stuff together and put it back in the jeep, getting ready to go. I had stuff to do.
The last thing I was putting back in the jeep was the rod I had been casting with. Just for the hell of it I cut off the medium sized hook I had on there and put on a much smaller one, one that was appropriate for panfish, or sunfish. I made a cast and caught a fish. The smaller hook made a huge difference.
Now I had caught two fish, and I was ready to go. Handsome saw me catch that second fish and said "Can I try?"
"Sure," I answered. "But you have to make it quick, we're supposed to be leaving now, so I can get some stuff done."
He made a cast, and caught a fish. He made another cast, caught another fish. He made a third cast with he same worm on there, and caught a third fish.
"That must be a lucky worm!" I said. I went to the jeep and got out Handsome's fishing rod and started casting with it. I caught fish. They were all sunfish until Handsome caught a little bass. Then he caught another. Eventually I caught one too.
We worked that boat ramp, he to one side and I to the other, until we ran out of worms, and I had more than 20 when we started out. That was when I went to the jeep to check the time and said "Whoa! Handsome, we have to go!"
"What's the matter, Dad?"
"It's almost 8:30! No wonder it's starting to get dark!"
We jumped in the jeep, me moving awkwardly due to my battered parts.
Did I get anything done that I meant to tonight?
No.
Instead, I caught fish!

Hey, I have my priorities ... and a strange soreness when I walk.

Talk to you later!