Friday, December 18, 2009

End of December!?

Alright, real quick recap since the last time I wrote here.

Hunting season produced nothing for me this year and I was glad when it was over. I actually walked around the office and told people I had given up on hunting entirely. When they asked, "Why?" I told them it was because I was sick and tired of everyone coming in saying, "oh come with me and I'll get you into them" or "I saw a huge one the other day, right off the road" or "maybe you're going to the wrong place." Consequently, a lot of those comments died off. I was supposed to go out with this other fella from work and he never called me back. Talking to him the other day he apologized for not calling, but as he put it, "I just got so disgusted with it dude, I was done." Nice to know I wasn't alone. And talking to many other ethical hunters in the office, they got skunked too. The deer numbers are definitely down from the years past...can't say we didn't see it coming. Two years of pretty significant snowfall in a row will do that.

I did take the dog on a walk the other day and that buck I was chasing around made it through another hunting season.

Other than that, pretty much just working. I worked enough hours around the Thanksgiving holiday that I didn't have to take any leave for the day I took off and I even made 4 hours of credit! We went to Missoula and ate turkey. I turned 30 and it was about as adventurous and memorable as you could imagine it would be with me. But, I kept saying, "I just want a handshake, a hug, and a Thanksgiving meal." It came true!

Sarah and I decided to go to Lookout pass the other weekend to get a Christmas tree. We had to wait until the time was right...which turned out to be a zero degree day with 30 mph winds. Yea, the windchill pushed the temperature down pretty well. We felt fine if we were moving, so we just kept hiking around. It was Sarah's first time and she picked out a dandy spruce and cut it down. (Photos are on her camera...or my other one.) Dragging that out, we realized we'd been out for nearly two hours and didn't really consider Lucca's feet! She started hobbling and limping around, which I can understand. She hadn't really been in snow yet this year, so what do we do? Take her to two feet of snow in temps of minus 20 and walk her for two hours! She's going to get some booties for Christmas.

And that's basically all of it. Lately we've been busy getting ready for Christmas and rubbing shoulders with hundreds of our closest friends in various stores. Amazing to look back at my December 2008 post and realize that at this time last year, we were dealing with about 3 feet of snow! It's been raining the past couple of days.