The picture if of one of my favorite fishing grounds.  Located in the mountains in Idaho.  Seems to never disappoint.  This is the North Fork of the Boise River.  Fish & Game does plant trout in the river but can still find native trout as well.

Well, here it is 12:15am and I’m up dealing with a bad case of restless leg syndrome.  Yes, RLS is another wonderful part of life I have the displeasure of dealing with.  I would say yay for modern medicine, and normally that would be the case, however, tonight it isn’t helping.  Even tried doubling up on the med.  Also tried a RLS cream and some melatonin but no luck.  My last-ditch effort is a nice stiff drink.  Actually it’s 7-Up mixed with a little huckleberry vodka.  If this doesn’t work then it looks like I’ll be up pacing for most of the night.  Oh, I figured I may as well get some writing done while I’m up and sipping my drink. 

Yesterday I attended a new support group consisting of those who have suffered a stroke mixed with survivors of traumatic brain injury.  Had found most attending are those who have suffered a stroke.  This was a bit disappointing.  The group meets at a local hospital not far from where I live, so would have been convenient.  Needless to say, I wasn’t comfortable and felt there wasn’t anything useful to me or anything I could contribute to the group.  So, it’s doubtful I’ll return to that group.  There is another group, just for survivors of TBI, that meets at a different hospital several miles away.  Had attended that group meeting once and found the facilitator is pretty good.  The group was very small, at least at the meeting I made it to.  There’s a good chance I’ll try that one again, and it meets twice each month. 

Still haven’t made it fishing again.  Found myself a little reluctant after 4 trips with no fish caught.  At the same time, I have decided to have new fishing line put on both fishing reels I use.  It is recommended this be done each year.  So, I’ll get that done and then consider where I want to try fishing next.  There are a few other supplies I want to get as well (bobbers, more powerbait, etc.).  Thankfully, I can get all that done at the same store/location.   When I have all this done I’ll check the Fish & Game website for the locations where they’ve planted fish recently and go from there.  

The above picture is the back of a humpback whale, a small one.   We saw this whale in Depot Bay, Oregon, and he/she was fairly content with staying in this area next to the coastline.  This is about as much as I could get in a picture, not knowing where the whale would surface.  Never did see where the mother was but hopefully not too far off. 

It has been almost 10 days since I started on the new med for ADHD and depression, and so far I’ve not noticed any benefit.  Pretty sure it has negatively affected my medicine for restless leg syndrome as well as what I take for head pain.  Will be discussing this with the prescribing physician during my next scheduled appointment.  The prescription is to last 30 days and to the time of my next appointment.  Since I’m presently not working I’ll give it the full 30 days to see if there is any benefit.  It is also possible my level of patience has lessened too.  Before my next appointment I’ll have my wife note any possible changes she has noticed and pass that along to the doctor. 

Yesterday I had my 58^th birthday and it was a wonderful day.  My daughter was kind enough to cook pancakes for me for breakfast.  The prior day she took me to see the movie Black Panther.  We both enjoyed the movie a lot.  The pancakes were very tasty.  The gift from them both was surprising and very nice.  Won’t go into any details however. 

On the subject of traumatic brain injury….  Over the past year, if I remember correctly, I’ve discovered the problem with being self-aware of things, including myself.  Could say I’ve become aware of the problem of lacking self-awareness.   A neuropsychological evaluation showed this as well.  Knowing the problem exists helps understand things a bit more, but only a bit.  In my case, and what the evaluation showed, was a bad case of depression, and ADHD(secondary to the brain injury).  Of course, I was not aware of this.  My thought was this is just how life is and accepted it.  Apparently, this self-awareness issue is characteristic of damage to the frontal lobe/s of the brain.  The primary damage I have is to the right frontal lobe.  Must admit it’s a little annoying knowing I may have to rely on others to tell me things that I’m incapable of being aware of myself, and about me.  Don’t know if this new medicine will help with that or not.  Oh well, as they say, life goes on. 

This is Buddy.  He's a mix of black lab and australian shepherd.  Gotta wonder about him sometimes.  Hind end on one step and front half on upper step, perfectly content while enjoying a soup bone.  He loves to chase that white tipped tail.  The picture was taken about a year ago.  Buddy is a little over 2 years old now, and 75 pounds.

This week I've started taking a new medicine that is supposed to help with depression and ADHD.  Will take at least a week for the medicine to take full effect, so the jury is still out.  

Last week I attended a new TBI support group meeting.  Has been many years since I've been to one (about 12 years, I think).  After the facilitator started I found this group is mostly for those with injuries within the past 10 years (mine was 37 years ago as of this April 18th).  Stuck out the meeting and found I was able to contribute some to an individual who is trying to help his sister, who suffered a TBI.  Just a couple days ago I received a sort of welcome packet from the Washington TBI Resource Manager (the facilitator of the support group meeting) that contains a lot of very good and useful information.  Most of it I am familiar with but was some new material as well.  

A year ago, this past March 31st (2017) I accepted an early retirement offer from my employer, one that included a generous severance package.  Had worked for the  company for 23 1/2 years.  Since that time, a year now, I've been looking for work.  Sort of the next chapter of my life, as far as work is concerned.  The search has been a bit more difficult than I had thought it would.  I'm also trying to be very particular and trying to find a job that will be a good fit for me.  Have engaged help from Vocational Rehabilitation, for the first time in my life, and they've hired a job search company for me to assist in finding the right job.  Met with them yesterday and have a couple of possibilities to look into.  A third potential candidate is working with the TSA.  I've applied to the TSA and tomorrow will take the CBT test they require.  Finding I'm a bit anxious about the CBT and hoping I can do well.  

The weather here in the Pacific Northwest continues to be rainy and mildly cold,s o haven't been able to talk myself in going fishing.  The last 3 or 4 trips have been less than fruitful, but that's the chance one takes when bank fishing.  I'm a huge fan of mountain stream fishing, and with my friend who lives in Boise.  With stream fishing you have a better chance of determining where the fish are, instead of waiting for them to find my bait.  It's also better exercise, walking/hiking up/down a stream all while fishing along the way.  Or, hiking in to a better part of the stream or river.