Dick goes fishing w/neighbor, Floyd at entrance to Boca Grande @ fishing pier. Floyd asks Dick to tie up @ pier so boat won't move...good place for sheepshead fishing. Dick leans over to tie up boat, boat slips away from pier as Dick leans over, Dick falls over into 12' deep water. Dick has hard time reaching surface 'cause of water-filled sneakers & clothes. Finally up and hanging on to pier for dear life. Can't get him onto boat from that angle. Tell him to let go. Dick lets go, and lo and behold, there's a swift current running there taking him out another 30-40 feet before boat gets to him, throws him a line, and drags him to shore. Where are the life jackets when you need them, you ask? Life jackets are in the bottom of the boat. No one was wearing them, of course. Too bulky and hot. You just can't seem to plan properly for an accident these day

Dick & Dad decided to go catfishing on Frenchy's pier Mon. night. Got new kind of catfish bait & everything. Wahoo, they're finally gonna catch something. Dick picks up Dad & off they go to Frenchy's. Dick decides he doesn't want to walk from the driveway to the dock, so drives up to the dock in the Blazer. By the way, nobody called Frenchy to tell them they were coming. Frenchy has phone in hand to call police (people have been taking things off his dock in the dead of night) when he recognizes their voices. Saved the their big mouths! So, the first time they throw the line in the water, Dick gets a small catfish that falls off the hook onto the dock. Dick doesn't want to bend over to throw it into the water so he kicks it into the water. Well, since this is Dick, the kick drives the catfish barb through Dick's sneaker into the bunyon area of Dick's big toe. Must have hit a vein because Dick's toe is shooting blood all over the dock. Dick's in much pain because those catfish barbs have a venom on them, plus he's bleeding to beat the band. Frenchy brings out a shirt to wrap around his foot to sop up the blood. It's not working. Dick says, bring me to the Emergency Room. Off they go! They park in front of the ER but can't get in. There's a sign that says "closed for renovations". Dick has to then walk to the new ER on his sore foot while Dad parks the car. It took ER personnel until 11:00 pm to look at his foot...they just wrapped it so it wouldn't bleed all over the rug. The ER was loaded with patients...unbelievable. Anyway, it was Dick's medications that were making him bleed so much (I guess he's now more anemic than he was before), and the barb hadn't stuck into his foot. At least they cleaned his foot, gave him antibiotics and a tetnus shot and finally sent him home at 11:30 pm.