May 29th - June 1st, 2023 - Fishing, Winery Visit, and Truck Hunting

We haven't gone fishing for a long time. John told me the fish were biting on worms in his pond so on Sunday, after I cut the grass, we went out and tried our luck. At Walmart I bought good Canadian night crawlers. We weren't fishing long when they started to bite. After Kelly landed her first Bluegill, she caught a logger head turtle which bit on her bait just laying off the side of the dock. Its head was as big as my fist. I had nothing to kill it with, so I just cut the line. Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture. We ended up catching fourteen nice size Bluegill. A couple were the largest I had ever seen. Here is one.

A nice mess of fish in a little over two hours. I wish I would have brought my wire fishing basket because I had to put two to three fish on each hook on the stringer. 

Once home I had the job of cleaning the fish. I don't mind cleaning them as much as descaling them. The little buggers are hard to hold on to. While I was doing that Kelly was busy finding a good recipe for coating them to be pan fried. The recipe she found was great. Here are some cooked for supper.

 I mostly ate with my fingers, picking the meat off the many bones. While Bluegill have a lot of bones to contend with, they are the best tasting fish to me. I ate four and Kelly ate one. LOL  

Monday I was notified of a possible fraudulent charge on my Chase credit card. I didn't recognize the item so they cancelled the card and will be sending me a new one. Sunday, before going fishing, I bought worms at Walmart using my Discover card. Tuesday morning I got a message from Discover saying they were sorry my card was "lost or stolen" and they will be issuing a new one. What? I immediately looked in my wallet and there was no Discover card. Apparently on Sunday I had left my card in the self-checkout machine at Walmart. Walmart found the card and contacted the police. The police officer recognized my name and called Discover to report the card lost to stop any use by anyone else. He then brought the card to the house. Very nice of him to look after me like that. I guess I'm getting old and careless. That is the first time I ever left a credit card somewhere. Also on Tuesday I received a message from American Family Insurance that my insurance bill was not paid with the Discover card autopay. They couldn't find the account because it is closed. I went by the office and gave them a check for the insurance premium. I have several recurring items I have charged to the Discover card so I will have to change all of those when I get a new card. Stupid me!

Yesterday, Kelly, Mary, and I went to Charleville Winery in Ste. Genevieve for lunch and to check it out because it is under new management. Their new building is first class all the way and the view of the countryside is beautiful. The building had to cost at least two million dollars. The only visible help was the bartender. You order food by taking a picture of the QR Code on the table, perusing the menu, entering your food order, and entering your credit card information. We didn't have a credit card so Mary paid. (She was going to pay anyway because we drove.) The place has lots of craft beers and Kelly went up to the bar to order one. The bartender told her that the cash register at the bar was not synced with the QR Code on the tables so drinks could not be added to the food tab. She would have to give him a credit card to get a beer. Crazy. As explained above, she didn't have a credit card. She didn't want Mary to pay for her beer, so she just got a glass of water. In my opinion this bar computer and table computers "not being synced" needs to be corrected. Who would want to run two tabs - one for drinks, and one for food. I must say that the food was excellent and the portions were generous. Interestingly, upon paying the bill I noted a 2.6% charge for using a credit card and it popped up automatically for a 20% tip. I thought 20% was a lot since you ordered your own food and once the food was delivered to the table the "wait staff" disappeared never to be seen again. It is a nice place but I don't think we will go back.

We are still hunting for a decent, older truck. We have been to Florissant, Barnhart, Fruitland, Jackson, Perryville, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in our search. We have seen and driven lots of trucks. Most are in pretty rough condition and most have 200,000+ miles on them. We saw several fairly nice-looking trucks but each had mechanical issues I don't want to deal with. We are going to St. Louis this afternoon to look at a Toyota advertised at a Volvo dealer. It's a good thing I'm not desperate to get a truck. I hate shopping for vehicles. I hate shopping for vehicles. Did I say "I hate shopping for vehicles"?