Zoom, Flies, & Too Much Booze

It only took one week, but I think I'm ending the dedicated quarantine posts. Looks like we're going to have at least another month of it, and I just can't face doing the daily diary thing anymore. Too many days are seemingly the same (and somewhat depressing) and I've already watched Tiger King, so...

Anyway, one of the good things that has come out of quarantine has been the widespread adoption of videoconferencing for things other than work. About a week ago a few of us with similar interests in a Facebook fly fishing group threw out the idea of having a night of fly tying, drinks, and frivolity on Zoom... and one of them actually organized it this past Saturday night. Damn, if it wasn't a lot of fun.

About 6 or 7 of us were consistently on the call, with a few folks popping in and out periodically to tend to other things. Spanning a few different time zones, it took quite a bit of coordination. We even had someone pop in from Japan.

In addition to chatting about fly fishing, flies, and tenkara, one of the added points of interest was the ability to share (and comment on) fishing videos while we were participating. Some videos were instructional in nature, while others... well, let's just say were there for entertainment purposes.

Now what was said in fly tying Zoom, stays in fly tying Zoom, but to be honest I probably couldn't tell you most of it if I tried. And this is where things get dicey.

See, I'm not the drinker I used to be... and I used the opportunity to blow off A LOT of quarantined steam. I drank way too much Jack Daniel's... and anybody that knows me after too many drinks knows that first I lose volume control... then get very loud and say a lot of dumb stuff... right before my body downshifts to a vegetative state. It's at that point I can no longer form sentences and am barely a quarter functional human. Well, that's what eventually happened at some point on Saturday evening.

It's been a very long time since I've let the whiskey hit me that hard. I evidently tied a bunch of flies, but due to drunken amnesia only remember about the first three or four...

At some point in the night I must have quit the videochat and stumbled off to bed, but not before... get this... finding the porcelain throne and blowing chunks. Thank God we didn't install a bidet like some of the other toilet paper impaired folks, I would have totally been shot in the face. Although in reality, that might have been better than what actually happened, which was throwing up on my shirt, arm... and launching friendly fire throughout the bedroom. 

Fortunately, these drinking incidents are few and far between. It's been a few years since I tried to take a late-night leak in the bedroom hamper, but my wife is an absolute saint for putting up with me, (and helping clean up on Saturday night). Sunday morning clean up duties were all on me. I blame COVID-19. Yes, this was definitely 'Rona's fault. 

At least our bedroom carpet is now freshly shampooed.

Anyway, back to the main theme here, I can't wait for the next fly tying Zoom, that is if I get invited back... LOL! It was a lot of laughs, productive for re-filling the fly box, and I promise, my wife is making me I'll put in a personal two drink limit. 

It's been really tough to maintain a feel of "community" over these past few weeks, and this helped a ton. Will definitely need more things like this to ease the cabin fever in the future.