Flyfishing

In December of 1978, Tom's friends took him flyfishing on the Colorado River down by Lampasas Texas. He had a good time but he came home and planned with me for a week of how we could do it better. He bought an automatic reel that would retract the line when there wasn't tension on the line. We worked hard to figure out ways for him to be as effective as the other guys with both hands.
The following weekend we were ready and went back. The white bass were starting their trip up the river to spawn and he planned to catch as many as possible. They do this in December and January of each year. After dark, we went wading into the river and looked into the water with a flashlight, the riverbed was literally covered with white bass.
The next day we hit the river with waders and fly rods. Dad and I had rigged up a way to use two flys at a time on leaders. Every time we would cast we caught at least one bass. If you waited for a few seconds after the first hit, we were bringing in two at a time. We had stringers tied to our waist and every couple of hours we would have to go back to shore to empty the stringers.
At the time Dad was driving a big dually pickup. At the end of two days fishing we had the back of the pickup level full with fish and ice. One of Dad's friend's that was with us owned the Hunan Restaurant in Temple. We went back to Temple and his cooks cleaned fish all night long. His freezer was well stocked with fish from just two weekends of fishing. I've never seen anyone catch that many fish before or since. One of a kind fishing trip! If I hadn't been there, I would have never believed it. Just ask him, he loves to talk about it!

Changes to his site

I'm going to archive some of his health updates onto another page so visitors don't have to scroll down so far to read his current health status. I want to keep all the posts as a record of how his health has been for myself and his doctor.

I'll be posting a few more comical stories about him this weekend too. Stay tuned!

Limits? No way!

Probably everyone who reads this blog knows that Tom has his left arm amputated right below the shoulder. If you never thought about it before, just try doing everything for a day using only one hand. Simple things can be a challenge when you think about it.

Try a few of these: (he's done all of them!)
Tie your shoes
Button your sleeve
Wash your forearm
Hang wallpaper
Plaster walls

Dad got quite prolific at using his prosthetic arm. He is very inventive and solved ways to do almost anything using his hook. To ride a motorcycle we would just switch the clutch and front brake cables and he was gone! He could even solder electronic parts. He enjoyed playing golf, fly fishing, shooting skeet/trap, etc. Lots of stuff that would be a challenge to someone with both arms. His problem solving abilities are keen.
A few years ago, he tripped during the night and fell. He crushed his left shoulder socket and hasn't been able to wear his prosthetic arm hardly at all since. That was a huge loss to his abilities. He needs lots of help now.

The other day, he asked Becky for some peanut butter and crackers. She grabbed the jar and a sleeve of crackers and put them on the table and walked off. Dad sat there for a bit and Becky came back into the kitchen and asked why he wasn't eating the PB and crackers. He said, I want you to sit down here and show me how to spread peanut butter on crackers with one hand. People just don't realize that he has a disability. If he CAN do it, he will.

Since I was a little kid, Dad would always ask me to help him hold something or assist in something he was doing. I've been his "missing arm" for a good portion of my life. I'm happy to be able to help. The thing is...he's helped me more throughout my life than I could ever pay back by helping him. It's great that my Mom and sister help now too. I would've never guessed that we would all be living and trying to get by...together! Team work, we got this!

Close call

Back when I was about 6 years old, Dad borrowed an old pickup from a friend to haul some stuff. The old pickup had a big rip in the seat, it was a manual transmission (3 on the tree) and the passenger door didn't stay latched shut. As you can imagine, a guy with one arm has a heck of a time shifting and steering at the same time. Back then, I stood up in the seat so I could see what was going on.
We were driving through Nokomis and Dad came to a slight curve in front of Doc Spracklen's house. He was going a little too fast and as he hit the curve, he downshifted. It threw me off balance and when he grabbed the steering wheel after shifting, he jerked the truck to the left...sending me into the passenger door. It popped open and I grabbed for anything I could reach. My left hand caught the rip in the seat and my right grabbed on to the door handle. My feet were dangling out the door and every few feet they would touch the ground as I tried to keep my feet moving as fast as I could so as not to be pulled under the truck. Dad reached across and pulled my left wrist until he brought the truck to a stop. Even after the truck stopped I could just barely reach the ground. My ribs were sore from Dad trying to pull me back into the truck over the edge of the seat.
After I was able to climb back into the truck, I slammed the door shut a couple of times until it latched again. I turned around to tell Dad thanks, that's the first time I ever saw my Dad visibly shaking. I've never forgotten that beat up old green 50's model pickup nor the fact that Dad did not let me fall. We laughed about it later but it scared both of us pretty bad when it happened.
Lessons learned?? It's the first time I had realized that having only one arm was a hindrance of any kind. He couldn't steer while he held on to me...but he damn sure didn't let go!