It's over.
It ended today as we exited the field, a muddy, tired, sembelence of what could have been mistaken for hunters. Chris, Pete, Dad, G-man and myself had just crashed through some rather thick grass and had only seen 6 or 7 hens.
All in all, I guess it should have been expected after yesterday's success. We couldn't have special ordered the conditions any better, except that it could have been a bit colder. There was a soft wet snow that had been falling all day friday and we maybe had two inches. It was perfect for the dogs as there was now moisture to help hold scent.
Even though the conditions were perfect, things started slow. We had walked the first half-mile and turned the group at the first corner without seeing anything. I was a bit concerned at that point because we'd have normally flushed something by then. We had seven in our party as we had joined up with some of the landowners friends. The two friends all of the sudden hollered out that there was a dog down (on point). The G-man and myself caught up just as the other dog went on point, then broke a covey of about 15 quail. JS, one of the friends knocked one down and the G-man shot another. JS had a pretty poor mark on it but Hollie came to the rescue and found it. She then went up over the ridge and found the other one. Damn she's fun to watch work.
We spread back out and went west, swinging corner number 2. Again, we didn't see anything. As we started down the west edge, we kicked up a hen that flew off into the fog. A short while later, the first rooster of the day busted up from behind us. The G-man brought it down and Hollie pounced on it. However, things went downhill from there. The G-man had his foot on the bird, holding it down. When he went to grab it, he lifted his foot and the bird took of running. He shot once on to try to stop it on the ground. I saw it skitter around on a path so I fired right to where I saw the grass move. That little bastard somehow escaped us and our best efforts to find it.
Finally, we gave up and continued down the west side. The second rooster of the day got up, again from behind us, but this time it was too close to me. One shot later, I had bagged my first bird of the day. It tried to run on me, but I snatched it up before it could get away. I gave it the ol' wring its neck twirl twice. Jamming it in my bag, we continued on.
From that point, our guys on the edge had a shot at a rooster that got up, but they missed. A few more hens also came out of the grass. We had stopped because the dogs had gotten real birdy. JS and I just happened to turn around when we counted at least nine disappearing into the fog, some sixty yards behind us where we had just walked. We stood a little while longer when Browny, the other dog, got real interested in a thick clump of grass right in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was a point or not but I stepped into the clump. I kicked, (yes, I actually kicked) the hen up off the ground. The clump was thick enough that the hen had trouble getting clear of the grass. Browny was able to jump up and nip the bird in mid-air. I know the dog made contact with the bird because it tried to rain feathers for a while. All of the sudden, my bag started fluttering as my bird wasn't as dead as we had first thought. I pinned the bird in the bag, allowing the G-Man to come up and wring its neck in a more violent manner. After replacing the bird in my bag, we pressed on.
When we got to the food plot that had been planted in the corner, I did the dreaded End Around maneuver. This consisted of me running behind the line, out onto the wheat aways around up to the corner to hold birds in the corner. The move worked as we kicked up some more hens.
Hollie was working the food infront of everyone when another rooster took off. I was incredibly focused on him because I dropped him with the one shot head shot. We knew it was the head shot, because the back of the bird's head had been excavated by my shot. Within a few minutes, I dropped rooster number three with a well placed shot.
One field, three birds and the successful end to the season.
The idea is there
it's just festering in my brain.
End of a busy week...
The high school boys tournament week is over.
My alma matter played in an incredibly ugly 38-31 loss to their arch rival in the finals of their tourney. It's been a hectic, hectic week as I did ball games everyday except Wednesday and Thursday. Last night, I called two ball games and then zipped down to my uncle's for a poker game.
Of course, I proceeded to lose 9 bucks. I think I even suffered a contact high as that was probably the most weed I've ever seen at a poker game with this bunch. (Remember, I am the youngest one in the bunch by pretty close to 23 years, a bunch of old 70's tokers) Z had a sack, Spark had a sack, (although why wouldn't he with a name like Spark?) my uncle had a sack and then some laying in a 9 x 13 baking pan almost as if he forgot to add the brownie mix. I couldn't win for losing last night. I had a four of a kind get beat, and then I watched my five of a kind tie, so the pot stayed. I guess that's how the cards fall sometimes.
Now I get a day of rest of biblical proportions, actually, just a day of rest on a Sunday before another hectic week of girls tournament action.
Yippee.
A break from the grind
It's a wonderful time of year if you're a basketball fan. Wait, I AM a basketball fan. Like I posted earlier, I got a great game on Monday night. That was followed by a good high school game. Then I hopped in the Exploder and may have broken a few speed laws on my way back to town. I got home, called to see if i had jury duty, which had been canceled and then I dashed over to call a college men's game.
What a game.
It was ended on a desperation trey with no time left. They don't get better than that. Today was my first day of classes and all I can say is there's eye candy galore in there. That's always a good thing. However the dumb girl is back in class. She's the same one from first semester who had a thong hanging out all over the place. I believe that her brain power was indirectly proportioned to how much of her ass crack was showing. The more that showed, the dumber she got.
I heard her on her cell phone once, talking to her boyfriend. If I was her boyfriend, I would have killed myself a long time ago. Something had happened to him because he had his stomach pumped, so she just wanted to take care of him.
The quote was "Baby, I just want to take care of you baby. I'll come home right now if you want me to baby."
I understand devotion. I do, but this was bordering on smothering devotion. This guy must not have been too smart anyways because he was having to have his stomach pumped after a night of drinking. Hmm, the plan of "Know when to say when" should have been in effect. If you can't tell that you've had too much to drink and have to have your guts vaccuumed, YOU ARE NOT SMART.
I should have launched myself off of my desk in a howling, spinning, Ginsu move to break her jaw, so we don't have to hear her talk for the rest of the semester.
Dammit, hindsight is 20-20.
Could it be a good start?
Wow.
Great game tonight. I'm hoping that the rest of the week goes like tonight does. My alma mattar came into the tourney as the seventh seed and upset the two seed in first round action. The team they were playing, the Falcons, came into the tourney with only two losses, one being to the best team out of all the classes in Kansas and the other being to a major school in Nebraska. It was a great game, nip and tuck with the Swathers pulling it out with a 66-59 victory.
I hope this is a token of things to come for this week.
By the way, everyone should thank Becka for this wonderful new layout. She indeed rocks!!!
Joke is on me.
Someone, somewhere likes to push my buttons.
My first day of classes for my spring semester is on Wednesday. However in an ironic twist of fate, I've been summoned for jury duty.
That's right. Laugh it up fuzzballs.
I get to miss my first day of class for jury duty. I haven't been selected yet, but I'm to report to the county courthouse on the day of the trial. Now I'm not sure what part they missed when I wrote down that "I'm a college student." Not only that, but high school basketball tourney week begins tomorrow. I've got a game on Monday, a game on Tuesday, other than that everything else is to be announced pending outcomes.
Now, knowing my luck, I will be stuck in some cheap ass, property discussion trial. I can hear the pain now. Amy suggested I go in and yell "The fucker is guilty!!" I'm thinking that the idea sounds good. Of course, I'd probably be slapped in a cell with padded walls if I did that.
Who knows?
The basketball gods came through
More and more, I realize that the basketball gods will avenge me for having to call horrible blowouts. They made up with two great college games after four blowouts. I felt as if I was overdue after having to watch the worst girl's basketball team in the state on back to back nights.
Tonight they made up for it. I had a girls game that was close for three quarters until the home team pulled away for a 52-40 win. The guys game was a back and forth, nip and tuck affair where the visitors won 63-57. These are the kind of games that are fun to broadcast.
I still think I'm owed for the bad girls team though.
Welcome to 2005
Mother Nature has stated her claim that 2005 is hers.
The ice storm struck with a vengence. We were lucky because the ice never froze in a sheen, but rather stayed rough when it froze so we actually had traction on the roads.
The two Chinese Elm trees in the front yard are toast. It looks like a tornado touched down and tore them all up. The entire front yard was covered in a pile that was 4-5 feet deep of branches. Power is still out in our town of only 4000 in some sections. It was pretty vicious.
I watched the branches come down. I watched the branches destroy the lampost in the front yard. I called the one crashing into the driveway as so it would block the driveway. When the power went out, it was as if there were gunshots being fired all over town, from all the branches cracking. Our power was off from 3:40 until 9:15. We watched a blue-greenish burst of light when we were coming back from Donnyboy's.
However, I am a deprived boy without a chainsaw. Although that's probably a good thing because I nearly lost my leg due to an incident with a chainsaw. I still want one, because I would have put it to some serious use today and in the coming days.
A guy stopped by and asked if he could cut some firewood. Without hesitation, I said "Go for it." So then I went inside, and put on my coveralls, black coat, gloves and hat, so I could head out and help him load it up. We spent most of the morning cutting and loading. Surprisingly, we've made a dent in the damage. Although there's still at least 4 dump truck loads from out in front, it's not that bad.
More work to come in the following days.
The New Year is here
The old year is out and the new year has arrived.
We tried our hardest to send it out with a bang with the 3rd Annual New Year's Eve party at Timmy's. The boys purchased two kegs, one of Coors Light, the other of Bud Light. The Florez family came down from the "Greatest State Ever" of Iowa. B-Rich and his now About Damn Time Fiance were up from the Hurricane State. All in all the tables were set for a good party.
I arrived about 4 hours ahead of schedule. Perfect planning for an event such as this, the only drawback was that my sorry butt was awakened to go hunting at ten until 6. People started arriving about 8 ish as Timmy was handing my ass at Madden. When the party was jumping, right about midnight, I would have to say that there were about 50 people hanging out at the house. Maybe less, maybe more. For the most part, the majority of the partygoers were fairly intoxicated, excluding myself.
What was that I just heard, the readers of this gasping when I said I wasn't drunk?
Yes, you read that right.
I knew that the combination of little sleep, a 5-6 mile hike and beer consumption would produce the adverse effect of almost a coma like tiredness. I guess I'll chalk it up to being older, wiser and more responsible in my advancing age. I also was busy as I getting cups, collecting money, and playing all around good guy.
There's always drama on some scale at these parties. Drunk people seem to attract drama.
B-Rich's sister and her boyfriend Rizz had some drama that was about some girl touching Rizz. Drunk Kristi was not thrilled by that. I just shook my head as I heard Kristi trying to explain it to B-Rich and I kept eating the oreo dessert I had hidden for myself in the fridge.
The second bit of drama was almost fight causing. Sad to say, there was provocation for it. Some dude and his girlfriend/hookup/whatever were involved in some serious liplocking, or so I was told. Appearantly the two of them, decided to ring in the New Year in JP's room, without JP's consent.
Now, JP was a LOT more than intoxicated, plus I think he may have been a tad baked as Freaky Deaky girl had shown up. Anyways, JP's room doesn't have a lock and so they decided to lock the door with a chair and a table. However, because they were obviously idiots, they just happened to use the table with all of JP's mom's stuff, the collectables and all.
Oh, JP's mom died of cancer when he was 15 or so.
Oops.
JP saw that his door was closed and realized that he had just been in his room a little while ago. So JP pushes the door open and sends this stuff scattering because he had no idea it was being used as an improvised door lock. In a feat of remarkable restraint, he didn't proceed to kill them, but he kicked them out of the party.
Good idea, but the dumbshit had other ideas as they went upstairs into Tim's room.
When JP found out, he threw them out of the party and was only seconds away from killing both of them, but somehow DrunkTim interveened and saved this guy some teeth, because there would have been at least five people going after this guy. After the little "discussion" in the yard, they chose to leave the party.
The next near drama was when Freaky Deaky girl sat down by the guy that Hopper had brought. Hopper and this guy had just spent about an hour exploring each other's tonsils. I believe Hopper stepped out for a smoke when Freaky Deaky girl sat down. I was on the couch opposite her and I heard her ask the guy a couple of questions that went like this:
"Do you want to hook up for five minutes? I just want to make out."
Um hello??!?!?! He just found out if Hopper has any cavaties, no he's not going to want to hook up with you. The guy shot her down so she sat by me. Being polite I just decided to make conversation with her so I asked her how she was.
"I feel like smashing someone's face in. Do you ever just feel like that?"
"Um, no. Not without incredible provocation. I don't usually exhibit that much aggression." I began to look for escape routes at that point. Fortuantely, Florez requested my presence outside, which was lucky for me, For all I know, she could have tried to smash my face in.
Finally, about 3:15, I decided that it was time to leave as I was dead on my feet. It's 33 miles from Timmy's to home and I drove the last 15 with the windows down as I nearly dozed off twice on the way home. I got home about about 4 and within two minutes of getting home, I was asleep. Speaking of which, I hear my bed calling me once again.
p.s. for all of those who have wondered about the time and how it seems to be off, I listed Kansas as part of Antigua and Barbuda, which is in a much different timezone.
