It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood today, but I understand cold weather is on its way for two of my favorite annual holidays. It's been in the 70s for so long, I've been dipping into the closet box filled with short-sleeve shirts to wear. I still haven't changed over the wardrobe for the season, an act I usually don't even think about this early in the season. But all this warm is soon to be followed by its exact opposite.

There will be unseasonably cold weather coming in Friday, just in time for the opening of trout season on Saturday morning at daybreak.

In the past, it seemed like the beginning of spring to me when trout waters opened for anglers everywhere to enjoy. Of course, it usually turns off cold that weekend. It almost never fails, it can be 80 degrees in the shade the weekend before, but it always turns cold on the weekend that trout season opens. We've even had snow blowing around a few times.

According to the long-range forecast that was put out on Monday, it's supposed to be in the mid 20s Saturday morning and not get much warmer than 40 later in the day.

A day with sunshine and temperatures in the low 40s is tolerable on the trout stream, but add in the wind and the snow and it definitely gets less so.

Several times I've gone fishing and had ice freezing on my rod and reel. I decided that year that I would rather just wait for a more suitable day, climate-wise, rather than be one of the first to catch a trout in the county.

As I've noted before, opening day is a time of year when the new waders, fancy fishing poles and folks from other counties are in plentiful supply.

Anglers from other counties (and sometimes other states) typically come here to enjoy our streams on that day that might not come any other time. Many times I see them huddled together around the big hole at the rifle range or at one of the other easily accessible stretches of water in the county, resplendent in their shiny new waders and fishing vests that just had tags removed. They come and fish for a day or two and then they are usually gone for the year, having gotten their ‘trout fix' by suffering through a freezing cold day of fishing or two.

I'm always glad to see the masses leave the water, which makes the fishing much more tolerable for folks like myself. I prefer the solitude of fishing the water slowly and quietly by myself, wading through the currents and searching out my elusive prey. I usually have a nice collection of trout in my freezer by late May, which then provides me with fish for most of the year.

But it isn't the food in the freezer that drew me to buy a lifetime fishing license and head out on the water regularly. It's the actual peace I can find alone on the water, the fulfillment of heading out to catch fish and being able to focus all my energy on that one single purpose. When that purpose is in the forefront of my mind, all those other things that prove to be annoyances the rest of the time don't even exist as I fish. The only things that I have to worry about are having enough bait and not slipping up and falling over a slick rock in the stream bed or getting my foot caught in the muck that builds up in slow moving water.

I always start the year with high hopes to go out and fish more than the year before. I currently hope to get my boat out and head into the river as soon as the water gets a little warmer.

I finally got all the leaks patched last year, just in time to turn the boat upside down and await warmer weather. But right now, it's all about trout.

As usual, my aspirations don't typically line up with my reality. When this happens, one of the many things I really want to do finds itself squeezed out. Sadly, it's usually my aspirations that end up asphyxiated.

As for this weekend, it isn't only a weekend for trout fishing. I also have to take photos at the Easter egg hunt at the park for the newspaper that begins around 1 p.m. Cute kids with colorful eggs are always a winner in community newspaper photography. Cute kids in winter coats, ski masks, ear muffs, wool hats and boots might not work quite as well with my spring theme, but that's just the way it is sometimes.

In addition, trout season happens to fall on the same weekend as the second Sunday, which this year is the date of Easter.

I'd say it'll be a little cool on Easter morning for the sunrise service as well, but we'll all make do the best way we can. Maybe we'll even have a fire to try and stay warm.

It's really a nice time of getting together, followed by a really nice breakfast of all kinds of country cooking. But that isn't why we gather. Easter is a special holiday for Christians everywhere, a time when we recall the basis of our faith, a risen Savior who triumphed over death and emerged from the grave.

So, what with the sunrise service on Sunday and the trout fishing on Saturday, I figure on getting up before sunrise both days and heading out for a pleasurable task.

Come to think of it, church on a holiday is a lot like a trout stream on opening day. Folks turn out for holiday services that don't come any other time of year. They show up in their new clothes and fancy hats and ‘suffer through' a day in church, feeling like they've done their part until the next holiday or funeral.

So I guess in both cases the real ‘fishing' is done after the holiday visitors are gone. Not to say that good times aren't had and fish aren't caught both times. But its through faithfulness that the freezers are filled and the real value of the activity is found.

Eating the right foods one day a year isn't enough to improve your health. You have to eat properly every day to make a difference.

As I said, I'm always cautious of slow-moving water, since it usually fills up with mud and muck and is no fit place to try to walk. Granted, it's better to have slow-moving water than no water at all, but always look for the moving, or living, water. It's always the best place to wet a hook.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net