OK, we got the two ponds filled (thanks to God for a really, really wet spring here in Eastern Nebraska) and stocked the 2.5 acres with BG and CC's (1250 and 300, respectively). Shortly after that, I ran to the bait shop and added 12 dozen minnows in preparation to stock some wipers, walleye and bass this fall.
By the end of the week, the aerators will be installed and the new fish feeder will be doling out small portions to the small fishes. The pond guy loves me because he says, "We should [insert whatever costs money]!" and I say, "Yeah! Let's do that!!!"
Sometimes I just stand on the bank(s) and gaze out at the water, hoping to see a school of tiny BG cruise by, growing bigger with each swing of their tail fins. I fear I'm hooked, so to speak, and I can't get up.
But my greater concern is that, upon my return from the office where I daydream about developing hybrid, cold-water tilapia while people think I'm thinking deep, business-oriented thoughts (poor fools), my teenage daughter ran to me smiling and bright-eyed (note the combination of "teenage daughter" and "smiling" and you'll have to understand my immediate alarm). Despite my natural instinct to place both hands on my wallet, turn and run like the wind, I looked at her with concern and asked what was the matter.
She grinned even wider and told me of her new pet, Louie the beta, who was contentedly installed in a bowl on a shelf in her room, surrounded by posters of scary-looking musicians from bands I've never heard of.
I am deeply concerned that I may have, somehow, infected her with my illness. Is there a cure or some sort of 12-step program for children of pond-addicted fathers? I fear that, if this continues and her fish collection grows from a bowl into ponds of her own, we'll become destitute and no longer be able to afford Purina fish food...or those little 7-day pellets Louie loves.
Is there a way to end this without great pain, or should I just give up and realize that my life, and hers, will now be ruled by algae control, oxygenation concerns and reel repair?
Should all hope be abandoned?
