Catfished

 5/30/25

I (Oliver) have been getting a little tired of venison every meal and we don’t have ready access to a grocery store here so Opal and I agreed to do a little fishing this afternoon to give ourselves a chance to catch a fish for dinner. The area around our housing is cut grass and then mangroves and then sea, except for one gap in the mangroves twenty or so feet wide where you can access the water directly. At the time we went out the tide was high and falling which meant there was a bunch of floating seagrass that stretched four or five feet into the water. As soon as we started fishing I got a bite and reeled the fish in as far as the grass but once it got tangled and bogged down it broke my line. Opal bravely went in after it and retrieved what looked like a football sized clump of weeds but revealed itself to be a catfish. The catfish down here aren’t big and tasty like Missouri catfish. They are more known as a nuisance that take your bait before anything desirable can get to it. We were only catching catfish. Every time we hooked something we would get excited only to inevitably bring a catfish. I started saying “you got catfished!” every time it happened. Eventually it got late and we were on our last frozen shrimp and Opal caught a slightly bigger catfish. This one we decided to keep, although I don’t hear about people eating them here how different could it be? We wrapped up and got two very (very) small fillets which we had with broccoli and rice. The verdict is although Florida catfish don’t taste anything like Missouri, if you put enough butter on anything it tastes pretty darn good. 

Opal-

A few more things. After catching a few catfish I actually caught a crab. Now you would think that I would have enough sense not to get grabbed by crab claws but unfortunately in that moment I did not and now have the scars to prove it. Oliver also caught a small mangrove snapper. To make it look bigger he held up his hand far behind the fish and we lined up the photo just right. Because what else are you supposed to do when you catch a small fish. The carcass of the filled catfish was put on a heavy duty rod and wire leader. It sat on the shore during dinner in a rod holder and when we came to pick it back up something had bent the metal leader and ripped the hook and carcass clean off. Who knows what it was but big creatures swim in these waters. 

What a weekend

 5/24/25 - 5/25/25

Opal-

We started the weekend by waking up at 7 am and driving to south Miami to look at a boat. This one was 16 feet and a Mercury 25 motor. Speaking as someone who doesn’t know boats that well. I generally go by if it’s well kept and clean it’s probably better taken care of. This one checked that box. Then we headed to Publix for some breakfast and I decided on yogurt and Cheerios which I know may not sound great to some but it was a childhood staple of mine. I also added some popcorn chicken to my shopping cart for lunch which later came in handy. After breakfast we went right next door to a goodwill. Let me tell you this was the most organized and clean goodwill I have ever seen. You might think this is a plus but oh no. It meant that there were no good finds. No real thrifting or sorting through old Tupperwares without lids. Everything was just right there in front of you. How horrible. So we quickly moved on to a Salvation Army. One of my rules for thrifting is never look for specific things because you will never find them. We were looking for very specific things:

Two small desert plates

Misquote netting

A Water pitcher (which was eventually thrifted)

A lid for an 8 inch diameter pot

As you might guess none of these items were found at Salvation Army. By then it was about time to look at another boat so we decided to go get out some cash. Now this is where things went south. 

As you may know this country recently switched to only using Real IDs. Well it turns out when you want to remove more than $2,000 in cash you need a real ID. I DO NOT HAVE A REAL ID. So I was denied the money and we were left at the bank a bit out of luck. Eventually after calling Oliver’s parents and my bank (5 different times, none of which they picked up for) we decided that our best option was to just go look at the boat and figure things out afterward. This boat was 15 feet and also nice by my standards. Its owner only spoke Spanish (we were in Miami) so communication was a bit rough. I attempted to ask a few questions using my classroom Spanish but they don’t teach you the vocabulary for buying a boat in Spanish class. Eventually the owner called his brother who spoke English and had him translate for us. After looking at that boat we were famished and feasted on my popcorn chicken that had gotten quite warm in the heat of the car. Then we faced the dilemma; which boat to choose, and the other dilemma; how to get money to buy that boat. We concluded after much debate and discussion. 

1) We would make an offer on the first boat (it suited our needs better) and then buy that one if it was accepted.

2) With the money we would have to get out as much as we could today and then wait until tomorrow to get the rest out. Bank of America ATMs have a limit of $2,000 a day and both boats were listed above $3,000

To initiate these plans we went to a bank. We got out $2,000 from the teller and were walking past the ATM when Oliver said “Why don’t you just try to get the rest out now.” I was skeptical but started putting my information in. After each step and new screen we waited to be denied. But suddenly cash started coming out of the ATM. We were shocked. This had to be a glitch. If it was it was a good one and we didn’t stick around long to find out. Next up was a Walgreens, a dollar store, and a line of thrift shops all blasting Latino music and promoting Memorial Day sales. Here we encountered swim suits for our later beach excursion and our offer on the first boat was excepted. Things were looking up. Unfortunately the guy who owned the first boat didn’t get off work until 9pm so we had a lot of time to kill.

We “killed time” by going to a wonderful art museum, eating Vietnamese food and relaxing on Miami Beach. Then on our way to pick up the boat we stopped by home depot for some misquote netting and took a few wrong turns onto a few wrong highways. We were very tired by this point. Eventually at 9:30 we secured the boat and headed home but not before stopping for gas. That hour and 30 minute drive felt like the longest drive in history. We were both on the lookout for pythons when we entered the park and while we didn’t see any we did see a few vehicles well equipped with side lights and off road cages. Hunters. The road stretched on and on and each minute felt like an eternity until finally we reached our turn and missed it. So we turned around unhitched the boat and stumbled into bed at 12:30 am.  

On Sunday morning we fixed up our room, putting bug net over the windows, sweeping, and arranging. Then we took our leftovers and headed out with the boat. Good news, it floats! We drove up and down the channel and then decided to come back in and relax for the rest of the afternoon. That night there were less misquotes out, we made a dinner of venison quesadillas and sat on our porch overlooking the bay. It was a nice end to a long first weekend in Florida.

Husband and Wife

 5/20/25-5/23/25

It’s been a week since we arrived in Flamingo. They weren’t lying when they said it was hot and buggy here. After cleaning and settling into our room on Monday we had a nice dinner on our front stoop. Our door opens to Florida Bay and we can see small keys from our room. We share a kitchen with five or six other employees. It’s as you would expect a community kitchen to look with two fridges a sink and a stove that has two settings; the fiery depths of hell and off. 

Opal-

I am being trained at my job in the restaurant to do everything. I serve, I buss, I prep food, I manage money, I do inventory. Practically everything but cook. The restaurant itself could seat about 60 people at max capacity so it’s a fair size. However the most people I’ve seen in it so far are 10 of the company’s employees coming in on their lunch break. I knew summer in the Everglades was slow but I didn’t think it would be this slow. There’s about 40 employees here total which may outnumber the amount of guests. But that makes for an everyone knows everyone situation. We are definitely the youngest ones here and everyone keeps asking “why did you pick the summer to come work here?”

Friday evening we were both off work by 5pm. We decided to take the paddle board out on the bay. Now to get out on the water you first have to paddle your heart out past the mosquitoes. This is hard when you have to balance two people on a paddle board. We did manage though and made it out to the breeze. We were out for about an hour at sunset taking in the view and paddling through seagrass. At points when we stopped moving you could hear and see constant jumping and movement of fish in the water. We saw a few small sharks swim by and even followed two for a while. It felt like the bay was alive, teaming with life. Then Oliver noticed a weird looking fish swimming nearby. We got closer and that weird looking fish turned out to be a stingray. It glided through the water along with us then settled in the silt. The sun was setting a glorious pink and orange classic Florida sunset as we turned back towards our beach. We paddled over the ray again without noticing and were quite shocked when it splashed up and swam off. I think I let out sharp yelp. By the time we got closer to shore the tide had gone out quite a bit. This meant for Oliver pushing the paddle board with his feet in the muck while I sat at the front and dug my hands into the ground. I’m sure we looked quite foolish heading back towards employee housing to anyone who saw. 

- Oliver 

So far I am enjoying my job. My coworkers and manager are all good people and the work is difficult but rewarding. What I don’t enjoy is the mosquitoes. Even with long sleeves, long pants and a bug jacket you’re not safe. It’s bad enough to work in but what really gets me is coming home and having mosquitoes in our room or having to walk to the car and be constantly swatting at them. Still, I am learning a lot and am doing work I feel like I can take pride in. 

Opal wasn’t lying when she said we are the youngest ones here. In fact, the average age is high enough that people seem to have forgot about dating and all assume Opal and I are married. After are first day of work we both told each other that enough people had assumed it that we were just going to roll with that story. It didn’t come up much until one of my coworkers asked me about our wedding and now we have been married two years, our anniversary is August 15th, and I don’t remember when I said my vows. If he knew how hot August 15th is in Missouri was he might have caught on, but he didn’t and now we’re in too deep to go back. 

The few (Hundred) mosquito bites sustained while weed whacking Friday. 

The Trip Down

 5/19/2025

We spent two nights driving down to the Everglades and both places we stayed had swimming pools. The first was in Manchester Tennessee at the Microtel. We got there just before the pool closed, rushed to put on our swimming suits and found it so murky you could not see past the third step. Opal said no right away and although I consider myself adventurous, stories of brain eating amoebas from stagnant water were enough to make me agree. In the morning we woke up early to get on the road and found that the folks at the Microtel put in about as much effort into making breakfast as they do at cleaning their pool. The second pool was at Opals grandparents condo and much nicer. This one we did swim in and enjoyed very much. Her grandma was a wonderful host and even gave us a bag of snacks to take on the road, thank you KK.