Well, after a year that had been (to date) been a continuation of 5 years that have been a pretty low point in my hunting career, everything turned around in literally a matter of seconds. It happened so fast, that I’ll give you some back story so this isn’t a “saw deer, shot deer, the end” post.
I have done a lot of different things in my life, from hard labor at minimum wage, to technical support, to network engineering and security consulting at hundreds of dollars per hour. That’s a lot of background for one guy, and I confess, anyone who reads my resume is usually pretty impressed with some of the highs that I’ve achieved. But to be honest, my very favorite thing I’ve ever done out of all those many things, is technical support. That seems crazy, right? Maybe, maybe not, but I have learned a lot about how to be a tech support professional and keep your sanity. Read this article for more info.
This experiment all started, because I found this really nice little chunk of public land not too far from home that I could legally hunt on, that was obnoxiously close to a neighborhood. I checked it out thoroughly, and it’s perfectly legal to hunt there, but it just didn’t seem right for me to cut loose with my obnoxiously loud short barreled 30-06 less than 200 yards from someone’s house. I’m far to lazy to deal with the paperwork involved in legally acquiring a can (aka: suppressor or silencer), so I started investigating other things I might do to wind up with a big game capable rig, that was also quiet enough to keep me from feeling like a heel when I knocked over a deer almost within sight of some strangers house. I didn’t know when I started how quiet I could get it, but I was curious to try. Turns out, I can make one remarkably quiet indeed. Here’s how I did it, and how I could have done it better now that I’ve got some experience with it.
I have always loved the song Amazing Grace. It’s one of those things that is stirring and beautiful and memorable, even if you aren’t a Christian. I always wished I could write a beautiful song of faith like that. I don’t know if I ever have, but if I ever did, this is it.
A friend of mine commented once, that for a guy living in north Idaho, I sure had a Texas star hanging over my garage. I replied to my friend, that being a Texan is kind of like being a marine. Some may get out and go on to do other things with the rest of their life, but you never really quit being one.
Songs are like children in a lot of ways. Especially in the way that they don’t always turn out to be the little angels you’d hoped for, but somehow you still love them despite that. This here is one of my troubled kids, who’s attitude towards life is pretty different from mine.
I used to run with a pretty wild crowd, back in the day. Booze, drugs, fast cars, motorcycles, and all of that sort of thing. Somewhere along the way, by the grace of God, I got off that road. Not a lot of people from the old crew did, though. I wrote this one day while I was thinking about the various friends I’ve known along the way who died young from living the fast life.
I have a dog named Tod. I have dogs besides him, but today I want to tell you about Tod. Tod is an acronym for The Outside Dog, which is where he lived before we moved to Canada. He is smarter than any other dog I have known. I have learned a lot from this dog. Hopefully this blog article will capture some of those things.
Once upon a time, a some really good friends of mine were getting a divorce. It was a ugly piece of business, involving drugs, infidelity, and the usual list of marital woes (and some not so usual ones, too, now that I think back on it). I left them to their ugly divorce, and went off and wrote this tasty little blues song about the whole affair.