Manweekend

Wrap your arteries around this:

The first batch of ManPhotos are up! Richard has submitted his ManWeekend 2009 photos and they are now assimilated into the site. Check them out here.

If anyone has ManPhotos 2009 they would like to submit, I’ll post an email address to send them to soon.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

The weather forecast included a chance of rain or thunderstorms in the afternoon. While it did darken for a few hours, nothing fell and it’s possible that Man Weekend this year had The Best Weather Ever.

Richard was the first Man out on the water and caught the first fish (a perch) while waiting in the Lamsonia’s Cadillac for the Ty-Tanic and HAM to be put in. He recorded the events on video and hopes that Charles will be able to produce something short and sweet with the footage.

A ceremony was held on the Ty-Tanic in honor of the late Fucking Alex. A eulogy is posted separately on this blog.

Chris brought a game called “Cornhole” which was enthusiastically played by some of the men, probably because it let them shout “Cornhole!” a lot. The game involves tossing corn-filled beanbags at a slanted boards with holes in them. Life became uninteresting and boring after they outlawed Jarts.

Richard observed that little of the coffee from the Edgewood Garage morning coffee service was being consumed, despite thoughtful inclusion of a bottle of non-prescription pain reliever on the table. Theories why included the fact that Ty stopped drinking coffee and the Ty-Tanic crew’s sudden enthusiasm for getting out of the lake before the coffee service is even set up, but then someone reminded Richard that Tom wasn’t there this year.

Good News! Ty reports the Frank Martin Memorial Tackle Box has been located! Bad News! It’s still in Gilbert’s barn!

One of the things that had to be moved in the process of digging the Ty-Tanic out of the Tobey Cottage’s garage was a toilet that (I guess) either replaced or will replace one in the Tobey Cottage. It was moved aside and by Saturday contained a pool of golden liquid.

Adam completely ignored last year’s instruction and brought his Range Rover again. Our disappointment at not getting to gawk at his Ferrari was tempered by the Range Rover’s hitch and Adam’s gracious generosity in pulling boat trailers around. Thank you very much Adam, and bring the Range Rover again next year! (Let’s see if reverse psychology will work.)

The Edgewood Men decided not to tempt the Boat Gods by trying to put in the Red Rocket but they did put a new blue cover on it. The engine’s lubrication survived the winter and the engine shaft rotates. Despite ambitious intentions we did nothing about the RR’s boat lift. I thought we should have set it up on the Ridge.

Gilbert and Scott boated up to the Swanton waterfall and reported rocky pools literally filled with fish. Scott was mildly injured traversing them. Scott, of course, caught the biggest fish (Friday’s 30 inch 6 pound pike) but Gilbert caught a garfish! The Ty-Tanic went out to the waterfall Sunday morning to see if Gilbert and Scott found a wonder or if they’re just wonderful bullshit artists. Someone else is going to have to report the results.

We’re going to have to set up a sign saying: “If you spoil your appetite with shrimp you won’t be able to finish your steak.” I, for one, seem to forget every year. It was only Patrick’s superb selection and equally-superb preparation that enabled me to finish the entire 16 ounces. Burp. New Man LL wasn’t there for the Saturday dinner. Having a job over Man Weekend must suck or maybe seeing the Man Weekend Garment of Shame scared him off. He did go fishing in the Aqua Pimp Saturday morning. No word on whether he caught anything.

With Ned away the position of Man Weekend Pryo was assumed by Uncle Arthur who made a pile of broken furniture and tools, scrap lumber, and brush. The Red Rocket’s old disintegrating plastic-coated cloth cover was included. Although not to the intensity of the original Man Weekend fires, this one was pretty good and the thick, black rolling smoke from the boat cover brought tears to our eyes. The wind was blowing in from the lake and the next morning everything on the Edgewood porch was lightly dusted with ashes.

In Memory
Of
“Alex The Angry Angler”
a.k.a.
“F*&#+$% Alex”

Although he had attended only one Man Weekend
(Man Weekend IV), the legend of his participation
continues to live on in Man Weekend lore, and he will
forever be remembered as one of the more colorful and
fun participants.

The crew of the mighty Ty-Tanic who had the distinct
pleasure to have sailed, fished and laughed with “Alex
The Angry Angler”, have hereby placed a beer can
(full) and broken reel at the bottom of Missisquoi Bay
in his honor, on this 6th day of June, 2009.

He will be missed.

(front row) Ty, Charles, Mike, Glenn (back row) Angry Alex

Friday, June 5

Man Weekend is pleased to announce the addition of a new Man. L.L. (no idea of what that stands for) received his hat and first year pins at the evening’s superb (as usual) sausage & clam dinner, orchestrated (as usual) by Patrick and Allen. L.L. was actually around last year for Man Weekend but declined to take part. One can only assume that the lack of (obvious) bloodshed last year was reassuring, or perhaps the stack of magazines pushed upon him Sunday of Man Weekend last year, in an attempt to hide the evidence, was impressive.

The weather is so great that it called into karmic question whether any of the boats would work. Hedging their bets, Allen and Richard declined to even start the Red Rocket’s engine, thus insuring that HAM, the Ty-Tanic, and the Aqua-Pimp ran perfectly. The Edgewood Men caught a few perch and one sunfish, but spotted an otter, a turtle far way from shore, enjoyed for some time an anchor point a few dozen feet from the sheer cliffs on the way up to Canada, and carefully paddled into the brushes of Gander Bay spying on huge carp that had sex on their minds more than our lures.

The other boats caught so many big fish that they couldn’t even remember them all. Scott reported a 6lb 30″ northern. This is not unexpected. What was surprising was when Scott came over to Edgewood begging for some butter to cook up some perch he caught. The Man with the “The Man With The Golden Rod” tattooed (such as it is rumored) on his arm, shocked the Man Weekend community by actually keeping, cleaning, and cooking some fish! (Very well too, but one wonders if this is the beginning of a change in Man Weekend philosophy.)