Fish Fear Me

Monday, Monday

Well, I finally have most of the yard work that needed to get done, done. There are a few more things to mess around with, but if the snow flies now and sticks I'm not going to worry about them. They will be there next spring. I've also been in something of a funk the last week. One of the reasons for that has been how surreal politics and current events seem right now. I mean, there are always absurdities around, but they are coming fast and furious these days. The other day somebody linked that clip from "The Shining" where the wife finds the manuscript and discovers ream after ream of paper that just repeats the line, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", over and over. If I wrote about politics right now, you just might get page after page of "That's absurd", over and over. Blech.

Another thing is that my sleep patterns are all screwed up. I've been waking up at 3:00 a.m. and then tossing and turning until I give up and make coffee. I hate being awake at that time of night. Everything looks like shit.

The Vikes got a win over Detroit yesterday, but it was pretty sloppy. 13 penalties and a couple of ridiculous turnovers, (cough)AP(cough), made it far more interesting than it should have been. I'll chalk it up to rustiness from the bye week and see how they do next week.

I guess that our governor here, Tim Pawlenty, is taking some crap about going out for the morning hunt on the deer opener a week ago and apparently wounding a deer but not finding it. Specifically, people are giving him crap for leaving it to others in his hunting camp to find the deer so he could make a scheduled news conference and a later event in Iowa. The others searched on Saturday and Sunday but came up empty. The Strib's Outdoors writer, Dennis Anderson, has a reasonably balanced account of the details. 

I'm not a deer hunter, but before I had a dog to help me find downed birds, there were probably three or four that I either killed or wounded yet didn't recover. It happens and it always made me feel bad, no matter how long I spent trying to find it. No ethical hunter wants to leave a wounded animal out there. Sometimes the animal doesn't cooperate though. My two cents is that there was nothing wrong with the governor letting his experienced brother and the others in the party take over the responsibility of trying to track that animal down. What matters to the animal, or respect for the animal(and it's about the animal, right?), is that the responsibility was attended to diligently. It's somewhat debatable I guess, but some of the louder hunters spouting off on this are so sanctimonious about it that it reminds me of those pastors on TV who are so certain of the only way to salvation, and we all know how that often turns out. Criminy, I'd rather walk the woods with the pastors.

The Leonid meteor showers are supposed to be peaking early tomorrow morning. The word here is the peak should be between 3:30 and 5:30. The forecast is for clear skies tonight, so maybe that sleep issue can come in handy.

Yep, It Was Loaded

Sorry, honey:

The wife of a deputy sheriff in northwestern Minnesota's Roseau County was treated in Grand Forks for a gunshot wound suffered in a hunting-related accident.

Chief Deputy Terry Bandemer says 27-year-old Michelle Cossentine was struck in the thigh by a bullet from her husband's rifle as she sat in the passenger seat of a vehicle Sunday as the couple returned home from hunting.

Bandemer says Cossentine's 29-year-old husband, Deputy Nathan Cossentine, was checking to see if the gun was loaded when it accidentally fired.

Apparently she was not seriously injured. He, however, will and should probably hear about that for the rest of his life, as in:

"Do we have to go to Joe and Carol's tonight?"

"You shot me!"

I'm not normally one to support such behavior, but that was a pretty major momentary lapse of reason. And if I was that chief deputy, for the next month Deputy Cossentine would be spending an hour with a range instructor before he begins his shift.

Veterans Day

My thanks today to all have served in the US military over the centuries, and especially those who are serving now and since 9/11. If I could change one thing over the last ten years or so it would be to have tried to re-enlist after 9/11. They may not have taken me back at that stage since I was 40 and fresh off of hand surgery, but I regret not trying.

And a special thanks to all of those citizen soldiers who have been called up over the last years and served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to their families. Now more than ever we count on their willingness to sacrifice and be a part of our armed forces.

Monday Jots

Busy, busy, busy. After a soggy and cold October, we have finally seen a decent stretch of weather and it felt good to get out and tackle a month's worth of yard work. There's still more to do, but I think I'll be able to get the yard put to bed for winter in reasonably good shape.

I can't let the 20th anniversary of the demise of the Berlin Wall pass without comment. It, and the Iron Curtain as a whole, was a glaring and constant reminder of the utter futility of statism and the pursuit of a utopia in this life. Even as a kid I was aware of its existence and the evil nature of the ideology that had to build something so monstrous in order to survive.  Later I read about the gulag and the secret police societies that lurked behind that dismal wall and curtain. They, and the evil that seemed ready to burst forth from them at any time, loomed over me for almost three decades of my life.

I remember coming home from work and watching the people from East Berlin pour through open gates and celebrate on top of parts of the wall. Even with the growing protests of the months before it was something that I had never expected to see in my lifetime. So I watched in utter amazement as the Soviet-bloc as a whole turned away from the options of '56 and '68 and embraced the death of an era. It was THE tipping point towards the end of one of the most loathsome empires in human history. I was surprised, and overjoyed.

On the FFL front, I'm up by 8 points going into tonight's game. I've got Brandon Marshall going while my opponent has the Denver kicker on his side. I need this one to get back above .500 and at least keep a share of the division lead.

I picked up the Teddy Roosevelt biography again while I was up north. I didn't make a lot of progress, but at least I'm past his childhood. The dude was pretty much a rich kid twerp. I'm hoping it gets better.

Antacid, alcohol, and headache medicines are all going to take a slight ding in sales in Minnesota with the news that Carlos Gomez has been traded to the Brewers for shortstop J.J. Hardy. If he lived next door to me I would probably like the kid, but as a Twin he drove me nuts. When he came on the scene in 2008 I was dazzled by his speed on the bases and in the field and the first thing I thought I saw was the second coming of Ricky Henderson and the Twins' lead-off man of the future. Hahaha, what was I smoking? Somebody slip something into my Marlboro Reds?  There were only two problems with that scenario: The dude can't hit consistently, and while he does have tremendous speed on the bases, the next gear past overdrive that he has is "brain fart", and that baby has seen plenty of action the last two years. I would rather see the Twins give him one more year to develop, but the Twins have infield problems that they need to solve and maybe this is a start in the right direction. I don't know too much about Hardy, so no opinion yet.

Bye week for the Vikes yesterday. Brad Childress is starting to look like a genius for bringing in Brett Favre. I'm deeply worried that this is one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

Back To Reality

Well, it's back to reality I guess. Though I did come up with a theory while I was up north that the actual reality is there and this is all just some bullshit construct. It was deep, I'm telling you.

No luck as far getting any grouse and now I cede the woods to the deer hunters for the next three weeks. I know some fine and responsible deer hunters, but I also know a few bozos. You can paint me from head to toe in blaze orange and I'm still not going to walk any public land during the firearms deer hunting season.

I saw lots of deer, mostly along the roads. I had one close call on I-35 last night just north of Sandstone when a deer crossed the road right in front of me. Thankfully it didn't panic and stop in the road and it bounded off into the night. I had slowed from 70 to about 55 and the car coming up from behind me didn't even slow down. It blew past in the left lane doing about 80. I remember being that stupid. And trust me, this time of year in Minnesota, with the deer moving like crazy, it's stupid to be speeding along on any road at night. I guess the odds are that any given driver will not hit a deer, but I'd rather nudge those odds a little more in my favor and get home with my vehicle in one piece.

It was pretty much cold, drizzly, and windy the whole time. The woods of northeastern Minnesota are not just wet, they are downright soggy. I dressed for it and I didn't mind it so much, but I think it had the birds pretty much hunkered down. It did make it the perfect weather to end the day by coming back to the cabin for a sauna, stew from the crockpot, and watching a movie by the fire.

Oh well. Time to get back up to speed I guess. I see the evil empire has won the series and that the usual bullshit artists are as hard at work as ever on Memeorandum.

Reality sucks.

Not So Bad

At halftime of yesterday's Vikes-Packers game I decided to take a little walk, not hunting, just a walk down the road. The weather was a bleak rain and sleet mix and it hit me pretty hard that Sammy wasn't with me. Bleak. A Vikings win, a sauna, and a relaxing evening by the fire took most of the melancholy away, but I was kind of dreading this morning's first hunting session without Sammy.

It wasn't that bad, so I think I must have gotten most of it out my system yesterday. It still felt strange though, to be out in the woods truly alone for the first time in 11 years. There were lots of little things that I missed like the rituals of putting her blaze orange collar on her or letting her get the scent of the grouse tail I keep in my ammo box. I missed watching her work the sides of the trail and then dart into the woods when she got some kind of scent. There's something bigger that I can't quite fully articulate yet...it's on the tip of my consciousness. Maybe later.

A Needed Respite...The Last Mourning

Up north for a few days.