Girlfriends I Cannot Afford

 I only like girlfriends whom I cannot afford. At left is a lovely one on the grill of a Rolls.

Brendel posted this photograph to wikicommons for our enjoyment and I compliment him on the work. Lovely field snap. 

I have a wonderful girlfriend I married who occasionally reminds me I cannot afford another ex-wife. There's that.

Today I fondled a girlfriend I have no business pursuing. She's a 7'6" split cane fly rod and she comes with two tips. She loves a 4 wt double taper line and an even casting stroke. 

Now, nice bamboo fly rods run about as much as a good third-hand Subaru in which to go fishing. 

Great bamboo rods run about as much as it takes for your girlfriend to throw you out so you can sleep in a van down by the river.

They are not the sort of thing I should pursue.

This one is not a very pretty example. She's got a couple resin drops here and there  and the flame treatment is a little uneven. Her wraps are bumpy and she's just not going to be featured on the cover of "Delightful Old Fly Rod" anytime soon.

She does cast wonderfully. She's the product of a local surgeon who has aged a bit and who builds workaday rods. This is one and the taper is superb.

So, considering it is one tenth the price of a prize rod, I put a little money down to think about it for a month. It's on consignment.

I'll buy it. 

The girlfriend I married gave me a new wooden rod tube for Christmas - beautiful work - and I need something wonderful to go into the tube. It isn't right putting some modern piece of graphite in there. Bamboo has class. 

You take bamboo out at the dock and the guide calls you "sir" all day long. You get to pay for that in tips, too.

Anyway, it is by no means the most expensive rod I've ever bought. It isn't half of what I've paid for rods I've given away to friends as gifts. So, I think this one will be mine.

She's a little quirky. She won't stand too close scrutiny by the fly fishing snobs. 

She'll catch fish. She'll cast wonderfully. She'll make me smile.

Some of that is why we write. Maybe not the fish part. 

Okay, not the fish part. You got me.

I do like girlfriends I cannot afford, though. If it is expensive and bad for me, I want to order two.

Maybe I'll find another bamboo rod this spring, too. Hmmmmm. There's an idea. Can't have just one.