Reading: An Instance of the Fingerpost, still. I like seeing how the puzzle pieces of this historical thriller fit together.

Hooked

Today was Daniel's first day of first grade. Since he is in the same school and has the same room and the same teacher he had for kindergarten, not much has changed. He came home today with a "homework" assignment, which was to cover his science and social studies textbooks with brown paper.

The last time I covered a textbook with brown paper was when I was in high school, but I had no trouble remembering how to do it: cut the paper bag down the side, measure the book's length and width against the flat piece of brown paper, fold first the top and bottom and then the two sides with razor creases, tuck the book into the flaps and, voila, a covered book.

Up until today, I had forgotten that the smell of brown paper used to be one of the smells of autumn to me. Once again, I thought that raising children can be like time traveling to one's own past.

I have a new obsession. (Not that I needed another one.) Like Daniel, I have become obsessed with fishing. My kind of fishing does not require impaling worms on hooks or untangling fishing lines, however. It is Radica's Bass Fishin', a handheld electronic game that Tab picked up at a yard sale for one dollar. Since it retails for $18, he got a bargain. The person selling it didn't have the instruction manual and didn't know how to operate it. I did a little prowling on the web, found Radica's website, and gleaned a few hints from the FAQ.

Tab bought the game for Daniel, but I'm the one who's become hooked on it, so to speak. One of the coolest things about the game is that it is motion sensitive: You "cast" the line by flicking your wrist forward and then you turn the reel to adjust the level of the lure. When a fish bites, the unit shakes and you have to set the hook by jerking the unit backward and then reel the fish in. Sometimes the fish fights the line and you need to decrease the drag; sometimes the fish tries to run away with the lure and you have to increase the drag.

There are eighteen lures to choose from, depending on the weather conditions and the lake's depth and clarity. Knowing next to nothing about real-life fishing, I choose lures at random, but I'm fascinated by their descriptive names. Spider jig brown. Tandem nickel/black spinnerbait. Deep chartreuse crankbait. Overhead white buzzbait. Colorful names for something I always assumed was a prosaic pasttime.

Most of the fish I catch are little one- or two- or four-pounders, but I once caught a nine-pound fish, after an epic battle of near-Hemingwayesque proportions. OK, I exaggerate, a little. But I was excited when I landed that baby.

You should have seen the one that got away.

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