Weekend 1121-2314

So a few things about bird hunting …

… let’s start with that I absolutely suck at it. 

When a pheasant pops up, you as the hunter have probably two seconds to get a bead on it and get the shot off.  After that two seconds, the bird is gone, hauling ass in flight to the next field, the next county, anywhere away from you. 

Upon seeing said bird start flight, my brain however starts a process of, “oh, hey there is a bird.”  Of course I should already be prepared for such a sighting, as this is exactly why I came to Kansas and heck, I have been thinking about such a moment for the last hour as I have walked the field following dogs to flush them out.  But still it is as if I am suddenly plopped here for the first time, dumb and unknowing.  My brain starts to think of each of the steps.  I have to think about raising the gun, flipping the safety off, getting my finger on the trigger …

…if the bird is anywhere near close after this ridiculously long process with my maxed out underpowered personal CPU – and as mentioned before the bird has hit the gas hard to get the hell out of Dodge – the next problem presents itself.  And that is shooting the dang thing.

I am a lousy shot.  And I am probably worse with a swinging gun like a shotgun than a stable target.  Add on top of it that: I am a flippin’ wuss, because when I let the 12 gauge fire, it feels like I have been punched in the shoulder, and had my fingers jammed in a door. 

So when I fire, I hope the bird will fall.  It is a hope almost similar to what I felt as a pop fly come to me in right field as a kid.  I’d put the glove out and wonder if would catch it.  I could think about what it would take to catch it but at some point it felt like dumb luck.  And I point the gun and shoot and wonder if one of the hundreds of BB’s that make up the shot in the shell are going to find a target other than dirt.

Thus far, they have not.

I just suck at this.

I’d like to say that my failure at hunting sets me up to love it.  It is true, that my lack of aptitude does draw me to it a bit but I would probably like it more if I had better odds at the whole thing. 

The hunting aside,  I love the beauty of the walk in the field with the dogs, the incredible size of the Kansas ocean fields, and hearing the sound of a flock of a hundred song birds swing over the field (again and again) where you hear that “whoom” of their wings in unison. 


We didn’t get many looks.  Actually the most bird chances came on Friday after JZ and I chased a rooster who was cackling at us up and down a hill.  We got a few other chances over the next couple days, but mostly it was shots I couldn’t make or probably had no business even looking to take.  Our host got one in crazy wind conditions, which is what folks do when they can actually shoot.
Hans got into our host’s rooster (thankfully I got that broke up before any harm was done), and I lost my cell phone in a corn field (which of course meant I hunted for that instead of birds for a few hours – with essentially the same net result: nada).  Bumpy weekend of sorts but fun in other ways.

Low mileage week (40 and change) but have next week off from work so I am going to see what I can load in.

Thanksgiving 2013

This Thanksgiving was not only Thanksgiving.  It was JZ’s 13th birthday.  Wow – I am now a parent of two teenagers. 

Also had the chicken.  Did not run into any shot and it was good.  Interestingly, it was ALL dark meat.  Even the breast.  Tasted like chicken!

It was a good day, goofing with the kids, enjoying some laughs and food with friends in the neighborhood  A highlight was unexpectedly getting a call from a friend in the afternoon – just to say hi and wish well.  Pretty damn awesome.

Tuesday 112613

I am catching this after they won (obviously) but Wetmore’s sarcasm is something many of us have enjoyed for years.  Good recap on the XC Nat meet, particularly how CU was 19 points down from NAU at 8k but pulled out the win.

In a more professional regard, I have been watching the thread on the FDA serving the 23andme company a warning letter on its product.

To wrap on the hunting trip, plucked and prepped the chicken.  A thing that I guess is commonplace for a lot of folks, but definitely something this raised in the burbs of southern New England punk had never done.  WARNING  - some folks find these shots less than their liking, and not what they would expect on a blog about running.  You have been warned to veer off if not interested.  But it is really just a chicken.  This will be a compliment to the Thanksgiving bird – and thankfully not the only thing we have to eat.

Guess I am older than I thought as I decided to swing the carving in the PJs.  Awesome.  For what is worth, some back yard chain saw work was done in those too.  Sheesh.

Not sure if I will race Thursday.  The desire is sort of there, but sort of is not.  I might be just as content to do a lap on Green (I have 48 this year and getting 52 on the year would be a nice number and as far as I have recorded, an annual high).  I can see the reasons for getting out and jumping at it, but there are probably as many not to.  Odd feelings I guess, given I was pretty sure that the focus this season was going to be to perform as well as I could that day. 

That has sort of slipped away over November, which has unexpectedly become a month of low miles, days off and little motivation to fight otherwise.  The slight aches and pains, the time off more forced by work and other choices, and the less than personal par performance last week have dimmed the fire a bit.  And I am unexpectedly at some ease with that.  It is almost as if a break needed to be forced on me to realize that I probably needed a bit of a break anyway.  Or maybe that I am welcoming one warmly.

Afternoon – 10.1 miles super easy. Back is still tight.  It is one of those deep muscle things that you feel when you breathe deeply.  Some folks call an intercostal muscle thing.   I have had this maybe four or five times in my life.  Takes a few weeks to pass.  No idea what causes it but sneezing is about like getting kicked in the back.

First mile was with Lucy dog to get her out.  In the field, these three kids had a Rotty on a leash.  They lost control of the leash.  It bowled me over to the concrete (where I made the elegant old man “agh!” sound) and the started on Lucy.  I jumped in, grabbed the Rotty by the ears and brought it down, and it started to whimper.  Could have been a real stupid move on my part but I got away with no teeth marks in my skin.  I did have a skinned elbow from the fall though.  Too pissed to really talk to the kids, I gave them their dog, looked mine over and after assessing she was fine I pushed off. 

Kansas Hunt, Day 3, Monday 112513

Back to CO today after hunting this AM.  Most aches and pains are gone except the odd crap in my upper back and the butt-hip right side (from the long sit on the drive). 

The morning was not showing any birds, and then I had one flush by the dogs right in front of me.  I was sitting there, watching the cattails, knowing it was going to come out, just waiting for that moment … and I missed the shot.  I was probably a half second behind on the first and then by the time I pulled the second it was gone on the wind.  This brought quite a set of heckling from my compadres in the field.

Great weekend with JZ, Don, and Hans the dog.  Out hosts (Marty, Sandy) were wonderfully hospitable.  Pretty certain I have put on 10 over the weekend on the cake that TZ sent along, pan fried steak and taters last night, and the like.

There is a beauty here that I probably would have found too stark when I was a young man.  The largeness of the sky, the sea of field after field of wheat and grain, with buffalo grasses moving in a slight breeze on a crisp morning …

I realize hunting is not every one’s gig. It probably is an absolute turn off for some.  I was drawn to it because it is something I had not done. There is the whole thing of learning about how to actually hunt, manage a gun (I still have a lot to learn) towards a flying target, watching dogs work the field – it is simply something I had really never put together in that way.   Sharing this with my father-in-law and watching that pass through the generations was beyond special.

From the “my wife thinks it is good news, but I am not so sure department”:  we made a pit stop in Colby and I got a coffee.  The young lady at the register looked up at me, made an unspoken judgment and then rang me up the senior priced version of the coffee.  That might be reason for me to dump the beard but my wife thinks it is all the more reason to keep it.